On April 4, 2000 AD, after 9 days of arduous trekking and a journey of more than 1,600 kilometers, the Loulan Historical and Cultural Expedition Team successfully completed the activity of "Crossing Lop Nur - Comprehensive Investigation of Loulan History and Culture" on the occasion of the discovery of Loulan in its centenary.
A few days later, a Xinhua News Agency's Urumqi telegram "Pompeii He Nengbi Loulan" appeared in many media at home and abroad, setting off a new wave of "Loulan fever."
"Lou Lan's status is unparalleled in the world! It was never buried. Promote and praise Loulan, without the help of the fame of Pompeii, Italy!" Hou Can, a well-known archaeologist in Loulan and a professor of the History Department of Xinjiang Normal University, said in an affirmative and confident tone.
After 20 years, I revisited my hometown
Tourism, as an emerging "sunrise industry", is creating great wealth for the world.
At the turn of the century, Xinjiang Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture also regards tourism as a new economic growth point, and loses no time in holding the "100th Anniversary of the Discovery of Loulan Ancient City -- "Approaching Lop Nur - Loulan Historical and Cultural Tourism Series Activities", one of which is to invite famous experts and scholars at home and abroad to follow the footsteps of the famous explorers in Central Asia a century ago, such as Stein, Bo Xihe, Sven Hedin and others, to enter the ancient city of Loulan again for in-depth scientific visits and research.
In March, an invitation flew from the Peacock River in southern Xinjiang to the home of Hou Can, a professor in the history department of Xinjiang Normal University.
Opening the invitation card, Hou Can's eyes were a little damp. "Lou Lan", which has attracted countless Chinese and foreign explorers to seek their dreams in the past and the present, this dream city that has been lost for thousands of years and stands alone with the Hanhai Desert, every time he sees its name and hears its voice, Professor Hou Can can hardly suppress the excitement in his heart. Having gone through two hardships 20 years ago to investigate the ruins of Loulan Ancient City, how can he not feel full of emotions and thoughts when he recalls the past?
It was the fall of 1979, when Japan's NHK Television Broadcasting Corporation commissioned CCTV to co-produce a series of feature films titled "Silk Road", which gave Chinese archaeologists an opportunity to personally unveil the mystery of Loulan.
In Xinjiang, where "cotton jackets are worn early and yarn at noon", the climate in November is still dry and harsh, but for archaeologists, this season is the "golden season" of desert fieldwork, and it is at this time that Hou Can was officially appointed by his superior leaders as the leader of the archaeological expedition.
On November 26, 1979, near Loulan, after the archaeological team first discovered the sun-shaped tomb group of ancient tomb pits, it immediately divided into two groups, one team was carried out on the spot by Wang Binghua, a famous archaeologist in Xinjiang, for small-scale cultural relics excavations; the other team was still led by team leader Hou Can, deep into the hinterland of Lop Nur and continued to look for driving routes to photograph the ancient city of Loulan.
Professor Hou Can still clearly remembers that the names of the "comrades-in-arms" who were in the same team as him on that occasion included Huang Shengzhang and Wang Shouchun, researchers at the Institute of Geography of the Beijing Academy of Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Peng Jiamu (deceased) and Xia Zhoucheng of the Xinjiang Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Chen Heyi, a reporter for the People's Pictorial Newspaper; and Tu Guobi, head of the CCTV film crew. Under the leadership of Chen Shuyuan of the Political Department of Malan Base and others, they took 5 green jeeps and began a long road to explore the ancient city of Loulan...
Unveil the mystery of Lou Lan with your own hands
People who have not been to the desert Gobi are difficult to appreciate the desolation and steepness of the Hanhai Desert. The annual precipitation in the Taklamakan Desert is only 10-60 cm, and the desert area of mobile sand dunes accounts for 85% of the total area. What most made Hou Can and the expedition team members feel uneasy was the Yadan landform between the wind-eroded mounds and the wind-eroded depressions, which were extremely easy to lose their way when crossing. Although everyone knows that the location of the Loulan ruins is not too far from the station, 10 days have passed, and everyone has worked hard and searched for it, but they still have nothing to find.
Captain Hou Can was anxious, the archaeologists were anxious, the reporters of various media were even more smokey, and some people even shouted in the endless desert: "We have traveled thousands of miles and gone through hardships, what are we doing here?" Lou Lan, Lou Lan! Where are you?!"
