<h3>"Outstanding results, consolation"</h3>
The vastness of the region examined by the Northwest China Examination Group, the length of time, the multiplicity of disciplines, and the fruitful results are unprecedented. Their spiritual strength is a precious treasure left by our ancestors to future generations, and it is also our standard for human beings.
——Chen Shiwen and Wang Demin
More than ten kilometers away from Turpan, the ancient city of Jiaohe overlooks from the air like a narrow flat boat, standing on a 30-meter-high terrace. Protected by natural rivers from the east to the west, it is the best preserved capital city and a group of raw earth buildings in China, which lasted for 1,500 to 600 years before being destroyed during the Yuan Chagatai Khanate.
Huang Wenbi on the way to the scientific expedition Photo / Courtesy of Wang Chen
During the years of the northwest expedition, Huang Wenbi traveled to all areas except the southern eastern section of the Tarim Basin. In the spring of 1928 and 1930, he focused on the excavation of the ancient city of Jiaohe.
Today's visitors can only walk on the main and secondary roads made of green and red bricks in the 1990s, and the raw soil next to them , the areas where scientific expeditionists squatted and the residents of jiaohe in the early years played , were "strictly forbidden to stampede".
As far as the eye can see, there is still a piece of earth in front of you. Occasionally, a square box protruding from the field of vision always makes people wonder, is it a door or a window in the Han and Tang official offices or residences? Except for the dotted camel thorns and the only four wild watermelon vines, the ancient city of Jiaohe has no grass. These two plants are not suitable for human consumption. Two thousand years ago, in addition to rowing boats to the land across the river to buy ingredients, the most exchangeable capital was pottery.
Huang Wenbi's excavations in Jiaohe have obtained a large number of pottery and tomb tiles from the Gaochang Dynasty, which are of great value in supplementing the historical years of Gaochangguo. It was also in 1930 that he first printed the footprints of Chinese scholars in Lop Nur .
Researchers believe that Huang Wenbi is most proud of the discovery of the Tuyan Han Dynasty Beacon site in Lop NurDong. On April 23, 1930, he sent people out to explore the monuments and offered a reward. The wind and sand of the day were great, and in the evening, anxiously waiting:
Suddenly glanced at a horseman, dressed in a large fur coat, wearing a fur hat, a shotgun across the horse's ridge, a tan in his left hand, and a pen in his right hand. Yu Yizhi, unveiling the account and looking at it, it was not him, that is, Yu Zhi's heroic hunter La Yimu returned with the news of victory, and he was overjoyed and relieved.
——" Huang Wenbi Mengxin's Diary of Investigation"
The two excavations in April and May of that year yielded more than 600 cultural relics, the heaviest of which was more than 70 Han Dynasty wooden janes.
"What is Han Jane?" On the night of September 28, Gong Changqiao, a participant in the Xinjiang Normal University event and the granddaughter of Gong Jicheng, asked Zhu Yuqi.
"A brush written on a piece of wood. About 23 centimeters high, it is a foot in the Han Dynasty, and people can sit on the ground and write enough to write. At that time, the seal secretary was troublesome, extending up and down, a short can not write a few words, the new Lishu Bian, can write more words, Yi, I used the Lishu to write. ”
"More than two thousand years of writing, you can still read and understand today, it is not good." Gong Changqiao sighed.
"It was the administrative system of the Han Dynasty's documents, and the imperial will was transmitted by documents. Although the text is slow, it has a rhythm. Zhu Yuqi, who had studied languages, smiled and opened the conversation box. Han Jian is not only the basis for studying the history of the development of Chinese characters, but also the entrance to understanding the cultural, economic and even class relations of the Han Dynasty, such as border defense facilities, the beacon system, etc. In one corner, you will find that the northwest border plug is consistent with the situation in other parts of the country in many aspects. ”
"Mr. Ji Xianlin said that the only region in the world where the four major civilizations of ancient times have gathered is the Western Regions, which is the reason why the study of the Western Regions is so attractive and the reason why the study of the Western Regions is so troublesome." Rong Xinjiang, a professor of history at Peking University who attended the Xinjiang Normal University event, said in a previous speech. Over the years, he has been doing the investigation and research of documents unearthed in the western regions such as Kucha and Hotan, and has also devoted himself to exploring the materialized form of spiritual civilization - the spread of Chinese classics to the western regions, which is an important part of the Silk Road research that was ignored by predecessors. And this is also the inheritance and in-depth study of Huang Wenbi and other ancestors.
