Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
Gao Dalun painted by Zhang Wuchang
On March 31, the staff worked at the archaeological excavation site of the Huangshan Mountain Site in Nanyang, Henan Province. Photo by Gao Song/People's Photo
Glazed tiles excavated from the mingzhongdu site in Fengyang, Anhui. Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage
A flat pot excavated from the Qin han cemetery of the Warring States of Zhengjiahu in Hubei Yunmeng. File photo/ Xinhua News Agency
Gold artifacts excavated from the outer pit of the Southern Tomb of the Great Tomb of Jiangcun in Xi'an, Shaanxi. Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage
Mujian excavated from the site of Yulikk Kuduk Beacon in Xinjiang. Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage
2021 is a milestone in the history of the development of Chinese archaeology, not only ushering in the centenary of modern Chinese archaeology, but also known as the "Year of Archaeology", this year there are more than 1700 approved archaeological excavations across the country. On March 31, 2022, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced the "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2021". Previously, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences unveiled six "new discoveries in Chinese archaeology in 2021". These findings fill in the research gaps, further demonstrate the style of Chinese civilization, and enhance our cultural self-confidence.
General Secretary Xi Jinping once put forward ardent expectations for the vast number of archaeologists throughout the country: "Strive to build archaeology with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese style, and enhance the influence and discourse power of Chinese archaeology in the international archaeological community." In this regard, Professor Gao Dalun, executive director of the Chinese Archaeological Society and an expert in Sanxingdui research and public archaeology, proposed in an interview with this reporter that the world's archaeology needs a Chinese plan.
Gao Dalun is the executive director of the Chinese Archaeological Society, the vice president of the Chinese Qin and Han History Research Association, and the former president of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. His main research interests are Xia-Shang-Qin and Han archaeology and museology. He has published more than 100 professional papers and edited more than 20 books. Representative works include "Physical Evidence of Xia History", "Examples of Ancient Civilization Information Seen in Ancient Jade", "Yinwan Han Dynasty Mumu "Ji bo" Hukou Research", "The Length, Width and Height of ancient civilization at sanxingdui site" and so on. He led the archaeological excavations in Vietnam from 2005 to 2006, organized and presided over the investigation, excavation, protection of the Sanxingdui site from 2003 to 2018 and the underwater archaeology of Shenyin at the mouth of the Pengshan River in Sichuan from 2016 to 2018. In recent years, he has mainly devoted himself to the research and practice of Sanxingdui archaeology, public archaeology, museum curation and revitalization and utilization of cultural heritage.
The "archaeological fever" highlights cultural self-confidence
Reporter: Over the years, more and more people have paid attention to the selection of the top ten new archaeological discoveries on the mainland every year. Last year, the excavation of the Sanxingdui site sacrifice area, the Central Radio and Television Station and local media broadcast live for a long time, and for a time there seemed to be an atmosphere of "the city is full of controversy about Sanxingdui, do not understand archaeology and no culture". What do you think of this phenomenon?
Gao Dalun: This is an important manifestation of the growing self-confidence of culture.
General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that "cultural self-confidence is a more basic, broader and deeper self-confidence, a more basic, deeper and more lasting force" "China has firm road confidence, theoretical self-confidence, institutional self-confidence, and its essence is cultural self-confidence based on more than 5,000 years of civilization inheritance." Archaeological work is an important cultural undertaking and a work of great socio-political significance. We must attach great importance to archaeological work, use facts to fight back against the misinterpretation of the history of the Chinese nation, and provide strong support for carrying forward China's excellent traditional culture and enhancing cultural self-confidence.
As far as this year's entries are concerned, first of all, not only are the cultural relics exquisite, but also the number is huge. For example, in the Sanxingdui sacrifice area, only two pits were excavated that year, and the excavated cultural relics have already alarmed the world. We have always believed that there are still pits and tried to find them, but we did not expect to excavate 6 large pits filled with exquisite artifacts. For another example, the richness of the Burial Pit of Yangling in Shaanxi is breathtaking, and the Great Tomb of Jiangcun in Xi'an reproduces the scene of Yangling, even more than that.