On December 4, 1979, in desperation, Hou Can and the team members negotiated together to store the bulky vehicles and supplies at the station, and the team members carried compressed biscuits, cans and water on their backs and set out on foot. In the ravine, the cold northeast wind is cold and bone-chilling, and what is even more terrifying is to cross the Yadan wind erosion mound that is one or two meters high, and the most annoying thing for the team members is the small quicksand in the ditch, which is extremely difficult to walk.
In this way, the team slowly walked slowly for nearly 8 hours with difficulty, and suddenly someone shouted: "Look! Isn't that Lou Lan's beacon?" Looking east along the beacon tower, a tall stupa suddenly appeared in front of everyone's eyes, and people cheered and forgot their tiredness and troubles. "Lou Lan, we are looking for you so bitterly!" But no matter what, we have unveiled your mystery with our own hands!"
In an instant, the corners of Hou Can's eyes became moist, and he pounced on Lou Lan's arms like a child...
From the end of March to the beginning of April 1980, Hou Can once again led a team to Enter Loulan for archaeological investigation and excavation, and the trip was fruitful: he corrected the inaccurate measurements of the latitude and longitude of Loulan by the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin, which had been inherited for more than 3 years, and for the first time accurately marked the location of Loulan on a map of one-fifth of a thousandth; discovered the ruins of the ancient waterway in Loulan City; excavated 65 highly archaeological wooden paper documents in the city, filling a gap in the mainland; and in the number "LC" A large number of silk, wool and cotton products from the Two Han Dynasties were cleared from the site site, and a reburial tomb of about 7 people from the Eastern Han Dynasty that was not excavated by Stein was also found, providing valuable historical materials for the study of burial customs at that time...
Be a messenger of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges
At the end of November 1988, in order to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-Japanese Diplomatic Relations and Peace and Friendship Agreement, the Japanese academic community came to invite Professor Hou Can to Japan to participate in the "Special Lecture on Loulan, an Ancient Country of Psychedelic Legends". When he learned of this news, Professor Hou Can was a little hesitant. First, the teaching work was busy, and for many years he had been diligent and rigorous and meticulous in teaching; second, at that time, the procedures for going abroad were complicated and the time was too tight, and Hou Can wanted to give up. However, he also thought that he had been loving the archaeological cause of Loulan for many years, and didn't he just want to let the splendid culture of Guloulan flow and carry forward?
When Timur Dawamat, then vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and then chairman of the People's Government of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, learned of this news, he personally approved his approval to support the matter and gave Hou Can the greatest help. On December 2, 1988, Hou Can, as an archaeologist in Loulan, made a wonderful report entitled "The Rise and Ruin of loulan Ancient City and Its Environmental Changes" for 1,200 representatives from Kyushu University, the University of Tokyo, the Institute of Oriental Culture, japanese academia and the press in the special capacity of "Chief Scholar of China". After the lecture, the crowd was boiling and the applause was thunderous. Autographs, interviews, photographs, people rushed to gather this ordinary professor from Xinjiang, China. Officials of the Chinese Embassy in Japan also called the country in a timely manner to report this exciting news.
"Chinese is glorious! We are proud to have a splendid culture like Lou Lan!" After listening to the report, many old overseas Chinese who had been away for many years took Professor Hou Can's hand and did not want to let go for a long time...
Since then, Professor Hou Can has been invited to Fly to Japan twice to give lectures and cultural exchanges, and Hou Can told reporters with satisfaction: "As a messenger of Sino-Japanese friendship and cultural exchanges, I feel that this is the greatest glory of my life!"
Twenty years of hard work have become a masterpiece
Over the years, in Professor Hou Can's heart, there has always been a strong "Lou lan complex". In the early 1960s, when Hou Can was still studying archaeology in the History Department of Sichuan University, he often liked to go to the library to read the works written by foreign explorers during their expeditions to the hinterland of Central Asia, such as "Travels in the Hinterland of Asia" and "Central Asia and Tibet" by Sven Hedin of Sweden, "Western Regions", "Ancient Khotanese", "On the Ancient Road in Central Asia" and "Archaeology of the Western Regions of Stein" by the British explorer Stein. But later, he often covered up his books after reading and pondered, why did foreign "explorers" travel far and wide to plunder a large number of precious cultural relics in China, and then write books and say that they caused a sensation in Europe and the United States? Why did the splendid culture of the ancient Western Regions allow those so-called "archaeologists" of foreign countries to trample and destroy it? Why can't Chinese rely on their own efforts to write a more scientific and detailed work?
After graduating from university, Hou Can passionately signed up for Xinjiang, determined to become an archaeologist in Xinjiang, China. However, like many aspiring young people at that time, fate also played a small joke with him, and he was assigned by the superior organization to work in the propaganda department of the Aksu Regional Political Department of the First Agricultural Division, and worked for 12 years.
