Since the discovery of the oracle bone in 1899, the academic community has basically understood that these oracle bones were unearthed in Xiaotun Village in Anyang, and here, it is the Yin Ruins mentioned in the literature.
The archaeological community is also beginning to look to the region.
All this is due to the establishment of the Archaeological Team of the Institute of History and Language of academia sinica.
At this time, it is not a scientific archaeological excavation.
However, a lot of preparation was done before the first excavation.
The first problem to solve is:
The archaeological team of the Institute of History and Language of the Academia Sinica was nominally central, but Yin Ruins was in Anyang, under the jurisdiction of Henan Province, which at that time was Feng Yuxiang's territory, and because of the background of warlord melee, thieves were rampant.
The local cultural circles in Henan Province also favor Yin Ruins, and they do not want the central government to directly monopolize the oracle bone resources of Yin Ruins.
Therefore, the preparatory work before the first Yin Ruins archaeology was done for a long time, and finally all parties compromised and came up with a compromise plan: that is, to find a Henan person to preside over the excavation work.
This person is Dong Zuobin.
Dong Zuobin opened up many relationships and received the joint support of the Academia Sinica and the Local Government of Henan.
The first excavation of the Yin Ruins
Excavations were made from October 13 to October 30, 1928.
Due to the threat of bandits in Henan, the personal safety of the staff of the Shiyu Institute could not be guaranteed.
After only 18 days, the excavation was terminated.
Due to the short time, the results were not large, but the 784 version of the oracle bone was still found.
Some pottery, bone tools, mussel shells and other relics underground in Xiaotun Village were also found.
The picture shows the first excavation of Yin Ruins, and Dong Zuobin (right) and Li Chunyu (left) surveyed the drawings
This was the first excavation of yin ruins, a short and dangerous eighteen days, and this excavation basically adopted the psychology of treasure digging, without any modern archaeological methods.
The second excavation of yin ruins
And all this changed with the arrival of Li Ji.
Li Ji is a doctor of anthropology at Harvard University in the United States, and after returning to China, he served as a tutor at the School of Chinese Studies of Tsinghua University, and was equally famous as Zhao Yuanren, Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao, and Chen Yinke.
He was the fifth person, because he taught archaeology and anthropology, which was a very niche discipline in China at that time, so he was not as famous as the first four.
But his return greatly inspired Chinese confidence in his own archaeological excavations, and Li Ji had previously independently discovered the ruins of Xiyin Village in Xia County, Shanxi.
Therefore, Li Ji actually has a certain experience in archaeological excavations, which is different from Dong Zuobin.
Another problem is that when the Shiyu Institute was first built, it lacked funds and was very poor.
Li Ji's archaeological excavations in China were funded by the Ferriel Art Gallery in the United States. That is to say, this American museum provides financial support to Li Ji, the only condition is that Li Ji can represent the Chinese side to provide the museum with a copy of the original excavation report in English.
In this context, Li Ji, Fu Sinian and the United States hit it off.
In addition to Li Ji and Dong Zuobin, Li Ji also invited the famous geologist Pei Wenzhong.
Pei Wenzhong also has a place in the history of archaeology, that is, he found the fossil skull of the Beijing ape man in Zhoukoudian.
Pei Wenzhong used the geological concepts of modern science to draw the first detailed map of Yin Ruins.
From March 7, 1929 to May 10, 1929, the Institute of History and Language conducted the second excavation of the Yin Ruins.
The second excavation mainly has the following results:
1. Li Ji discovered a new burial style: curved limb burial.
2. Li Ji and Dong Zuobin began to divide their work, and pursued a lifelong research division of labor, that is, Li Ji studied the pottery excavated from Yin Ruins, while Dong Zuobin studied the excavated oracle bones.
3. Dong Zuobin, because of his professional archaeology training, began to use scientific methods to identify oracle bones, and began to far surpass Luo Zhenyu and Wang Guowei in cognition, and he began to have a new perspective on oracle bones, which was laid down in the second excavation.
The second excavation of Yin Ruins abruptly halted on May 10 because Feng Yuxiang, the de facto controller of Henan, suddenly broke with the Nanjing government. Archaeological excavations had to be stopped.
The third excavation of yin ruins
The third excavation began from October 7 to December 12, 1929.
The excavation was mainly presided over by Li Ji and Dong Zuobin, also funded by the Ferrier Museum of Art in the United States.
This excavation can be described as a great harvest, and the most famous "Big Turtle Ivy Edition" appeared in this excavation.