"Huang Wenbi's Diary of the First Mengxin Expedition" Manuscript Photo / Reporter Liang Chen
"If Bergman was tasked with helping Anderson verify the 'Western civilization (ethnographic) theory' in the scientific expedition, then what about Huang Wenbi, who also set out with his own intentions and motives?" I asked Zhu Yuqi.
"Yes, there is. He wanted to know where the Central Plains culture could be pushed to the west. At first, he wanted to prove how strong and powerful Chinese civilization really was, and finally he came to the conclusion that "therefore, if we want to study the advancement of Eastern and Western civilizations, we must look for traces in Xinjiang, which is beyond doubt." (Huang Wenbi's "Gao Chang Tao Ji Narration") This conclusion is very pertinent. That is, many traces of Chinese and Western cultures must be found in Xinjiang. This is consistent with our understanding of the Silk Roads today, that is, human civilizations arose in the process of interaction. ”
Zhu Yuqi went on to elaborate: "The study of prehistoric civilization is mainly through artifacts, the most important of which is the faience pottery along the Silk Road, that is, clay pots, you can see how the Western style spread to the east, and eventually absorbed by China, you can also see how Chinese culture spread to the west, you can find a good confirmation in Turpan." This includes coins, from Western-suppressed coins to Chinese Kongfang. There are also copper mirrors, the Chinese bronze mirror is round, a button in the middle, the Western copper mirror is with a handle, which can be seen in Xinjiang, and the artifacts of the East and the West meet here. The pottery culture of Gaochang made by Huang Wenbi is still an important achievement, and the intersection of Eastern and Western civilizations must be seen in Turpan. Therefore, in the exploration of the civilization of the Western Regions, he proceeded from the original national interests until he came up with a more macroscopic idea, and human civilization was produced through exchanges. In such a process, Huang Wenbi himself grew up and formed the image of the first scientists in New China. The Northwest Expeditionary Corps has done a great job in this regard. ”
Almost at the same time as Huang Wenbi, Bergman excavated more than 10,000 Juyan Hanjian from the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the Guangwu Emperor in Ejina, Inner Mongolia, and found the ruins of Xiaohe, which is nearly 4,000 years old, which can be called an epoch-making archaeological discovery. Juyan Hanjian was sent to the United States for preservation during the War of Resistance, and later transported all to Taiwan.
Although the discoverer of Han Jian was Swede, this batch of cultural relics is preserved intact in Taiwan, and the researchers are mainly domestic scholars. The importance of this finding to academics in both countries is not the same. This is probably one reason why Bergmann is unknown in Sweden and increasingly famous in China. Experts point out.
In various fields such as geology, geography, meteorology, and paleontology, the Northwest Scientific Expedition Group also quickly handed over the results that excited the academic community and amazed the world:
Just over a month after the departure, the young geologist Ding Daoheng discovered the Baiyun Ebo large iron ore mine. At that time, Xu Xusheng estimated that it "may become the Han Yeping in the north of China." Since then, on the basis of Baiyun Obo Iron Ore, Baotou steel with huge production capacity has been established, and rich rare earth mineral deposits have been found in the mining area, making Baotou the most important rare earth metal production area in the country.
