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Lin Xiang: A connoisseur of Bashu culture
Finishing / Editorial Board of the History of Bashu Koala look
Lin Xiang was a professor of archaeology at Sichuan University and a retired cadre. He has successively served as the director of the Department of Archaeology of the Department of History of Sichuan University, the director of the Bashu Culture Research Center of Sichuan University, and the deputy editor-in-chief of the Chinese Culture Forum of the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences. He has won the Sichuan Provincial Major Scientific and Technological Achievement Award, the Third Prize of Sichuan Provincial Major Science and Technology Award, and the Second Prize of Sichuan Provincial Social Science Award. Mr. Lin Xiang led and participated in the excavation of the Sanxingdui site in 1986, making great contributions to the archaeology and research of Sanxingdui. On September 15, 2021, Mr. Lin Xiang passed away in Chengdu at the age of 89. With this article, I would like to pay tribute to this academic giant of Bashu culture research.
Lin Xiang (right) and Shi Jinsong (left) at Chengdu Home international hotel in October 2018 (courtesy photo by Shi Jinsong)
Travel all over the academic giants of Prachuap Khiri Khan
Lin Xiang was born in Shanghai in 1932. In 1949, Lin Xiang graduated from high school and resolutely joined the Southwest Service Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and became a literary and artistic warrior. In 1955, Lin Xiang was admitted to the History Department of Sichuan University, transforming from a soldier into a polite scholar. After graduating from Sichuan University, Lin Xiang inherited the academic tradition pioneered by Mr. Xu Zhongshu and Feng Hanji and began his career in field archaeology, research and teaching.
Mr. Feng Hanji, the founder of archaeology of Sichuan University, once emphasized that "field archaeology is the foundation of archaeology", and Lin Xiang took this as his motto and traveled all over the Bashan Shushui. His archaeological investigations and excavations mainly focused on the Xia River area, chengdu plain, the upper reaches of the Min River, the Jinsha River and the Anning River basin. These are the four key areas for exploring the ancient culture of the Bashu region: the Chengdu Plain is the center of the ancient culture or regional civilization of Bashu; the upper reaches of the Min River, the Xia River area, the Jinsha River and the Anning River Basin are the cultural transmission and ethnic migration channels that connect the Chengdu Plain with the outside world, of which the former two are crucial to exploring the source of The Shu culture and the Ba culture, which is known as the "Southern Silk Road" because of its connection to the mainland Yunnan region and even Southeast Asia.
For different academic purposes, Lin Xiang has traveled to the above four areas many times at different times to carry out field work.
The earliest place to go was in the XiaJiang area. In the 1950s, Lin Xiang participated in the cultural relics survey of the Three Gorges Reservoir of the Yangtze River, discovered the famous Wushan Daxi ruins and the Dachang Shuangyan Pond ruins, and through the collation and research of the Data of the Daxi Ruins, the "Daxi Culture" was first proposed. In the 1980s, Lin Xiang surveyed the Three Gorges area and the cliff burials in southern Sichuan, and came up with a complete and systematic understanding of cliff burials in this area.
In the upper reaches of the MinJiang River, Lin Xiang investigated and excavated sarcophagus burials in the 1960s and excavated the Neolithic site of Jiang Weicheng in Wenchuan. In 1980, he went to Wenchuan to conduct ethnic archaeological surveys, collecting prehistoric relics excavated from Jiang Weicheng and collecting oral legends of the Qiang people.
In the Chengdu Plain, in the 1960s, Lin Xiang participated in the investigation and found some ancient city sites, such as pixian ancient city and Wenjiang Yujiao city, excavated after 1995 and confirmed as the Baodun cultural city site at the end of the Neolithic period, revealing the cultural features of the Chengdu Plain in the prehistoric period. In the 1980s, Lin Xiang inspected the Han Dynasty Cliff Tombs in Pengshan, the Qionglai Qiongqiong Kiln Site Group, the Pujiang Inscription and Stone Statues. In 1986, Lin Xiang led graduate students majoring in archaeology at Sichuan University to participate in the excavation of the Sanxingdui site. This excavation is the largest of Sanxingdui's previous excavations, and it is also a significant stroke in the history of Chinese archaeology.