Dong Zuobin wrote the famous "Interpretation of the Fourth Edition of the Great Turtle" and put forward the "Zhenren Theory".
The proposal of this virtuous person is the basic basis for the generation of oracle bones, and it is still used today.
The excavation was so influential that even Guo Moruo, who was far away in Japan, heard about it, so Guo borrowed the rubbings of the oracle bones from the Academia Sinica.
The group of people in the Academia Sinica naively lent it to Guo Moruo, which was equivalent to announcing this batch of oracle bones in advance.
If Guo Moruo wrote his famous work of oracle bone science, "Bu Ci Tong", here he had to admire Mr. Guo Dingtang's genius level, on the basis of no physical object but only rubbings, he could write such a classic work of oracle bone science.
In addition to the discovery of the oracle bone, the third excavation, Li Ji also found a piece of faience pottery.
Li Ji was keenly aware that this was the best evidence for determining the age of Yin Ruins from archaeology, so he wrote "Xiaotun and Yangshao".
It is believed that Yangshao culture is faience pottery culture and Xiaotun is gray pottery culture, which is a scientific reasoning of early Chinese archaeology without much evidence, and can be said to be a famous work in the history of Chinese archaeology.
The Fourth Excavation of yin ruins
After the third excavation, due to the outbreak of the Central Plains War, there was no progress in 1930.
The third excavation of Yin Ruins, Li Ji held a painted pottery piece
So the archaeology community turned to Shandong this year, and Wu Jinding, a student of Li Ji, discovered the longshan ruins of Chengziya in Licheng, Shandong Province, in this year.
With the arrival of 1931, the fourth excavation of Yin Ruins began, and this excavation can be described as a large number of participants, Li Ji, Dong Zuobin, Liang Siyong, Guo Baojun and Wu Jinding were all involved.
Liang Siyong is the son of Liang Qichao, the younger brother of Liang Sicheng, a doctor of archaeology and anthropology at Harvard University in the United States, he once received systematic archaeological training for the excavation of Indian city sites when he was abroad, and from the perspective of archaeology professionalism, he is more professional than Li Ji.
This excavation lasted from March 21 to May 11, 1931, which can be said to have opened the real beginning of the scientific archaeology of Yin Ruins.
This time is also a big gain:
First of all, although Mr. Guo Baojun did not have systematic archaeological training, he gradually mastered the method of scientific archaeology in archaeological practice, so he proposed that many of the ruins of Yin Ruins were abandoned this time.
In the first three excavations, Li Ji generally believed that the existence of wavy remains on the site of the Yin Ruins was evidence of early flooding, but this time Mr. Guo Baojun proved that it was a trace of the banzhu.
In this excavation, Li Ji also began to explore the surrounding area of Xiaotun Village, let Wu Jinding excavate the Four Pan Mill, and let Liang Siyong excavate Hougang.
Because of this arrangement, Liang Siyong was very surprised to discover the Hougang Triassic, but this was already the fifth excavation.
In early May 1931, Shi Yousan of the Northwest Army, which had already surrendered to Chiang Kai-shek, suddenly defected and broke with the central government, believing that the excavation team of the Academia Sinica in Anyang was a traitor, so the group of the Academia Sinica quickly withdrew from Anyang, and the fourth excavation was over.
Then in September, the 918 Incident occurred in the northeast, and the scholars were indignant, and under the inspiration of the academic slogan of national salvation, the fifth excavation of Yin Ruins was carried out, which was led by Dong Zuobin, Liang Siyong, and Guo Baojun, and Li Ji did not have time to participate because he held many positions.
The Fifth Excavation of yin ruins
The fifth excavation took place from November 7 to December 19, 1931.
The biggest contribution of this excavation was Liang Siyong's discovery of the Hougang Triacle in Hougang.
The Meaning of the Hougang Trilayer is that on the archaeological strata, the top is Yin Ruins, the middle is Longshan, and the bottom is Yangshao.
This provides solid evidence for the archaeological sequence of xiaotun, Longshan and Yangshao cultures in archaeology, and the earlier the formation goes up, the earlier the time goes down.
The accumulation of soil layers in the Ogoka Triassic Layer
The light gray soil on the top floor contains the gray pottery relics of Xiaotun Yin Ruins; the black pottery relics of the Longshan culture with the remains of Chengziya have been found in the green soil in the middle; and the deep gray soil at the bottom contains the faience relics of yangshao culture.