Secondly, the participating projects have a high academic content. Sichuan Daocheng Pirao site is the largest archaeological site on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the most complete strata preserved, the richest and most diverse cultural types of Paleolithic sites, which is the world's first archaeological discovery of typical Ashel technical system in high-altitude areas, filling the gap in the paleolithic archaeology of the region and even the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Hubei Yunmeng Zhengjiahu Warring States Qin Han Cemetery reflects from one side that the civilization of the Qin and Han Empires had a high starting point from the beginning. The Zhangshu Warring States Tomb in Jiangxi and the Tuguhun Royal Family Tomb in Wuwei, Gansu show the complexity and diversity of Chinese civilization.
The great archaeological power deserves it
Reporter: As you know, modern archaeology originated in the West at the end of the 18th century. When Western scholars excavated in Egypt, the Two Rivers Valley, Greece, Italy, Turkey and other places and made one after another sensational discoveries in the world, Chinese field archaeology had not yet started. However, after several generations of archaeologists continuing to struggle, China's archaeological work has made great achievements, extending the historical axis, enhancing historical credibility, enriching historical connotation, and activating historical scenes. Today, we have become an archaeological power. Looking back at the past and looking at the world, from the perspective of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in recent years, what characteristics do you think Chinese archaeology has?
Gao Dalun: "In the past 100 years, several generations of archaeologists have made unremitting efforts to make a series of major archaeological discoveries, showing the origin, development context, brilliant achievements and major contributions to world civilization of Chinese civilization." The congratulatory letter sent by General Secretary Xi Jinping on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Yangshao culture and the birth of modern Chinese archaeology has inspired archaeologists across the country.
We regard the discovery of Yangshao culture in Yangshao Village, Shichi, Henan in 1921 as the birth year of modern Chinese archaeology. However, the archaeological excavations independently presided over by Chinese began in 1928 at the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan. At that time, the reason why yin ruins were chosen was to excavate the Yin shang culture represented by oracle bones through scientific archaeological work, and to trace the written history of China from 841 BC onwards. The excavation of Yin Ruins soon reached its goal. In this sense, Chinese archaeology has shouldered the important mission of exploring the origin of Chinese civilization and forming a development path since its birth, and has always adhered to this concept to this day. Even during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, after the archaeologists and archaeologists moved to the rear area, they continued to sort out and investigate and excavate data in Sichuan, Chongqing, Gansu and other places under extremely difficult conditions. With the exception of a few important archaeological discoveries, the vast majority of important archaeological discoveries in China are after the 1950s, when most of the archaeology of several ancient civilizations has gone through the golden age of discovery. It is recognized at home and abroad that China entered the golden age of archaeology in the 1950s, but the continuous large-scale excavations began with the entry into a new era of reform and opening up. If we say that the golden age of Chinese archaeology was said to have been before, then since the reform and opening up, it can be said that it is the platinum age of Chinese archaeology.
Judging from the more than 300 new archaeological discoveries evaluated in the past 30 years, we will find that: First, important archaeological discoveries involve a vast area, from Heilongjiang Province in the east to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Tibet Autonomous Region in the west (archaeological projects in the two autonomous regions have been selected as the top ten new discoveries this year), from the yin mountains in the north to the coast of the South China Sea in the south. The geographical distribution of these projects, the diversity of the terrain, and the complexity of the climatic environment are not available in other major civilizations; Second, the archaeological age ranges from the Paleolithic Age of hundreds of thousands of years, down to the Qing Dynasty, and some extend to the Republic of China period, with a long time span; Third, there are many kinds of archaeological discoveries, including agricultural origins, animal domestication, pottery, jade, bronze, iron workshops, as well as cities, palaces and many other civilization origins of empirical evidence. In the early days of civilization, there are many examples of cultural interactions that converge to the center of civilization and spread around civilization; Not only can we see many representative sites of the Han and Tang Dynasties that are moving towards the peak of great unification, but also we can see the violent stirring or slow integration of the cultures of different ethnic groups in various periods in the vast land of China. In the past decade or so, many discoveries since the Song and Yuan dynasties (such as porcelain kilns, shipwrecks, wineries, and official palaces) have also been rated as top ten archaeological discoveries, which have aroused attention to the remains of late culture and enriched the understanding of cultural diversity.
In the land of China, from the early Neolithic era to the Ming and Qing dynasties for nearly 10,000 years, archaeologists used hand shovels as tools to reveal the magnificent picture of the development of our ancestors' culture one by one. In the early stages of civilization without writing, archaeologists let the relics speak, trying to find more information from the excavations. Enter the historical stage with written records, and make history more vivid and vivid through archaeological excavations. Some experts say that so many discoveries, in a certain sense, can write a "Chinese general history" with both grand narratives and subtle observations based on archaeological data alone. Looking around the world, I am afraid that no country can do it. I believe that we are a well-deserved archaeological power.
