▲ The "historical fever" has continued for many years, and archaeology, which was once neglected, has ushered in a "small yang spring", and the publication of related books has even appeared "blowout" phenomenon.
2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of modern Chinese archaeology, and the commemorative activities of the archaeological community are wave after wave, which is really lively. Outside the academic circle, the public eye has also been repeatedly attracted by new archaeological discoveries. Whether it is the "Shangxin" of Sanxingdui, or the State Administration of Cultural Heritage confirming the location of the Tomb of emperor Wen of Han, or the residence of Princess Taiping of the Tang Dynasty in Luoyang, it is frequently on the "hot search". Coupled with the cross-annual cultural program "China Archaeology Conference" broadcast by CCTV at the end of 2021, it makes people feel that archaeology, which was originally a high-cold field, has received more and more attention and is moving from a niche to the public.
Archaeology that has been left out in the cold by the heat of history
If you count from the 2004 CCTV "Hundred Forums" to broadcast Mr. Yan Chongnian's "The Doubtful Case of the Twelve Emperors of the Qing Dynasty", the "historical fever" has lasted for nearly 20 years. According to the monitoring data of the "open volume" on the book retail market, history books rank first in academic and cultural books for many years, not only publishing bestsellers every year, but also long-selling books with stable performance. Behind this is the public's strong interest in history.
However, the public's points of interest are often seriously out of touch with academic developments. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, Wang Guowei proposed the "double evidence method", emphasizing the mutual verification of "documents on paper" and "new materials underground" to reach reliable conclusions. Wang Guowei's "new materials underground" refers to all kinds of cultural relics excavated by archaeology, which closely links archaeology and history. Since then, the study of Chinese history has been inseparable from archaeology. Just think, if the Anyang Yin Ruins had not been discovered, how could people know the Shang Dynasty today?
Unfortunately, in the rising historical fever, archaeology has been absent for a long time. It is no wonder that history can be used as stories and even paragraphs, and political struggles, military strategists, and deep palace gossip can always arouse the adrenaline rush of readers. How many people can tell the story of the archaeological report to the layman?
It seems that archaeology is destined to be far removed from everyday life. Not necessarily. In the 1960s and 1970s, a wave of academic popularization movements arose in Western countries, and well-known scholars stepped out of the ivory tower to explain to the public in easy-to-understand language the "high-cold disciplines" such as philosophy, linguistics, and history. Public archaeology also emerged during this period. It can be divided into two levels. The first is naturally to ask archaeologists to break down professional barriers, disseminate archaeological knowledge in a way that the public can understand, and share archaeological progress. But it's not simply "I teach you to learn." The American archaeologist McKimsi, the proposer of the concept of public archaeology, emphasized mobilizing the initiative of ordinary people and letting them and archaeologists jointly promote research and protect the sites of civilization. This is important for the formation of a nation's cultural memory and identity.
McKimsey's claim makes sense. We know that modern archaeology originated from the excavation of ancient Greco-Roman sites such as Pompeii and Troy by Westerners since the mid-18th century. The West thus confirmed the splendor of the "two Greek" (ancient Greek-Roman and Hebrew-Christian) civilizations and identified them as the main source of Western civilization, thus constructing a cultural context that lasted for thousands of years.
The path taken by Chinese archaeology is similar. In 1921, the Swedish geologist Anderson dug the "first shovel" in Yangshao Village, Henan, and the Yangshao culture surfaced, ending the Western archaeological community's assertion about the "Chinese Stoneless Age". More importantly, the accompanying Chinese scholars thus grasped the concepts and methods of archaeology, which changed the status quo in China with only epigraphy and no modern archaeology. It is in this sense that the excavations at the Yangshao site are recognized as a sign of the birth of modern Chinese archaeology.