Liang Siyong detailed the Hougang Triassic in his article "Xiaotun, Longshan and Yin Ruins", which is a sign of the formal formation of Chinese archaeological stratigraphy and the foundation of the large framework of Chinese archaeological sequences.
To this day, we are still constantly improving and modifying in this big framework.
The sixth and seventh excavations of the Yin Ruins
The following spring, April-May 1932, the sixth excavation began.
Due to Mr. Liang Siyong's severe pleurisy, he missed the sixth to ninth excavations, which can be said to be a major loss in the excavation of Yin Ruins, after all, he is the only professional who has been systematically trained, and the others are a group of dirt buns.
Liang Siyong's next appearance was in 1934, he was ill for two years, the host of the sixth excavation was Li Ji, but in fact it was a pseudonym, the main person in charge was Dong Zuobin and Wu Jinding, this time is basically the continuation of the fifth excavation.
The seventh excavation was in the autumn of 1932, from October 19 to December 15, this time mainly responsible for Dong Zuobin and Shi Zhangru.
This excavation has a certain significance, and it has begun to actively excavate using the method of scientific archaeology.
For example, begin to pay attention to the relationship between the excavation areas, the structural composition of the objects;
In addition, a detailed registration of the location of the excavated objects began, which was not paid much attention to in previous excavations.
But by the time of the seventh excavation, it had become the norm, which can be said to be a manifestation of the gradual maturity of the Chinese archaeological community under the leadership of Liang Siyong and others.
The Eighth Excavation of yin ruins
In the autumn of 1933, the eighth excavation was carried out.
The host this time was Guo Baojun, but Guo Baojun was ill, in fact, by Liu Yi and Shi Zhangru in the specific operation, Liu Yi is the later Yin Da, after the establishment of the republic, he became the deputy director of the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and concurrently served as the deputy director and director of the Institute of Archaeology.
This excavation is still continuing the excavation of Hougang, and at this time, Liu Yi and Shi Zhangru are both graduate students and do not have much experience, so they have not achieved much.
The Ninth Excavation of yin ruins
The ninth excavation was carried out from 9 March to 31 May 1934.
Dong Zuobin presided over the excavation of the Houjiazhuang area that had been discovered by chance before, with Liu Yi and Shi Zhangru as the main assistants.
After several excavations, the two gradually matured, and as soon as they graduated from graduate school, they were hired as regular personnel by the Institute of History and Language of the Academia Sinica.
The sixth to ninth excavations were relatively short, the area was not large, and there was basically no great achievement.
However, it has trained a group of archaeological staff who can operate independently, which can be said to be the greatest force in Chinese archaeology.
In the decades that followed, these people grew into big names in the field of archaeology, and they trained batches of students.
The 10th excavation of yin ruins
From October 3, 1934 to January 1, 1935, this was the tenth excavation.
A total of 91 days, this time the number of participants is large, first Liang Siyong returned to the excavation site and became the host.
1935 Henan Northwest Gang Ruins, left one Fu Sinian, right two Liang Siyong
Liu Yi and Shi Zhangru had matured.
This time there was a newcomer to the meeting, his name was Hu Fulin.
Hu Fulin participated in the archaeological excavation from this time, and then became an important figure in the history of oracle osteology, this person later changed his name to Hu Houxuan, and later the most important document collation in oracle bone science, the "Oracle Bone Collection", was made by Hu Houxuan, and Mr. Qiu Xigui, a great bull of contemporary paleography, was also a student of Hu Houxuan.
From the tenth time, the main position of the excavation was not in Xiaotun, but was moved to the tomb of King Gangyin in the northwest of Houjiazhuang.
This time, 4 sub-type large tombs were found, each of which is 4 tombs, which is the highest level of tomb road grade found in Chinese archaeology so far.
Yin Xu King Mausoleum District
But the excavation was sabotaged by a group of people from the local government in Anyang.
The leader of this group was named Li Guan, who called the Academia Sinica "Central Daytime Excavation Group", and organized a group of people himself, called the "Central Night Excavation Group".
Liang Siyong dug during the day, and these people dug at night. Later, the Henan provincial government sent troops to disperse these people.
The photo shows the 11th excavation of Yin Ruins in the spring of 1935
The team leader Liang Siyong and the whole regiment staff welcomed Li Ji to inspect the excavation site in the northwest of Houjiazhuang, from left to right: Wang Xiang, Hu Houxuan, Li Guangyu, Qi Yanpei, Liu Yao (Yin Da), Liang Siyong, Li Ji, Yin Huanzhang, Xia Nai, Shi Zhangru
The eleventh excavation of the Yin Ruins
The eleventh excavation began from March 10 to June 15, 1935.