Construct archaeology with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese style
Reporter: General Secretary Xi Jinping once put forward ardent expectations for the vast number of archaeologists across the country: "Strive to build archaeology with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese style, and enhance the influence and discourse power of Chinese archaeology in the international archaeological community." What do you think about that?
Gao Dalun: This is a very significant task, and many experts and scholars have already published their insights.
My understanding is that Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese style are interrelated and cannot be separated. Chinese archaeology has a hundred years of history, education, scientific research, management of its own system, a large team, field excavation points throughout the vast land, the era of the site throughout the tens of thousands of years, excavated hundreds of millions of cultural relics specimens, research results sweat cattle, its achievements have long been the world's attention, should be summed up its successful experience.
Let's start with the Chinese characteristics of archaeology.
The state-led archaeological work and long-term planning are a major feature of ours. Since the mid-1950s, the archaeological planning of cultural relics that reflects the top-level design of the state and is compiled every five years has been carried out for nearly 70 consecutive years.
Since the early 1950s, national archaeology has been dominated by the archaeology of capital construction projects, which is another major feature of ours. After the founding of New China, for a long time, construction was the main and key work of the state. Therefore, the cultural relics work policy established by the cultural relics management department is mainly based on rescue excavations in cooperation with capital construction in archaeology. To this end, the university was immediately allowed to hold archaeological training courses, and the provinces soon set up cultural relics task forces (the predecessors of archaeological institutes), which opened the prelude to large-scale infrastructure archaeology from Hunan and Sichuan. Archaeology of infrastructure projects continues to this day. In the early days, it was the infrastructure construction of roads, railways, large factories, and farmland, and later large-scale water conservancy projects, urban transformation, highways, and high-speed railways. Infrastructure excavations account for more than 95% of the total area of archaeological excavations. Since the construction was carried out in an all-round way throughout the country, archaeological institutions have been established in the mainland from the central government to the provinces, prefectures and counties since the early 1950s. Another feature is that archaeological excavations have never aimed at "digging treasures", and have been determined for decades to set a big goal - the origin of Chinese civilization and the exploration of the formation and development process and characteristics. From the early excavations of the Yin Ruins, to the later "Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project", the "Chinese Civilization Exploration Project", and even the ongoing "Archaeological China" are all around this theme.
The second talk about the Chinese style of archaeology.
The archaeological team that grew up under the background of the general principle of serving national construction had a strong Chinese style from the beginning. This style can be summed up in three words: high, fast, and all three. High, that is, the level of field archaeology is high. Due to decades of continuous infrastructure archaeological excavations, a number of teams with high level of archaeological survey and excavation have been trained, which can be competent for the investigation and excavation of various complex terrains and rich cultural accumulation sites; Fast, that is, the excavation work progress is fast. As far as I know, the archaeological excavation projects in the country's large-scale capital construction can be completed on schedule with quality and quantity; Quan, because it is infrastructure archaeology-based, many archaeological institutions are encountered what to dig, some archaeologists just finished excavating a Neolithic site yesterday, and today they were sent to excavate Tang and Song tombs or even Qing tombs, and the role change is very fast. In addition, some archaeologists also participate in the preparation of cultural relics protection plans, and put forward cultural relics display and utilization plans, which can be called all-round players.
Let's talk about the Chinese style of archaeology. With the blessing of the system, our archaeology can achieve a national chess game. Major discoveries from excavation, collation to display unified coordination, collation results published early, the museum is about to be completed. The documents unearthed by Mawangdui and the collation of Yunmeng Qin Jian, the construction of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum of Qin Shi Huang and the Museum of the Ruins of the Marquis of Haidian did not exceed 5 years.
