(East-West Question) Shen Ruiwen: How to interpret the value system of Chinese civilization?
China News Agency, Beijing, May 26th: How to interpret the value system of Chinese civilization in the century of archaeology at Peking University?
Written by Shen Ruiwen, Dean and Professor of the School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University
It has been 100 years since the establishment of the Archaeology Research Office of the Institute of Chinese Studies at Peking University in January 1922. In 1952, Peking University established the first archaeology major in Chinese universities, and it has been 70 years since then. history.
"One hundred years of ruddy road and blue thread, the original intention has not changed; 70 years of field education, the fire is passed down from generation to generation", Peking University Archaeology is a participant and witness of Chinese archaeology.
The heart has not changed for a hundred years, and the fire in the fields is passed down from generation to generation
In 1921, modern Chinese archaeology was born.
In January of the following year, the Archaeology Research Office of the Institute of Chinese Studies of Peking University was established.
This is the predecessor of Peking University School of Archaeology, Culture and Museology. It has established the academic tradition of Peking University's archaeology focusing on field archaeological excavations, multidisciplinary interdisciplinary and scientific research from the very beginning.
From scratch, from small to large, Peking University's archaeology pioneered and innovated, gradually improved the construction of the discipline system, condensed the development direction of the discipline, formed the discipline layout and characteristics of Peking University archaeology today, and formed an interdisciplinary archaeology that integrates social sciences, natural sciences and humanities. Teaching system, research system and archaeological education thought.
The exterior of the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museology, Peking University.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
In 1958, Peking University Archaeology began a planned compilation of Chinese archaeology textbooks, and the professional took the lead in organizing relevant teachers to discuss and tackle key problems together.
In 1975, he preliminarily compiled various lecture notes and auxiliary teaching materials of "Chinese Archaeology".
In 1985, the editorial committee of "Peking University Archaeology Series" was established to publish textbooks, monographs and academic papers.
In June 2020, it was decided to build the "Peking University Chinese Archaeology Textbook Department" project as a discipline development strategy, to continue to promote and improve the discipline system, academic system, discourse system and education system of Chinese archaeology, and strive to build a school that is beginning to take shape. The curriculum system for foreign archaeology majors, while accelerating the construction of the cultural heritage curriculum system with Chinese characteristics.
At present, the textbooks established by the college have covered all aspects of the discipline, and have basically constructed the Chinese archaeology dating textbooks, museology textbooks and ancient architecture textbooks, and initially constructed a number of specialized archaeology (such as foreign archaeology, urban archaeology, plant archaeology, underwater archaeology). ) and teaching materials for cultural heritage and cultural preservation.
The Chinese translation of "World Archaeology" is also in progress.
What is the contribution of archaeology to the exploration of the origin of Chinese civilization?
Studying the evolution model of Chinese civilization is an important proposition of Chinese archaeology, and it is also the conscious responsibility and historical mission of generations of Chinese archaeologists represented by Mr. Su Bingqi.
Mr. Su Bingqi constructed the theory of the origin of Chinese civilization, "The Starry Stars", with the method of "fauna type", and proposed a trilogy and three models of the development of ancient Chinese society, namely ancient country, Fang country, and empire (the earlier formulation was ancient culture. , the ancient city, the ancient country) trilogy, and the primary type (the north and south of Yanshan), the secondary type (the Central Plains), and the secondary type (the north) three modes.
In 1987, Mr. Yan Wenming proposed the "double-petaled flower" model of Chinese cultural development and developed it into the theory of pluralism; in 1989, Mr. Yan revealed the development clues of prehistoric society from clan to country from the perspective of settlement archaeology.
The above viewpoints are still the classics of Neolithic archaeology in China and are widely cited by the archaeological community.
The development of major national scientific research tasks such as the "Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties Project", "Chinese Civilization Origin Project", and "Archaeological China" have extended the historical axis, enhanced historical reliability, enriched historical connotations, and revitalized historical scenes.
Since the preliminary research in 2001, the "Chinese Civilization Origin Project" has been carried out for more than 20 years and has achieved a series of achievements.
At present, through the study of Liangzhu culture, the archaeological community generally believes that the Chinese civilization was officially formed more than 5,000 years ago, and it entered the stage of ancient civilization at this time, proving the "five thousand years of Chinese civilization" from legend to a credible history.
What is the archaeological interpretation of the value system of Chinese civilization?
The archaeological interpretation of the value system of Chinese civilization is to systematically excavate the excellent cultural traditions and core values of Chinese civilization contained in the archaeological materials based on the archaeological materials of China and relevant historical documents.
This reflects that Chinese archaeologists in the new era have begun to pay attention to the transformation and utilization of archaeological achievements, strengthening the ability to interpret archaeological materials and the ability to transform archaeological materials into historical materials.
