A man with seemingly miraculous talents in doing healing work can handle 500 cases at a time--and some of his "patients" are several thousand years old. Sung Hsi-ping is a "doctor" of pottery, and his hospital is the National Museum of History, where he nurses cracked and broken ceramic treasures back to health, using procedures which most people would find too tedious and exacting.

By the time he has worked his magic, pottery pieces dating from every period of China's 5,000-year history are restored to their former pristine state to become priceless relics of great historical and artistic value.

Curator of the National Museum of History, Ho Hao-tien, explains: "All our efforts are concentrated on preserving and restoring cultural relics from China's past. Great care is taken in repairing damaged pieces, and Sung's work in this field is invaluable."

Some of Sung's "patients" include a Han dynasty (200 B.C.- 250 A.D.) bronze drum with a hole the size of a man's fist, and a crack running from top to bottom; delicate fragments dating from the Tang dynasty (618-906 A.D.); tricolor pottery burial figurines honoring a civic official; and a Ching dynasty (1644-1911 A.D.) vase cracked into four big pieces. Altogether there are some 500 pieces including bronze, jade and wooden items as well as pottery, in Sung's workshops, many of which are seriously damaged. After Sung's repairs, the cracks are invisible to the untrained eye.

As a young man, Sung never intended to take up a career connected with the arts. Born in 1913 in Shantung province, Sung originally studied sericulture, made and sold twisted fritters of fried dough (a Chinese delicacy known as Yu Tiao) and then had a spell as a civil engineering contractor, before taking up a post at the China Pottery Arts Co. in 1965.

"I started as a simple laborer, and learned the pottery trade as I went along. It was like a dream come true. I was just like a child whose eager hands delighted in forming clay into something beautiful and useful. One day, I bought some cheap pieces of damaged pottery, and relying on my experience as a civil contractor, I used cement and plastic to repair them. This was the beginning of my career.

"As I became more and more interested in the work, I began to conduct in-depth research. During my studies, I found that plaster, the most common substance used in repair work, was not durable enough, and that resin was more suitable. Resin's advantages are its many different shades of white, its hardness on drying, and its elasticity," Sung said.

Sung moved to the National Museum of History in 1972. As his work progressed, he found that the selection of dyes and glazes in repairing porcelain is very important. Craftsmen in the past made glazes of limestone, lead, feldspar and other substances, which preserved the porcelain for a long time. Since the techniques of making natural glazes such as these have been lost over the ages, Sung has to come as close to the originals as possible using modern chemical methods.

Another problem is determining the consistency of the pottery itself. Since the relics come from all over China and date from many eras, the type of clay used in manufacture is always different. In the tricolor pottery of the T'ang dynasty, an off-white clay which contains traces of other colors, is used. Pottery unearthed at sites in Lo Yang are whiter than those found in other areas, while those found at Ch'ang An are pinker. Some clays are fine and delicate, while others are coarse and rough. The consistency may not be uniform through out. All of these factors must be borne in mind when repairing a piece of pottery.

Sometimes, reassembly work is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, or even worse, sorting out several jigsaw puzzles which have been mixed together.

Cleaning also presents problems. Washing off mud is relatively easy, but other stains are harder to remove. Solvents such as hot and cold water, gasoline and alcohol are gently rubbed into the porcelain, after which it is cleaned with a soft brush, piece of cloth or a wooden strip. "It is worse than washing a baby. If you rub too hard, you may damage the piece; too soft, and your efforts will be ineffectual," according to Sung.

Sung's greatest challenge comes when several fragments of a broken piece are missing. He has to re create them, using modern materials, and then fill in the holes.

From this description, it can be seen that repairing and maintaining porcelain objects, including matching color and glaze, analyzing clay and chemicals and reassembling broken pieces require enormous reserves of skill and patience, and years of practice. As the museum curator put it: "We must avail ourselves of every means to preserve our ancestral cultural artifacts that have lain buried underground for perhaps thousands of years. The results of our work are meant for others to enjoy and study. This is part of the responsibility and heritage of the National Museum of History."

[Picture Caption]

Left: Sung was seen repairing a Ching dynasty figurine sent to him by a collector. The figurine's right hand was reconstructed by Sung. Right: Sung seen repairing a Japanese flower vase.

1-4. "Before and after" pictures of a Tang Tricolor Pottery warrior and horse. 5 & 6. Sung Hsi-ping and his "patients" at the National Museum of History.

Sung seen repairing a Japanese flower vase.

"Before and after" pictures of a Tang Tricolor Pottery warrior and horse.

"Before and after" pictures of a Tang Tricolor Pottery warrior and horse.

"Before and after" pictures of a Tang Tricolor Pottery warrior and horse.

"Before and after" pictures of a Tang Tricolor Pottery warrior and horse.

Sung Hsi-ping and his "patients" at the National Museum of History.

Sung Hsi-ping and his "patients" at the National Museum of History.