The authenticity of the Houfeng seismograph, invented by the great scientist of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng, has been questioned by the outside world, because it has not yet been restored to a recognized model after being lost. The first major problem in the research on the restoration of the Houfeng seismograph is that the actual performance of the Houfeng seismograph is not clear, another major problem is the lack of effective performance inspection methods. In view of the two major problems, and based on the seismic mechanism analysis of the seismograph, the seismic performance and the anti-interference performance of the Houfeng seismograph, a test wave method is proposed, which takes the seismic sensitivity and anti-interference performance of the Houfeng seismograph as the criteria for testing whether the Houfeng seismograph responds to the test wave or not. Based on the determination of two kinds of test waves, namely the responsive test-wave and the unresponsive test-wave, a new restoration scheme of the Houfeng seismograph based on the response spectrum is proposed, and the natural vibration period（1.5 s～2.5 s） and response critical value（5 mm～10 mm） of the Houfeng seismograph are derived. An experimental prototype was developed, and the test showed that the restoration model meets the seismic display and anti-interference requirements of the Houfeng seismograph, and confirms the historical records authenticity of the Houfeng seismograph.