Yuan Fuli in the inspection Photo / Courtesy of Yuan Yang
Another sensational news is that geologist Professor Yuan Fuli excavated 72 fossils of diodonts, dinosaurs and other ancient reptiles in Xinjiang, including 7 new species, which made China's paleontological research leap to a new level. Paleontologist Yang Zhongjian believes: "This is important, not as important as the discovery of chinese apes." Yuan Fuli was awarded the Polaris Medal by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
In late October 1928, Li Xianzhi, one of the first members of the scientific expedition and a student of the Physics Department of Peking University, and the German meteorologist Hao De and others were carrying out cold meteorological observations in Timurik, when they encountered a powerful cold wave. "After the cold wave crossed the Tianshan Mountains, it entered the northwest of Qinghai Province, and blew all the tents and instruments used for observation, and the wind was far stronger than 12 levels." Li Xianzhi's son, Li Zengzhong, recalled, "Father said: If he had not personally suffered the attack of this cold wave, he would never have believed that the cold air from the Arctic region had such a powerful force after crossing thousands of kilometers!" ”
German photographer Li Boleng accompanied the delegation to take a photo negative in the Tianshan Mountains Photo / Reporter Liang Chen
This "adventure" had a great impact on Li Xianzhi's life. In 1930, Li Xianzhi and Liu Yanhuai, on the recommendation of Hao De, arrived at the University of Berlin for further study. Five years later, his doctoral thesis, "A Study on the Invasion of Cold Waves in East Asia," was published. Using the extremely scarce data at that time, on the basis of analyzing 25 individual cases, Li Xianzhi identified several main paths for the cold wave to invade East Asia, pointing out that the strong cold air that invaded East Asia could cross Asia from the Arctic region, cross the equator, and go all the way to Jakarta in Indonesia and Darwin Port in northern Australia, where exceptionally heavy rainstorms were formed. This discovery broke through the doctrine of the dominant equatorial windless zone at that time, and opened up a new era of interaction and interaction between the two hemispheric weather systems, causing sensation and doubt in the meteorological community, and gradually becoming accepted decades later.
The field investigation of the expedition solved the problem of the location of Lop Nur that was constantly debated in the international geographical circles at that time, and proved that Lop Nur was a migration lake that changed its location with the diversion of the Tarim River. This was an important scholarly contribution of Sven Hedin. Chen Zongqi also put forward the idea of alternating lakes with strong evidence from field examination, and he also became a pioneer of Chinese geophysical science and the founder of Chinese geomagnetism.
In December 1929, Li Xianzhi (third from left), Yuan Fuli (third from right), Huang Wenbi (second from right), and Liu Yanhuai (first from right) were presented in Urumqi Photo / Courtesy of Wang Chen
The most exciting thing is that for the first time in history, all the examination collections have been left in China. When Xu Bingchang returned in 1929 with Sven Heding and gave examination lectures at universities in Beiping and Nanjing, he was welcomed with unprecedented enthusiasm from the academic community. The Ta Kung Pao reported that "upstairs and downstairs, there is no gap, and the enthusiasm of the audience is unprecedented in the history of the gathering" and "evokes the infatuation of the academic community." ”
In Huang Jisu's view, for the intellectuals of his grandfather's generation, meritorious service and moral speech were more important than everything else, "They wrote words like 'Chinese scholarship, relying on my generation', and their self-expectations were very high, they all wanted to do something in their respective fields, and they could leave something immortal beyond limited life." Therefore, the Gobi Desert is miserable, but in their eyes, it is all learning, which is what they dream of. They hope to join the noble contingent of the past and the present, so that all these sufferings are not a fearful road, but a long march with gains. ”
Xu Bingchang, the first head of the Northwest Scientific Expedition, was awarded the Medal in the name of the King of Sweden for his outstanding organizational leadership. In addition, geologist Yuan Fuli was also awarded the Polaris Medal by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his outstanding contributions to paleontology
<h3>Academic victory and the defense of sovereignty</h3>
This well-intentioned, friendly cooperation between China and Europe seems to me to be a source of real pleasure; I regard such close contact with the greatest peoples of the earth, and which are of greatest interest in many points of view, as a greatest gain.
--Sven Hedin, The Long March
In a sense, the scientific expedition group that goes west step by step also has the meaning of winning.
