How fortunate we are that we inherit the thousand-year-old civilization and seek our roots in the wisdom of our ancestors; how fortunate we are that the land of China flows with a magnificent cultural vein that nourishes our temperament; and how fortunate we are that today we will have the opportunity to create a new history, leave a new cultural imprint, and high-five the people of a thousand years later. The answer to what we can leave for the future is being written.
As night fell, Dong Yuhui, who had just finished visiting the new Yinxu Museum, and Tang Jigen, an archaeologist, the former captain of the Yinxu archaeological team and a chair professor of Southern University of Science and Technology, boated together on the Huan River, which had nurtured the ancestors of Yin Shang.
On April 27, Dong Yuhui and Tang Jigen visited the new Yinxu Museum (Photo courtesy of Henan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism)
Huanshui soup soup, flowing for thousands of years, the echo of history seems to still be in the ears.
Looking at the new Yinxu Museum on the bank of the river, the crowd has dispersed, under the golden and bronze light and shadow, it is like a Yin Shang Ding, quiet and solemn.
The new Yinxu Museum at night (photo courtesy of Anyang Rong Media)
"From an atomic point of view, man is immortal. Immersed in the long river of history, Dong Yuhui couldn't help but sigh: "If life is only 75 years, a total of 2.4 billion seconds, after which you and I will become atoms and return to this planet, or become a grass to be chewed by cattle and sheep, or become an insect and be pecked by birds." ”
This is a scene we saw in Anyang, Henan Province on April 27.
Look to the East
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Anyang, where Chinese civilization once broke out in a highlight moment.
Turn the clock back more than 3,000 years – Pan Geng, the nineteenth king of the Shang Dynasty, made a decision: to move.
The eastern foot of Taihang Mountain and the banks of the Huan River, the place called "Yin", became the new capital selected by Pangeng. In the more than 270 years since the capital was established in Yin, the Shang Dynasty gave birth to a prosperous urban civilization, a perfect system of etiquette and music, superb bronze craftsmanship, and the world-renowned oracle bone inscription.
In the vicissitudes of life, the once prosperous new capital has been reduced to ruins, and the once glorious dynasty has left its back.
Yinxu Scenic Area (Photo courtesy of Anyang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Sports and Tourism)
In the face of Yinxu, we, like Dong Yuhui, want to stop, think quietly, and feel deeply.
Looking at the oracle bone inscription in Yinxu, Dong Yuhui sighed: "The inheritance and recording of culture have always been inseparable from words, about 1300 to 1400 BC, the oracle bone inscription is already a mature text" "Words are time machines, so that we can talk to our ancestors."
Heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, water and fire, sun and moon, birth, old age, sickness and death...... On the animal bone tortoise shell unearthed in Anyang, between the horizontal and vertical skimming, the ancestors of Yin Shang carved the cognition of the world. The discovery of the oracle bone inscription connects the dialogue between ancient and modern, which is the source of Chinese characters and the root of China's excellent traditional culture, and pushes the history of Chinese letters upwards by about 1,000 years. The code of Chinese civilization is still passed down from generation to generation through Chinese characters and has never been broken.
Visitors view the engraved words on display in the new museum of Yinxu Museum in Anyang, Henan Province, February 26, 2024 (Ang Lee/photo)
Listening to Tang Jigen's explanation of the bronzes buried with the tomb of the woman, Dong Yuhui sighed: "It turns out that this 'female god of war' also has an 'Anyang circle of friends'. "Many of the funeral items were given by the Friends of the Lady of War.
In the museum, a large number of bronzes and jades unearthed in Yinxu are novel in shape and exquisite in craftsmanship, which can be called national treasures, representing the level of the heyday of the Chinese Bronze Age, and also allowing us to see the innovation and enterprising and eclectic of the ancient Chinese.
On February 23, 2024, the "Simuxin" copper tripod (top left), "Yachang" bronze (upper right), "Yachang" Niu Zun (lower left), and "Yachang" bronze Yue (Li An/photo) on display in the new hall of Yinxu Museum in Anyang, Henan Province
After touching the late Shang in Yinxu, Dong Yuhui came to Zhengzhou Shangdu National Archaeological Site Park on the 28th to experience the early Shang, and he sighed: "The more you know the land under your feet, the more you understand the glory of the nation." Archaeology can bring cultural self-confidence. When I was a child, I always longed for a distant place, feeling that I had no name and no surname, and when I grew up, the more I learned about the past, the more I understood where I came from. ”
Where do we come from?
