At 0:00 on April 15, the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museums of Peking University released an obituary: Mr. Yan Wenming, a member of the Communist Party of China, a famous archaeologist, and a senior professor of philosophy and social sciences at Peking University, died at 20:13 on April 14, 2024 in Beijing at the age of 92.
Strict civilization
（1932-2024）
Mr. Yan Wenming was born in Huarong, Hunan Province in October 1932, graduated from the Department of History of Peking University in September 1958, majored in archaeology and stayed on to teach, was promoted to professor in December 1986, was hired as a doctoral supervisor by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council in 1990, and was hired as a senior professor of philosophy and social sciences at Peking University in 2005. He used to be the head of the Department of Archaeology of Peking University, a member of the Academic Committee of Peking University, a member of the expert group of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the vice chairman of the Archaeological Society of China, a standing committee member of the International Union of Prehistory and Protohistoriography, and a corresponding member of the German Institute of Archaeology.
Mr. Yan Wenming is the main designer and leader of the archaeology discipline and talent training system of Peking University, the founder of the Neolithic archaeology discipline system in China, the leader of the development of archaeology in China, the thinker of Chinese archaeology and cultural heritage protection, and an outstanding archaeological educator.
In 1932, a family in Yanjiawan, Zhongnan Township, Huarong County, Hunan Province welcomed the eldest grandson of the family. With infinite hope, this child was named the "civilization" of "Shundian" "Junzhe Civilization".
The archaeological "farmer" who walked out of Peking University
Why does a Peking University professor call himself a "farmer"?
On the title page of Yan Wenming's 2021 anthology "Cultivation - The Years of Flowing Water", he wrote: "I am a farmer who has worked hard all my life. ”
Mr. Yan Wenming in the study
And it is such an archaeological "farmer" who came out of Peking University to create a grand and magnificent academic world with his life's work in the "farming" that is humbly understated day after day.
Yan Wenming was born in the mountain village of Huarong, Hunan. Along the way, he never gave up, and decided to go to university despite extremely difficult circumstances.
When I filled in the application, the first was Peking University, the second was Peking University, and the third was Peking University!
Yan Wenming yearns for Peking University, and being admitted to Peking University is also one of the important turning points in his life.
At that time, from Yueyang to Beijing, you had to take a train to Wuchang first, then transfer to a ferry to Hankou, and take a train from Hankou to Beijing again. And the road that Yan Wenming has traveled is not only that. When I was a child, the Japanese artillery fire made it difficult to calm my life, and when I was a teenager, I experienced the illness and death of my loved ones.
The relationship between Yan civilization and archaeology seems to be an accident. He wanted to take the physics exam, but he was admitted to the history department of his third choice. At that time, no one expected that this chance encounter would also collide with a lasting and enthusiastic spark.
Yan Wenming was very interested in science and quite talented, and at the suggestion of Mr. Su Bingqi, the director of the archaeology teaching and research department at that time, combined with his own interests and specialties, he chose archaeology, which requires science knowledge and technology, as his major.
At that time, the head of the Department of History was the famous historian Mr. Jian Bozan, and Yan Wenming taught and guided the way by famous history and archaeologists such as Zhang Zhenghong, Deng Guangming, Qi Sihe, Su Bingqi, Su Bai, etc., in addition, the Department of History also invited foreign experts from the Soviet Union, Germany, New Zealand, and Egypt to exchange and teach. In addition to learning professional knowledge of history and archaeology, Yan Wenming also dabbled in related courses offered by teachers from other majors such as Wang Jiayin from the Department of Geology and Geography and Yan Jianbi from the Department of Chinese. The broad academic platform and the advantages of multidisciplinary convergence of Peking University have laid a solid foundation for Yan Wenming's start on the road of archaeology.
Mr. Yan Wenming is on the front line of field archaeology
In 1956 and 1957, Yan Wenming first followed Mr. Pei Wenzhong to Chifeng and Linxi in Inner Mongolia for internships, and then with the whole class under the leadership of the teacher, he interned in Handan, Hebei Province, and gained a lot. During these two field experiences, his love and steadfastness for archaeology took root in his heart, and the rigorous field archaeology training also provided him with knowledge and methods to engage in archaeological research in the future.
After graduating in 1958, Yan Wenming stayed on to teach, undertaking the teaching and scientific research tasks of Neolithic archaeology. Under the guidance and encouragement of gentlemen such as Jian Bozan and Su Bingqi, Yan Wenming started from the study of Yangshao culture, broadened his academic path little by little, and extended to the study of the genealogy of the entire Chinese culture.
