Intangible Cultural Heritage - Official Ancient Building Construction Techniques

Official ancient building construction skills (Beijing Palace Museum), also known as the "eight major works", are divided into earthwork, stonework, material construction, woodwork, tile work, oil work, color painting, and mounting. It is a complete set of traditional official building construction skills with strict forms formed on the basis of Chinese ancient building construction technology. Since the founding of New China, the Palace Museum has had four generations of ancient building construction craftsmen. The first generation of craftsmen were professional craftsmen with excellent skills represented by the "Ten Old Men of the Palace Museum". They left a spark for the official ancient building construction skills; the second and third generations of craftsmen honed and grew up in the three major renovations of the Palace Museum, gradually becoming the backbone, and cultivating the fourth generation of craftsmen in engineering practice.