During this period, others joined the party, raised cadres, and had a smooth sailing in the official arena, which according to common sense can be said to be proud of the spring breeze. But far from his beloved archaeology profession, he often had trouble sleeping...
Later, he took the initiative to write a letter to contact the relevant leaders and departments, and finally got approval, and was transferred to the Archaeological Team of the Xinjiang Museum as he wished.
Soon after returning from loulan archaeology, he had the idea of writing a comprehensive and systematic monograph "Integration of Simple Paper Documents in Loulan Hanwen". Because since he led the team to excavate a large number of Chinese simple paper documents, he knows their important value. It is not only the most direct and first-hand information for the study of ancient Chinese history, the history of Chinese and Western transportation, and the cultural history of the Silk Road, but also the most authentic, concrete and precious written record material for the study of the history of the Western Regions, the history of Loulan Shanshan, and the history of the Liang Dynasty before the Wei and Jin dynasties.
The Chinese simple paper documents unearthed in Loulan have lasted for a century, and the excavation and text interpretation work have been handled by archaeologists from 6 countries, the data is extremely scattered and difficult to find in China, and Hou Can's collection and collation is gradually increasingly difficult. However, he has been unswerving for many years, obtaining a large number of materials on Chinese simple paper documents unearthed in Loulan at home and abroad, and in accordance with the requirements of archaeology, combined with the characteristics of philology, systematic collection and collation, text interpretation, and historical interpretation research, after 20 years of unremitting efforts, finally completed the book manuscript.
In March 1999, China's first century archaeological literature compilation of Loulan's century-old academic wisdom- "Loulan Hanwen Simple Paper Documents Integration" (volumes 1-3) was finally published...
I hurt, but I'm still happy
One year, Hou Can's close friend, Professor Jiang Xiucheng of the Shaanxi Institute of Finance and Economics, who was revered by the archaeological community as one of the "Five Elders of Loulan", wrote a poem to Hou Can entitled "Searching for Loulan": "Searching for Loulan City, there is no way; if the Dragon City is lost, the wind will break the way." Osawa has no waves, the green trees become dead wood, the stupas resemble mounds, and the houses are beamed and pillared. I don't see the golden car messenger, the four wilds see the white bones; the history of the thousand years of vicissitudes, who can count in detail?"
Professor Hou Can repeatedly read this poem and savored the taste of it, and at this moment, it was most appropriate to describe Hou Can's mood with the title of the book "Pain and Happiness" written by CCTV host Bai Yansong. Hou Can knows very well that over the years he has lost too much joy with his family to write books, he always thinks that he is not a good husband, let alone a good father, he owes too much to his wife and two sons...
In order to study and learn, his family is still optimistic, and in order to print the painstaking works of more than 20 years of hard work into a book, he has traveled to every publishing house in the autonomous region, but for various reasons there has been no result. Fortunately, thanks to the wisdom of Mr. Lin Wanqing and Mr. Fan Yong of Sichuan Tiandi Publishing House, they raised 610,000 yuan and finally launched the book in November 1999. After the book was published, it was well received in the academic circles and publishing circles in the mainland.
Hou Can often said: "Loulan is a world-famous cultural relic, which should be developed and preserved!"
As a scholar and professor, Hou Can hopes that our descendants will "not only see Lou Lan from books and picture books, but also preserve Lou Lan from the ground and survive!"
Professor Hou Can also has a deep feeling of gratitude in his heart, one is that Loulan Studies is still a hot spot for scholars from all over the world to study in the new century; second, in bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, known as the "first state in China, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region," it has intensified the protection of Loulan cultural relics and monuments, and has also specially established the "Xinjiang Bazhou Loulan Society." Loulan as a tourist highlight, and will make the ancient city of Loulan welcome Chinese and foreign tourists with a new look in the upsurge of the development of the western region.
As an "engineer of the human soul", Hou Can rejoiced that he could train two "proud protégés" who were studying for a doctorate at Peking University, because archaeology could flourish in them.
Talking about his future plans, Professor Hou Can smiled lightly: "In my life, as long as I can leave a little more valuable things for future generations and contribute to their future research and development, it is enough!"
"Today, when I study the significance of Loulan, I am not only excited by a great archaeological discovery a hundred years ago, but also proud of the cultural history that Loulan wrote on the Silk Road. I study the history of the rise and fall of Loulan only to warn today's people that we must protect our living space today and not let today's city that embodies modern civilization become a new Loulan!"