China News Service, Beijing, January 3, 2019 Title: Wang Lizhi: How does the Chinese civilization that has lasted for more than 5,000 years prove that it is different from others?
Author Tao Siyuan
2021 is a century of Chinese archaeology. Over the past 100 years, after the unremitting efforts of several generations of Chinese archaeologists, the Chinese civilization that has lasted for more than 5,000 years has gradually become known to the world. Archaeology and cultural preservation, as two important links in the chain of revealing human civilization, jointly carry the heavy mission given by history.
Does the technical concept of Chinese archaeology depend on the West? What role does archaeology and cultural protection play in the inheritance and mutual learning of civilizations? Wang Lizhi, president of the Cultural Security Institute of the National Museum of China, who has been engaged in field archaeology for nearly 30 years, recently gave an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Question" to deeply analyze the above issues.
China News Service: How do you view China's uninterrupted history of civilization for more than 5,000 years? What is the significance of archaeology and cultural preservation for the inheritance of civilization?
Wang Lizhi: Cultural relics are the most representative of a nation, but also the most reflective of the historical background behind it, if some cultural relics do not protect, let them develop, may be in another 100 years will be reduced to ashes, then what do the descendants of mankind rely on to find a place to come from and understand their own culture? The greatest significance of Wenbao is to preserve the things that can best represent culture, prolong its life as long as possible, and let future generations see the original appearance of each civilization.
With the development of science and technology to today, with the collection of three-dimensional data, there is a choice to make a "backup" for existing cultural relics, even if these cultural relics do not exist in the future, there is at least one way and way to understand today's cultural relics.
Every civilization has its own splendor apart from others. Ancient Egypt and other ancient civilizations have not been handed down, and China has a civilization that has lasted for more than 5,000 years, which is recognized by the world. A large number of cultural relics from different periods have been unearthed in China for a hundred years of archaeology, and these cultural relics are the best business cards, presenting the world with a large amount of information about ancient China that is not known to today.
Taking bronze as an example, Western bronzes have been practical instruments since their birth, while Chinese Xia Shang Zhou bronzes have given a deeper cultural meaning since their birth. Its essence is a ceremonial instrument, the ceremonial instrument represents a ceremonial system, behind the ceremonial system reflects a deeper social order, this royal system is unique in various ancient civilizations, and it is also one of the most interesting points in today's international academic circles. Since 4,000 years ago, China has established a set of ceremonial systems with the appearance of bronze ceremonial vessels and so on, which has become an important basis for distinguishing social hierarchies, thus constructing a complete way of ruling.
Houmu Peng (formerly known as Simu Peng) Bronze Ding. Photo by Yulong, China News Service
Therefore, from a certain point of view, only these cultural relics can prove the unique and "brilliant" side of ancient China, and can prove the greatness of Chinese civilization, which is the most symbolic cultural self-confidence.
China News Service: The importance of cultural relics highlights the importance of cultural protection. Cultural relics restoration was originally only a craft in China, and only later did a sense of cultural preservation appear, was this change of concept influenced by the West?
Wang Lizhi: In the Western concept, restoration and protection are integrated, and in the early days of China, restoration was the mainstay. Before 1949, some people in China did cultural relics restoration. But technically speaking, at that time, it was basic craftsmanship such as splicing and adhesion, and the concept was simply "repairing". After the founding of New China, the Forbidden City, the predecessor of the National Expo (China History Museum, The Museum of the Chinese Revolution) and other units have successively set up departments such as the Cultural Relics Restoration Room, but they have basically developed in their own exploration.
On December 18, 2021, the Sanxingdui Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Museum in Guanghan, Sichuan Province, opened. China News Service reporter An Yuan photographed
Until the 1950s, the excavation of the Ming Ding Mausoleum in Beijing, which was selected as one of the "Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries in a Hundred Years" in October this year, completely stimulated the archaeologists at that time. Due to the lack of perfect technical means and protection conditions, many precious cultural relics of Dingling cannot be reasonably protected, and some of them are destroyed after excavation. To this day, it is still a great pain and lesson in our hearts.
Since the 1960s, the "disaster" of Dingling has made some scholars and administrators aware of the importance of cultural protection, and at this time, the earliest scholars such as Hu Jigao and Wang Danhua have opened up the cause of cultural protection in China, and by the time of the excavation of Mawangdui, the awareness of cultural protection has been much better. Later, the Institute of Science and Technology for Cultural Relics Protection of the Ministry of Culture was established, which represented the beginning of China's cultural protection cause. After the reform and opening up, with the advancement of cultural exchanges with Western countries such as Italy and France, the awareness of cultural relics protection in China has quickly followed.
After entering the new century, with the increase in the number of cultural security personnel from science classes and the return of more and more overseas professionals, the awareness of cultural protection has begun to integrate into the entire cultural relics work, and a consensus has been formed that "restoration and protection are inseparable". Now, we are not simply repairing cultural relics, and we need to do a series of scientific tests and analysis before restoration. For example, to repair the bronze, in addition to detecting its composition, it is also necessary to detect harmful rust, etc., and to consider a series of problems such as "how to control the production of harmful rust after repair". The protection of cultural relics was first done by the West, China is the latter scholars, and the concepts are all learned from the West, which is beyond doubt, but it is undeniable that with the attention paid to cultural relics at the national level, we have quickly followed up.