Searching for the source of Chinese civilization
Yan Wenming chose Neolithic archaeology as the main direction of his teaching and scientific research, on the one hand, because of the practical work needs of the department at that time, and on the other hand, because he believed that the Neolithic period "best reflects the characteristics of archaeology", has relatively rich cultural relics, and has no other subject knowledge to rely on, and needs to develop a set of theoretical methods of archaeology itself.
However, his vision is not limited to the Neolithic, starting from the study of Yangshao culture, his focus covers the Paleolithic before the Neolithic and the Xia, Shang and Zhou periods after the Neolithic, and each research closely focuses on the origin of Chinese civilization, and carries out continuous and in-depth exploration. He has successfully explored an effective method for the study of settlement morphology in Chinese prehistoric archaeology, and established a new model from the study of material culture history to the study of social archaeology.
Although our country has a vast number of classic documents, there are still huge gaps waiting for archaeology to fill in the era when there are no documents and there are few documents preserved.
I have planted 30 acres of land at home, and I have actually operated from the germination of rice to seedling raising, transplanting, weeding, water and final harvest. At that time, we had early, medium, and late rice, as well as 60-day rice that could be harvested in 60 days during a disaster, and I could tell the difference between these rice when I held it in my hand.
Yan Wenming is very familiar with farm work. This closeness to the land extends to academics, and Yan Wenming's thinking still bears the traces of "farmer" and "farming". He focuses on agriculture, starting from the origin of agriculture, and explores the formation and development of Chinese culture.
Mr. Yan Wenming at the archaeological site
The emergence of civilization is closely related to the development of agriculture. Previously, there were various theories about the origin center of rice agriculture, but Yan Wenming proposed from the perspective of archaeology that the Yangtze River basin is the center of the origin of rice agriculture. The remains of prehistoric cultivated rice found in the Yangtze River basin prove the Yangtze River origin of rice agriculture, and the rice civilizations in other parts of China, Northeast Asia, India, and Southeast Asia were all influenced by the Yangtze River basin.
Archaeology for the world and the future
The origin and development of millet agriculture is in the Yellow River Basin, and the two major river basins of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River have a huge impact on the surrounding areas, forming a whole with a center, a main body and a periphery, which is the "double-petaled flower" pattern proposed by Yan Wenming: the Central Plains is like the heart of a flower, and it is the center of China's prehistoric culture. The Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin around the center are the main body, and the cultural areas of Shandong, Yanliao, Ganqing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan-Hubei, and Bashu are like petals in the inner circle. In addition to the inner circle, there are also petals in the outer circle, such as Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong, Guangdong, Yunnan, Kang-Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Northeast China and other cultural areas. The flowers composed of these three structures, each part of which is closely connected and cannot be separated, has a high degree of cultural centripetal force and cohesion.
The metaphor of "double-petaled flowers" is both accurate and poetic, which is also in line with Yan Wenming's academic proposition and academic style. He once said, "Archaeology is both a science and an art." "Between the rigor and truth-seeking of science and the graceful and subtlety of art, he has reached a wonderful and harmonious realm.
The "double-petaled flower" structure was proposed at an international conference. In 1986, Yan Wenming presented a paper entitled "The Unity and Diversity of Chinese Prehistoric Culture" at the International Symposium on "General Principles of Ancient Chinese History and Social Sciences" held in Virginia, USA.
This is a small microcosm of Yan Wenming's expression and communication on the international academic stage. In the eighties and nineties, he published important academic reports at important international conferences sponsored by the United States, Japan, South Korea and other places almost every year, which attracted the attention of domestic and foreign academic circles to the origin of rice cultivation in the Yangtze River Basin. He has also participated in or led collaborations with archaeologists and institutions in the United States, Japan and other countries, and some of the transnational collaborations have been fruitful.
Group photo of the Sino-US joint archaeological team in the bucket ring of the fairy cave (the third from the right in the first row is Yan Wenming)
Received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Forum on Archaeology
He advocated a multidisciplinary research method combining archaeology and natural sciences, and spared no effort to promote the internationalization of Chinese archaeology, and was an important leader in the development of archaeology in China.
On December 15, 2023, at the "Fifth World Archaeological Forum" held in Shanghai, Yan Wenming was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award is the highest honour bestowed by the World Forum on Archaeology and recognizes scholars who are globally acclaimed, accomplished and have had a broad and far-reaching impact on the field of archaeology. Previous sessions have been conferred on Lord Colin Renfrejou, Professor Brian Fagan, and Academician Jane White. Yan Wenming is the first Chinese archaeologist to receive the award.
Yan Wenming's handwritten acceptance speech: "Thank you for giving me a high honor, I am just diligent in farming, not caring about the harvest." ”
"This is not only a recognition of Mr. Yan Wenming's outstanding contribution to the development of archaeology, but also an affirmation of his tireless efforts to promote the importance of archaeology to the public for the common future of contemporary society and mankind," he said. ”
Deeply mournful!
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