China's grandeur is embodied in the great archaeological alliance and cooperation in large-scale infrastructure projects. For example, the archaeological project in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area and the archaeological project of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the exploration and excavation area of these archaeological projects is millions of square meters, involving several provinces, and dozens of archaeological institutions across the country are mobilized to concentrate on the battle, which can be completed efficiently within a limited time, reflecting the high professional level of the archaeological team and the strong management and coordination ability of the leading units. Another example is to formulate guiding topics that are of a national summary nature and can promote the improvement of global business and strive to implement them. The "Xia-Shang-Zhou Dynasty Project", "Civilization Exploration Project" and "Archaeological China", which were jointly tackled by experts from relevant institutions across the country formulated by the state, have achieved fruitful results. Another example is the special design of archaeological projects for heritage projects. The archaeological projects organized for the application for heritage of Goguryeo, the Grand Canal, the Silk Road, Liangzhu and other sites have achieved remarkable results and have impressed Chinese archaeology at home and abroad. For example, since the late 1970s, Chinese archaeological excavations have continued to cross the ocean and go to the world. A series of large-scale exhibitions and special exhibitions with archaeological excavated cultural relics as the main body, such as the Terracotta Warriors exhibition, the Sanxingdui exhibition, the bronze civilization exhibition, the porcelain exhibition, the Great Wall exhibition, the Chinese archaeological golden age exhibition, and the Han and Tang civilization exhibition, everywhere, the audience is like a tide. In China, archaeological excavations have supported most museum exhibition halls.
Chinese style is also manifested in the fact that after entering the 21st century, Chinese archaeology has rapidly moved to the world. At present, Chinese archaeologists have carried out a large number of joint archaeological projects in more than 20 countries and regions in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America.
World archaeology needs a Chinese solution
Reporter: Civilizations need to learn from each other, and civilization research also needs mutual learning. From this point of view, how do you think archaeological work and historical research can be further strengthened?
Gao Dalun: World archaeology needs a Chinese solution. This Chinese solution is an archaeology of Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese style.
First of all, we need to make a comprehensive, systematic and in-depth summary of Chinese archaeology in the past hundred years. In the past hundred years of archaeology, we have experienced from scratch, from small to large, from large to strong, from borrowing and learning to self-contained system, there are many places that need to be summarized. The summary is to move forward better. The next thing to do is to form China's own archaeological theoretical methods and technical system as soon as possible. For a long time in the past, we directly copied the Western archaeological theories and technical systems to apply. However, Chinese archaeology, which has grown up, may face mainly the remnants of the formation mode and development path of the origin of other ancient civilizations, and excavation, observation, protection, collation, research, and utilization may require new theoretical guidance and new technical means. In the direction of research, it is necessary to more boldly combine archaeological discoveries and rich historical documents; In terms of specific conclusions, it is necessary to absorb the results of multidisciplinary methods and seek more carefully and cautiously.
In fact, in the above aspects, Chinese scholars have long been working hard to explore. For example, archaeological cultural naming: chronological frameworks, fauna types, and the construction of "heavy-petaled flowers" patterns; Cognition from culture to the times; From settlements - chiefdoms - fang states - kingdoms to empires; Extensive and in-depth thinking and discussion have been conducted on the advance of the time of civilization, the new factors of the origin of civilization, the comprehensive characteristics of civilization, and the cultural exchanges between the East and the West. All of the above studies have attracted international attention. It is fervently hoped that a more forward-looking and universally instructive theoretical approach would be born in China at an early date.
International cooperation should be carried out with a more open mind and more active actions. Chinese archaeologists should go out more, and they should also invite more outstanding international archaeologists to come in. Going out, mainly to the archaeology of neighboring countries, to the birthplace of several major civilizations. Archaeology is an empirical science, and the information obtained by personally participating in field archaeology and the feelings obtained are very different from those obtained without participating. Excavating ancient sites abroad can also inspire and promote our archaeological work. The same is true for the purpose of inviting in. Civilizations need to learn from each other, and civilization research also needs mutual learning. Going out will expand the horizons of archaeologists; Please come in and let your foreign counterparts know more about our work.
A century-long plan, education-oriented. Archaeologists in the new era should have a more solid theoretical foundation, deeper professional knowledge, and more importantly, an international perspective, and can see the world from China and China from the world.
Looking back on the century-long course of archaeology, especially since the reform and opening up, the vast number of archaeologists have withstood the test, strictly followed professional ethics, worked hard for the cause, and jointly created the glory of China's archaeological cause. In particular, the inheritance of the cause requires strengthening the education of young people in archaeological ethics and morality. The fine traditions accumulated by generations of scholars have been continuously carried forward, and the archaeology with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese style that will be built in the future must be Chinese archaeology with a clean and upright style.
Reporter Wei Shu
People's Daily Overseas Edition ( 2022-04-12 Edition 07)