In the concept of Cultural Protection borrowing from the West, the most representative are "minimal intervention" and "reprocessable", the latter formerly called "reversible". To put it simply, minimal intervention is the lowest degree of "interference" in the original appearance of cultural relics, that is, the concept of "repairing the old as old", which was first proposed by the West. "Reprocessable" means that the finished artifact can be dismantled again. For today's cultural protection workers, "reversible" has become the consensus of the East and the West.
Archaeologists actually think similarly. In the case of an artifact unearthed that needs to be repaired, the professionals and the museum audience want to see it not exactly the same. The audience in the museum prefers to see it in its entirety; professionals sometimes prefer to see the mutilated half of the artifact, and with this half, they can think of what the other half looks like, what the structure of the section is, how the ornamentation and craftsmanship came from. Therefore, whether it is better to completely restore the "new" or "as old" should be different according to the "different purposes", and some museums have begun to try.
Restored Samsung Pile Gold Mask. China News Service reporter An Yuan photographed
China News Service: Previously, we learned the technology and concept of cultural relics protection from the West, and today, Chinese archaeology has gone through a full hundred years. What is the current international level of Chinese archaeology?
Wang Lizhi: In the past hundred years, Chinese archaeology has completely gone out of its own way. In the early days of reform and opening up, the recognition of Chinese archaeology by Western academic circles was not high, which had both subjective reasons and objective problems. After all, the Chinese and Western academic verification methods and argumentation logic are not the same. Since the 21st century, a large number of Chinese scholars have gone out and exchanged with the West more and more frequently, and with the deepening of academic exchanges, Western academic circles have begun to re-examine the achievements of Chinese archaeology. The "going out" of Chinese scholars became particularly important at that point in time.
In the 1990s, some scholars, represented by Mr. Zhang Zhongpei, the former president of the Forbidden City, returned from a visit to the United States and expressed similar views: "The highest level of Chinese archaeology is in China." There was an illusion that the level of Western scholars who studied Chinese archaeology was not lower than that of Domestic, such as Mr. Zhang Guangzhi of Harvard University, who had a Chinese background, could read Chinese literature, and had a background in Western ideas, which can be said to be "learning from China and the West". However, with the increase of cultural exchanges, Chinese scholars who have gone out have found that although Western scholars have their own unique perspectives and depth in some aspects of Chinese archaeology, domestic scholars are still better at comprehensive and in-depth research capabilities and levels. As far as the overall research ability of Chinese archaeology is concerned, Western scholars are still incomparable, of course, this is created by objective reality.
On December 14, 2021, the Jiangcun Tomb and its surrounding ruins in Bailuyuan, an eastern suburb of Xi'an, were officially recognized as the Tomb of emperor Wen of Han. China News Service reporter Zhang Yuan photographed
China News Service: In the context of globalization, what is the charm of Chinese archaeology? What is its role in the exchange of Civilizations between East and West?
Wang Lizhi: Since the reform and opening up, with the increase of cultural exchanges between the East and the West, the West has begun to fully understand and understand Chinese archaeology.
Still taking bronzes as an example, in addition to examining the age, we also study the shape of the vessel, the ornamentation, the inscription, the genus, as well as the casting technology, and even the way of transmission. Any one of these aspects alone is a vast field, with ornamentation extending to ancient aesthetics and iconography; inscriptions extending to the paleography profession; and family lineages involving social organization structure and production and lifestyle. If you look deeply, the ritual system behind the bronze ceremonial vessel is also a long academic chain.
China has more than 5,000 years of civilization history, usually a Chinese archaeologist's key research field can only choose a certain stage period or a few aspects, because in addition to the vast historical documents, after a hundred years of archaeology has accumulated a large number of rich physical materials, and the extraction information is more and more complex, it is difficult to see all of it in his lifetime. This research and exploration is endless.
Human civilization is common, but "taking me as the mainstay", doing a good job of their own research, and telling their own stories can highlight their position in the exchange of Eastern and Western civilizations.
In recent years, there have been more and more exchanges between Archaeology and Cultural Protection between China and foreign countries, which has a lot to do with our archaeological discoveries and in-depth research, but unfortunately this exchange has been interrupted due to the epidemic. Of course, cultural exchanges are not as susceptible to other factors as political exchanges. It is hoped that after the covid-19 epidemic, this mutual learning exchange can be maintained for a long time, and more scholars in China can go out to bring out the achievements of Chinese archaeology and cultural relics protection, so that more people can understand Chinese civilization, so as to jointly protect the common brilliant civilization of mankind. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Wang Lizhi is located at the base site of the Yuntang Palace in Zhouyuan, Shaanxi. I provide the picture
Wang Lizhi, male, graduated from Peking University with a doctorate in archaeology and museology, and is the dean and research librarian of the Cultural protection institute of the National Museum of China. Engaged in field archaeology work for nearly 30 years, participated in a number of important archaeological excavations, surveys and data collation, and has long been committed to the archaeological research of Xia Shang Zhou. In recent years, it has begun to devote itself to the protection of cultural relics.