Tang Jigen told us: "Shang civilization is like a key fulcrum on the number axis in the continuation of Chinese culture. Our writing, calendar, capital construction, social system, emphasis on kinship, and ancestor worship all developed from here. ”
When you know where you come from, you know how to pass it on.
On October 13, 1928, archaeologist Dong Zuobin waved the first shovel in Xiaotun Village, Anyang, to open the curtain of scientific archaeology in Yinxu; in 1976, Zheng Zhenxiang, the first generation of female archaeologists in New China, presided over the excavation of the tomb of the woman; in 1999, Zheng Zhenxiang's student Tang Jigen led a team to discover the Huanbei Mall......
The excavation and research of Chinese archaeologists for 100 years have made the million-year-old human history, 10,000-year-old cultural history, and 5,000-year-old civilization history of the Chinese nation no longer out of reach, but have become vivid and palpable.
Children participating in research activities in the new Yinxu Museum listen to the explanation (Photo courtesy of Yinxu Museum)
The history is vast, the vicissitudes of time, the context is long, and everything in the world can meet must be beautiful. Dong Yuhui's emotion, isn't it the emotion of each of us?
In the past few days, we have walked with Hui and entered the time tunnel of Chinese civilization together. Traveling through the millennium back to the Tang Dynasty, feeling the prosperous atmosphere, understanding the feelings of poetry and sainthood, spanning more than 3,000 years, encountering the auspicious light and feathers left by the ancestors of the Yin Shang Dynasty, and touching the strong pulse of the ancient civilization.
Gazing at the Yin Ruins, we want to sing and talk freely, but we can't speak, let this silence be deafening. How fortunate we are that we inherit the thousand-year-old civilization and seek our roots in the wisdom of our ancestors; how fortunate we are that the land of China flows with a magnificent cultural vein that nourishes our temperament; and how fortunate we are that today we will have the opportunity to create a new history, leave a new cultural imprint, and high-five the people of a thousand years later. The answer to what we can leave for the future is being written.
Tang Jigen also expressed his feelings to us.
The interaction with Dong Yuhui in Yinxu made this senior expert and "archaeological boss" who had presided over the archaeological excavation of Yinxu for more than 20 years "out of the circle" through the live broadcast room and was known by more young people.
"This is not my personal 'out of the circle', but the 'out of the circle' of Yinxu culture", Tang Jigen sighed, "Through the exchange with Yuhui, the research has been passed on to more people, and it is the excellent traditional Chinese culture that has brought me 'out of the circle'." ”
Interior view of the new Yinxu Museum (courtesy of Anyang Yinxu Management Committee)
"You should study archaeology and become the captain of the archaeological team directly!" In the process of interacting with Dong Yuhui, because the other party often "rushed" to answer knowledge points, Tang Jigen couldn't help but joke.
"Vice captain!" Dong Yuhui held Tang Jigen's hand and bowed to "Master".
Netizens jokingly said that Dong Yuhui was "quickly promoted" in Yinxu, and gave him the nickname of "little antique". Along the way, we saw Dong Yuhui, a young "little antique", in his cultural journey, with respect, seriousness, and perseverance, as if holding a Luoyang shovel, with his knowledge and enthusiasm, deep into the historical soil, to explore those precious memories buried by the years.
As a fan left us a message: "Where is the confidence of cultural self-confidence? Dong Yuhui took his friends who he had never met to understand traditional culture concretely, so that more people can understand cultural self-confidence." ”
In fact, there are more "little antiques" around us. They are young people dressed in Hanfu walking through the streets of Luoyang, college students who are carefully documenting in museums, and young workers who are conducting field excavations under the scorching sun at the archaeological site...... By the way, there should still be a young you, who is either studying opera, practicing traditional dance, or loving to pay attention to intangible cultural heritage.
The audience visited the new Yinxu Museum (Photo courtesy of Anyang Rong Media)
"We are born with glory, and with this confidence and pride, let's take it in stride. Dong Yuhui said.
That's it, "Walking with Hui" next stop, keep going!
Attached is the Yin Ruins in the "Small Composition" of "Walking with Hui" in Henan:
Bird totem
Dayi Yin Shang
In the runes of the bronze ritual vessel
It shows the unity of Yin Shang's diversity
Civilization pattern
Source: Xinhuanet