This is the largest excavation in the history of the Yin Ruins, and this time it was funded by the budget of the National Museum of Central Museum, giving them a total of 3W silver dollars.
When you have money, things are easier.
This time it was still Presided over by Liang Siyong, and the composition of the personnel was basically the same as that of the tenth time.
But this time a new person joined, who later became the first person in the archaeology of the Republic, that is, Xia Nai.
Xia Nai was different from Li Ji and Liang Siyong.
Li Ji studied mainly anthropology, and Liang Siyong studied American archaeology.
Xia Nai went to England, followed the British Egyptology master, and personally ran to Egypt to participate in the excavation of Egyptian archaeology.
And because of the maturity of Egyptology, it has a history of more than 100 years. Very formal and mature. So Xia Nai's return makes a lot of differences.
But at this time, Xia Nai was not yet the main figure, and this excavation was mainly the tomb of the king of the northwest gang.
The Twelfth Excavation of Yin Shang
From September 5 to December 16, 1935, the twelfth excavation.
A total of 99 days.
The host is Liang Siyong, this time on a large scale, hiring 500 workers a day. Dig for them.
Excavation scene in the Yin Ruins Tomb Area in 1935
And this time Liang Siyong made a plan, that is, to let different participants, especially Shi Zhangru and Liu Yi, each person responsible for a region, but his plan has not been successful since then.
This excavation of Li Ji, Dong Zuobin, and Guo Baojun are no longer involved, first of all, Li Ji has too many positions, too many administrative affairs can not be left, Dong Zuobin is compiling the "Yin Ruins Character A Compilation", guo Baojun presided over the excavation of the Weiguo cemetery in Western Zhou in Liuli Pavilion, Hui County, Henan.
The Thirteenth Excavation of Yin Shang
The thirteenth excavation returned to Xiaotun.
After ending the archaeology of the 10th to 12th Northwest Gangwang Mausoleum, and returning to Xiaotun Village, where the most oracle bones were unearthed, Guo Baojun was the host of the thirteenth archaeological excavation.
There are several major achievements in this excavation, which need to be highlighted:
1. After more than a dozen excavation experiences, the Chinese archaeological community has begun to use the exploration party for excavation from this time, which is the method used by the archaeological community so far, but this is an independent invention of the Chinese archaeological community, and once this method is invented, it is widely adopted.
2. The excavation was carried out from March 18 to June 24, 1936, and the excavation was scheduled to end on June 13, but on the afternoon of June 12, the most important Oracle excavation pit H127 was discovered.
The pit was transported to Nanjing as a whole and sorted out by Dong Zuobin and Hu Houxuan. Finally, the 300 version of the oracle bone was found, and the word A was 17756 pieces, because this H127 was excavated by scientific archaeology under the mature archaeological method, which has the nature of accurate stratigraphy, whether it is from the volume of the excavated oracle bone, or for the dating of the Yin Ruins, it has a very great significance.
The picture shows the case of the H127 cellar being dug into a clay pillar and loaded into the bottom of the box
The fourteenth and fifteenth excavations of Yin Shang
The fourteenth excavation lasted 103 days from September 20 to December 31, 1936.
Led by Liang Siyong and Shi Zhangru, many of the base sites of the plates were found, as well as some other dynasties, such as the ruins of the Tang and Song dynasties, and 91 warring states tombs.
The fifteenth excavation was from March 16 to June 19, 1937, this time the person in charge was Shi Zhangru and Gao went to look for these people, this excavation found some white pottery, some version of the foundation site.
After July 1937, Japan began to launch a full-scale war of aggression against China, and all academic institutions began to move south.
In fact, from the fifteenth excavation, those main responsible persons did not arrive at the scene to know, they were already organizing the southward migration, so the excavation of the Yin Ruins was interrupted.
But these 15 excavations have matured Chinese archaeology, allowed Chinese archaeology to have its own methods, established its own foundation of stratigraphy, stratigraphy and typology, cultivated a large number of archaeological talents, and excavated more than 2W pieces of oracle bones, which can be said to have achieved remarkable results.
In the same way, we can see how difficult it is for them to adhere to the concept of academic service to the country again and again in the whirlpool of political struggle and at the moment of national crisis.
This philosophy is as awe-inspiring as their academic achievements.