In 1928, Li Ji, Dong Zuobin and other first generation Chinese archaeologists presided over the excavation of the Yin Ruins in Anyang, and confirmed that it was the location of the last capital of the Shang Dynasty, "Dayi Shang". The Yanshi Erlitou Archaeological Project, launched in 1959, is believed to be the most likely legendary Xia Dynasty. The chinese civilization exploration project launched at the beginning of this century has effectively promoted the empirical work of "five thousand years of Chinese civilization".
Today, after a hundred years of modern Chinese archaeology, it has made great progress. Unfortunately, although the academic achievements are abundant, there is always a problem of insufficient public awareness and limited participation. Most of the time, the bustle is only in small circles, and it is difficult to enter the public eye.
Yue Nan was the exception. Since the creation of "Wind and Snow Dingling" in 1990, Yue Nan has explored archaeological sites, searched for archaeologists, and written more than a dozen archaeological books. At the end of 2021, he also launched a two-volume "History of Yuenan Greater China", which depicts the evolutionary history of Chinese civilization with vivid brushstrokes in a way that integrates history and new archaeological discoveries. It should be said that this is a good practice for public archaeology. However, after all, Yue Nan is not from a science class, and people expect real archaeologists to "come to the world".
"Archaeology Star" Promotes Archaeology Book "Blowout"
In 2016, Xu Hong, the archeological team leader of the former Erlitou site, published "Why China: A Picture of the Central Plains in 2000 BC". Since then, he has successively launched "Dadu No City: A Dynamic Interpretation of China's Ancient Capital", "The Earliest China: The Rise of Erlitou Civilization", and "East Asian Bronze Tide: The Millennium Changes of the Pre-Oracle Era", forming the "Interpretation of Early China" series. Unlike ordinary scholars, Xu Hong's language is vivid and his thinking is clear, and his works can be read even by "archaeologists". He also settled on major new media platforms, appeared on cultural programs such as "One Seat" and "Thirteen Invitations", presented archaeological charm, and gained a large number of fans.
In an interview with the media, Xu Hong never hid his original intention of "letting archaeology go from the field to the public". To this day, he is undoubtedly the "head net red" in the Chinese archaeological community.
Xu Hong made a good start, and more and more archaeologists put down their bodies and devoted themselves to public archaeology. This in turn echoes market demand. Although the academic school has always expressed disdain for the so-called historical fever, it has indeed "cultivated" a group of people, so that they are no longer satisfied with the narrative of those things of a certain dynasty, but are eager to contact more dry goods and more quality historical narratives. At the same time, as the country reaches a certain stage of development, Chinese especially young Chinese people, are eager to understand where Chinese civilization has come from, what kind of evolution it has undergone, and where it will go, and their eyes naturally turn to archaeology.
The neglected archaeology ushered in the "little yang spring". Reflected in the book market, archaeology books have been quite popular in recent years, and even showed signs of "blowout". For example, in 2016, experts announced the archaeological results of the Hai xiahou tomb, and in 2019, the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City were included in the World Cultural Heritage List, which set off a wave of related books. In 2021, the Sanxingdui site released the latest archaeological excavation results, which directly brought about the heat of archaeological books. According to statistics, the search volume of keywords such as "Sanxingdui", "archaeology" and "cultural relics" on major online book buying platforms has increased by 360 times in a short period of time.
2021 is also the 100th anniversary of the birth of modern Chinese archaeology, and the commemorative activities are wave after wave. It is gratifying that the archaeological community did not stay in the comfort zone this time, but tried to "break the circle" and attract the audience. Yang Hong, an 86-year-old researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the founder of Chinese art archaeology, published "Archaeology in a Hundred Years: Recreating China", which outlines the development trajectory of Chinese archaeology in the past hundred years in a simple and simple way. The book was hailed by readers as a "national blog on paper".