Lin Xiang (left) and Shi Jinsong (right) at the Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum in December 2019 (courtesy of Shi Jinsong)
Demystify sanxingdui culture
In the spring of 1986, the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee (Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology), the Department of Archaeology of the Department of History of Sichuan University and the Guanghan County Government jointly established the Sanxingdui Site Excavation Leading Group. Lin Xiang, together with Chen De'an and Chen Xiandan of the Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, served as the leader, and dispatched the three competent cadres to form a strong archaeological team to begin the fifth excavation of the Sanxingdui site, which pushed the upper age limit of the Sanxingdui site to 5,000 years ago.
In July of the same year, two sacrificial pits were accidentally found at the Sanxingdui site, and a large number of precious cultural relics that shocked the world were unearthed, such as longitudinal masks, bronze sacred trees, and bronze Dali people, providing unprecedented new information for the study of Sanxingdui culture. From the late 1980s to the late 1990s, the period when Lin Xiang's writings were at its richest, Sanxingdui's new discoveries became an important opportunity for him to study ancient Shu culture.
A large number of pottery and bronze wine vessels were excavated from the Sanxingdui site, and Lin Xiang combined documentary materials and ethnographic materials to discuss the relationship between wine and witchcraft and the ancient Shu wine culture; later, according to the wine-making methods of the Ami people in Taiwan, the winemaking technology and wine culture of the Bashu region were further discussed. Few people have conducted such in-depth research in this area in the past, and Lin Xiang's research that combines archaeological, documentary and ethnographic materials is unique. More importantly, he did not limit himself to wine culture, but intended to understand the "shamanic culture" of Bashu through wine and witchcraft. It is through this unique perspective that Lin Xiang proposed that shortly after the sanxingdui sacrifice pit was unveiled, the relics buried in the pit were relics used for primitive religions, and those missing spiritual objects and idols were destroyed and buried, which may be related to the witchcraft practiced by the ancient Shu kingdom during the change of dynasties to win.
In addition to wine vessels and idols, Lin Xiang also specialized in studying other relics in the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit. For example, he believes that the bronze sacred tree is a jianmu, which means the "heavenly ladder" for the gods to go up and down the heavens and the earth; the bronze sun-shaped instrument and the animal face are shield ornaments, and they are the same as the copper ge and jade ge that are co-produced as the tools for the "dry dance" of the ancient Shu kingdom. After careful observation, Lin Xiang believes that bronze statues all wear masks, but gods do not, which reflects the religious rituals and rituals of the time. A large number of jade and stone tooth zhangs were excavated from the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit, and there were many types, distributed in the East Asian continent and lasted for thousands of years. Lin Xiang named these Zhangs "Chinese Yazhang" and divided the Yazhang of the Xia and Shang Dynasties into two branches, the north and south, centered on the ancient Shu and the northwest. This is a comprehensive study of Yazhang, and the similarities and differences of Yazhang in various systems, such as the flow of cloth, etc., discuss the formation of a diversified and integrated pattern of Chinese civilization.
The archaeological discoveries of Sanxingdui have led Lin Xiang to re-examine the overall appearance of Shu culture, its relationship with the Central Plains culture, and the ecological environment of the ancient Shu civilization. Regarding the "Shu" in Yin Xubu's words, there are different understandings in history. With the help of the new materials of the Sanxingdui site, Lin Xiang believes that Shu, with Sanxingdui as the capital, is the "Shu" in the Yin Xu Bu ci, and is also the western soil of the Shang; the Shu culture with the elements of civilized society is related to the Central Plains culture, and it meets the Erlitou culture in the Jianghan region, the Shang culture in southern Shaanxi, and the Zhou culture in Weishui. In the 1990s, a number of prehistoric city sites were discovered in the Chengdu Plain, establishing the Baodun culture that predates the Sanxingdui culture. Lin Xiang proposed that the Baodun culture was the beginning of the ancient Shu culture, and the ancient city of the Baodun culture, the pottery group of the Sanxingdui culture and the Yazhang, the association between the characters "Yu" and "Shu", and the dragon worship reflected in the relics unearthed from the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit also showed that Shu and Xia had a close relationship.