Ritual culture is a typical feature of Chinese civilization.
We can first identify which archaeological materials are related to the dynasty's ritual culture, such as tombs, city sites, utensils, costumes, etc., their shape and scale and the corresponding relationship between social and political culture and their internal mechanisms, and then from the long-term The perspective of time period systematically sorts out their evolutionary pedigrees in the long history, comprehensively examines their changes and invariances, and finally summarizes and extracts the core of the value system of Chinese civilization.
What explorations did Peking University Archaeology do in establishing the Chinese School of Archaeology?
In 1981, Mr. Su Bingqi pointed out, "In the international archaeological research, a Chinese school with its own characteristics has begun to appear." Peking University archaeology has gone out of Su Bingqi, Su Bai, Zhang Zhongpei, Yu Weichao, Zou Heng, Yan Wenming, Li Boqian He has formed a series of theoretical and methodological systems covering the main research fields of Chinese archaeology, including academic leaders, archaeological educators and many academic leaders.
The core of the “Chinese School” of archaeology is the original theory, that is, on the basis of the local archaeological culture, to construct a local theoretical system, which mainly includes: field archaeology is the foundation, more archaeological materials are obtained through field archaeology, and field archaeology is carried out at the same time. Research on technical methods and theoretical systems; promote scientific research methods, scientifically extract information from archaeological materials with the help of scientific and technological archaeology, and build a common discourse of archaeological research at home and abroad; research and interpretation of the evolution model of Chinese civilization; the discipline system, academic system of Chinese archaeology Construction of system and discourse system; construction of archaeological theory and method; proposal of Chinese standards such as civilization and country; educational ideological system of archaeology.
Since March 2012, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Hainan Provincial Museum have jointly carried out field archaeological surveys on Hainan Island.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yin Haiming
There is a progressive logical relationship among the above seven aspects.
In the future, Chinese archaeology will also focus on the study of human origin and evolution, regional archaeology and mutual learning of civilizations from a global perspective, historical and cultural inheritance and cultural heritage protection in the process of modernization, and research and development of archaeological techniques and equipment under the rapid development of science and technology. On the one hand, we will focus on construction to build a first-class archaeology with an international perspective and a world pattern.
What contribution can Chinese archaeology make in the mutual learning of civilizations?
Both Peking University archaeology and Chinese archaeology attach great importance to international exchanges and cooperation.
Over the past 70 years, Peking University Archaeology has accepted undergraduates, postgraduates and advanced students from 25 countries and regions, including the Soviet Union, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand, India, Mexico, and Sri Lanka, and has held a large number of international academic conferences and conferences. For lectures, scholars from the United States, Britain, Japan, South Korea and other countries and Hong Kong and Taiwan regions have been invited to give lectures. Teachers often go out to participate in academic conferences, visits, lectures or cooperative research; Scholars collaborate in field archaeological excavations and research.
In December 2019, Abidemi Barbarola, an archaeologist from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, shared the results of the "Archaeological Research on Glass in Sub-Saharan Africa" project he chaired at the 4th World Archaeological Forum held in Shanghai.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sun Zifa
At present, the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University has completed the collection of Chinese porcelain materials unearthed from the Wuhaimar site in Madagascar, and it is expected to publish the "Research on Chinese Porcelain Unearthed from the Wuhaimar Site" in 2022; China-Italy cooperation in Italy. The catalogue, the Naples Volume catalogue, is expected to be published in 2023.
In addition, Peking University also signed a memorandum with the National Museum of Iran, planning to organize and publish Chinese porcelain materials collected in the Temple of Adbir.
In recent years, Chinese archaeologists have actively carried out overseas archaeological excavations and cooperative research on major international projects. They have traveled to Kenya, Egypt, North America, Central Asia, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia and other places to actively participate in the archaeological excavations and research of foreign civilizations. There are many overseas archaeological excavation bases.
Through the archaeological survey, excavation and data sorting of underwater cultural relics and land sites and relics, the Chinese voice in the field of foreign archaeology has been made, which has contributed to the strength of Chinese archaeology; it has also increased our understanding and understanding of ancient Chinese and foreign cultural exchanges.
At present, Chinese archaeology is actively promoting the internationalization of academic achievements, striving to enhance the influence of the discipline and the right to speak internationally, to tell the Chinese story of archaeology well, to show the world the excellent traditional Chinese culture and the beautiful image of Chinese civilization.
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About the Author:
Shen Ruiwen, Dean and Professor of the School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, is mainly engaged in the teaching and research of archaeology in the Han and Tang Dynasties.
His research involves mausoleum system, funeral customs, religion, fine arts, archaeology of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, and ancient city towns. Exam" etc.