As soon as the New Year's bell rings, CITIC Publishing House has launched the book "Archaeology in China: 15 Archaeologists Say Five Thousand Years". In addition to xu Hong, the influential archeological team leader of the former Erlitou site, the author also includes Tang Jigen, the former archeological team leader of Yin Ruins, Wang Ningyuan, the archaeological leader of the Liangzhu Water Conservancy System, and Lei Yu, director of the Sanxingdui Site Workstation of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. In terms of academic level, these people are enough to form an "archaeological team". The content is also solid. The book selects 14 major sites for archaeologists to elaborate. The so-called "great ruins" refer to large-scale, valuable and far-reaching settlements, city sites, palaces, mausoleums, tombs and other sites and site groups, such as Liangzhu ruins, Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum, Haidian Hou Tomb, Qingping Fort ruins, etc. Xu Hong also wrote a lengthy introduction, "Archaeology of China, Recalling Our Cultural Memory", which introduces the ins and outs of Chinese archaeology and gives a holistic framework for understanding 14 major sites.
Xu Hong divided the ancient Chinese civilization into three stages of development, dating back to 5500-3800 years ago for the era of the state, the emergence of Yangshao, Liangzhu and other ancient civilizations, they are scattered in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins like the sky full of stars, each with its own characteristics and colorful. Around 2000 BC, the number of states was drastically reduced, replaced by a wide-area monarchy represented by Erlitou, Yin Ruins and Sanxingdui, full of stars and stars, and the era of kingdoms began. In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, marking China's entry into the imperial era. Since then, the great unification regime has been like a soaring moon, enveloping the land of China for more than two thousand years.
After combing, the evolution of Chinese civilization is much clearer. This is very friendly to the reader's grasp and understanding. This was followed by archaeologists dismantling the sites, which were equally informative and interesting. It can be said that "Archaeology in China" reflects the efforts of scholars in public archaeology.
Understand Chinese civilization from a global perspective
I was struck by a sentence in Xu Hong's introduction: "Only understanding China has confused China." This means that since ancient times, China has never been outside the world, but has always abandoned and innovated on the basis of absorbing the advanced elements of other civilizations, and has given birth to its own characteristics. For example, the long-bodied battle axes and ring-headed knives excavated at the Erlitou site were influenced by the bronze weapons of the Eurasian steppe. This shows that there was a close cultural exchange between the hinterland of the Central Plains and the Eurasian steppe for a long time, and it was in the collision and fission that the brilliant Shang zhou bronze civilization was born. The Tang Dynasty's broad mind of eclectic foreign civilization is even more well known.
Therefore, in order to deeply understand Chinese civilization, we must not limit ourselves to the East Asian region, but should have a global perspective.
So specific to the field of archaeology, is there any primer? For a long time, I liked to recommend the German scholar C.W. Ceram's Gods, Mausoleums and Scholars: Legends of Archaeology. The book revolves around the ruins of ancient civilizations and reveals the basic features of ancient Greco-Roman civilization, ancient Egyptian civilization, Two Rivers Valley civilization and American civilization. Because the author, Ceram, is a journalist, has first-class narrative skills, and is good at creating suspense, making reading very enjoyable. The problem with the book is that it was published earlier, and much of the knowledge needed to be updated.
Fortunately, with the explosion of archaeological books, there have been more related translations. The American scholar Eric M. H. Klein's "The Story of Archaeology" and the British scholar Paul Barne's "General History of Archaeology" are all integrated into the new achievements of archaeology and reveal the world's major archaeological sites. For a closer look at the dynamics and progress of archaeology, the First British scholar Colin Renfreud's Archaeology: Theory, Methods and Practice is the first to be introduced. The book is constantly pushing forward new editions, and it is currently the most authoritative and comprehensive work to understand the development of world archaeology.
When we have a certain understanding of the development of archaeology and the sites of major civilizations, we look back and think about our own civilization and believe that there will be new understandings. This is also the effect pursued by public archaeology.
Author: Tang Chenghua
Editor: Xue Weiping
Editor-in-Charge: Zhu Zifen