Yuzhang excavated from the Sacrifice Pit No. 8 of Sanxingdui Site (Courtesy of Sanxingdui Research Institute of Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)
Creation of an academic system for Bashu studies
After using scientific methods to conduct comprehensive and systematic research on the archaeology of Bashu, Lin Xiang had a systematic understanding of Bashu culture, which enabled him to form an academic system with Bashu culture research as the main body while "constructing" the ancient history of Bashu.
The distinctive features of Lin Xiang's academic system are first reflected in his diversified research methods. This is highlighted in the fact that his archaeological research combines the theories, methods and materials of historical philology, paleography, ethnology, geography, religion and other related disciplines, and at the same time widely adopts new theories of foreign archaeology, and extensively compares the materials of bashu region with archaeological materials in other parts of mainland China and Southeast Asia, South America and other places. The combination of multiple disciplines and the adoption of extensive comparative research are evident in each of Lin Xiang's works, which also makes his understanding of the history of Bashu more colorful. The basis of Lin Xiang's academic system is field archaeology, using archaeological data to "construct" a period of past unknown "history" and a historical view different from that recorded in later documents through various channels, so the formation of this academic system highlights the importance of Bashu archaeology.
The characteristics of Lin Xiang's academic system are also reflected in the content. Its research covers the origin, connotation, exchange and other aspects of Bashu culture, and while understanding the ancient history of Bashu from a macroscopic perspective, it also clarifies the richness of ancient Chinese civilization. Lin Xiang proposed that the bashu regional culture has a "reservoir effect", which is a forward-looking idea that gives us more enlightenment: that is, we cannot only regard the bashu regional culture as a part of the static picture of Chinese culture, but should also consider the interaction between the two, especially the role of the bashu regional culture in the formation and development of Chinese culture, so as to reveal the important issue of bashu regional culture as an integral part of Chinese culture from a deeper level. In addition, Lin Xiang also pioneered earthquake archaeology and new fields such as wine culture and dragon culture in the archaeology of Bashu.
Bronze figures excavated from No. 8 sacrifice pit at Sanxingdui site (Courtesy of Sanxingdui Research Institute, Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)
This system is not only a high-rise discussion, but also includes a large number of case studies of specific relics. The study of these relics has two distinctive characteristics: First, it pays attention to establishing connections between different relics. The study of excavated relics, especially those that lack the "background" of the text, should not be interpreted in isolation, but should be placed in the background of the excavation and cultural background to be associated with other co-produced relics, so as to avoid the arbitrariness of the interpretation and draw a reasonable understanding. When Lin Xiang studied specific relics, he paid special attention to examining their excavation background and coexistence relationship. More importantly, although relics such as copper trees, portraits, shield ornaments, golden rods, and jade zhangs are studied in different categories, the conclusions reached by various studies support each other, and the interpretations of different relics can ultimately be tested in the same theoretical framework. This is actually a higher level of linking materials from different sites and different time periods. It is in this way that these studies have truly become a rigorous system. Second, the study of relics does not stop at "things", but from "things" to explore culture, society, nationalities and people's spiritual life. Although there is no shortage of necessary typological studies in Lin Xiang's related works, none of the articles are limited to this. "Seeing people through things" requires attainment and vision.
In this academic system, whether it is macroscopic investigation or case studies, Lin Xiang's broad vision, active thinking and profound knowledge are always displayed. Lin Xiang's treatises not only have macro theories, but also sparks of thought.
After the 21st century, as he grew older, Lin Xiang gradually withdrew from the front line of archaeology, but his love for archaeology remained undiminished. "I have had an idea since I was a child, I admire Sima Qian, he has traveled through the mountains and rivers, and has traveled to many places." Lin Xiangzhi is determined to be in the four directions, to be ambitious in academia, and has dedicated his life to the cause of archaeology. On September 15, 2021, Lin Xiang passed away in Chengdu. His death is a huge loss to the Chinese archaeological community and the Bashu culture research community, but his spirit of governance and academic contributions will always exist in the world, always inspiring future generations to rush to the road of "seeking truth".
Note: This article has the consent of Mr. Shi Jinsong of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and refers to his article "Bashu Archaeology in Multidimensional Vision" in the "Children's Heart Seeking Truth".