Richthofen once said: "China's literati are lazy and have always been reluctant to act quickly. In most cases, he is troubled by his own greed and unable to free himself from inherent stereotypes about etiquette and decency. ”
At first, the Germans in the team talked a lot, some saying "I haven't seen Chinese 5 people sing together" (German proverb, meaning "a mess of sand"). Chinese naturally secretly competed in his heart, and he must make a look.
In July 1927, Bergman found 1,300 stone tools in Baiyun Ao Bao, for which Sven Hedin also gave him a 25 yuan prize, xu Bingchang told Huang Wenbi the news, and said that he was worried that the archaeological results of Chinese scholars would be inferior to those of foreigners during this examination. Huang Wenbi said that this is nothing, and the final result will be determined in the future.
Positive competition leads to benign outcomes.
In addition to a few others such as Hedin and Larson, the oldest Xu Bingchang was only 39 years old. Science knows no borders, and young people quickly become acquainted. Hao De found that several of his Chinese students were both smart and studious, and his solid foundation in cultural knowledge was unexpected, "regretting that he did not bring 8 students with him." Hedin also often went to the students' tents during his breaks, and every time he saw that the books on the "table" (wooden box) were spread out, there were meteorology, German dictionaries, etc., they had begun to learn German, the financial director Milunwei had become their teacher, and some of them also learned from Hedin to make a road map, as if they had endless energy.
Photo by Xu Bingchang / Courtesy of Wang Chen
Regardless of the fatigue of his journey, Xu Bingchang often went through the classics of the past under candlelight, such as the "Book of Han", "Book of Later Han", "Book of Jin", "Book of Sui", "Old Book of Tang", as well as "Atlas of the Western Regions", "Tuzhi of Xinjiang", "Record of Shengwu", "Mongolian Nomadism" and other books, to search in detail for the relevant information of the areas he passed through, so as to guide the investigation, especially to point out the direction for archaeological work. Hedin sighed: "I really did not expect that there were such good scholars in China, if it was only me or some Westerners who traveled, at most I would have to find a 'China Pass' in Europe after returning to seek an explanation of the historical relics that were performed in Kashunnur before 2100 years ago; I now not only have books, but also scholars who instruct me to know everything I wish to know at any time." ”
In addition to academic exchanges and competitions, it is regarded as a natural mission to fight for the interests and rights of the country. Huang Wenbi wrote at the beginning of Mengxin's diary that the purpose of participating in the examination activities was mainly in two aspects: "One is to supervise outsiders, and the other is to examine science." ”
Folk scholar Li Xun pointed out in the article "The Multiple Meanings of Huang Wenbi" that one of the major characteristics of Huang Wenbi is the "axis". Reading is willing to work hard, doing things and recognizing death, serious to the extreme, assigned to his tasks, even if it is only a matter of sesame green beans, he will be as a heavy responsibility as Tarzan to complete, this personality characteristics make him the only "wrongdoer" in the examination team and Sven Hedin..
For his grandfather's stubbornness, Huang Jisu did not shy away from it. "He is a Hubei native, a southerner among the northerners, stubborn."
Huang Jisu Photo / Reporter Liang Chen
Reading "Huang Wenbi Mengxin's Diary of Investigation", Li Xun said that it is easy to find that the author is full of patriotic tension and seems to be fighting to defend the dignity of the motherland at every time.
In June 1927, a mobile flower drum troupe came to the camp of the examination group, and the Kuomintang government in the south had banned such programs that may contain obscene lyrics in an attempt to improve social customs. Huang Wenbi suggested that the head of the troupe, Xu Bingchang, not let the troupe perform, but Xu thought that foreigners could not understand it anyway, so they could sing it. The accompanying photographer made a film of the performance, saying that it would be taken overseas for screening in the future. Huang Wenbi was deeply ashamed, believing that this was a deliberate attempt to expose the backwardness of the Chinese nation, and wrote down his resentment in his diary.
"Mr. Xu will be more euphemistic and more open when dealing with many things. Huang Wenbi is very different, and he believes that we must not publicize our flaws. Xu Bingchang believes that as a folk information, it can be left behind. Finally, I listened to Xu Xusheng, and this thing was photographed. But Huang Wenbi was indignant and thought that we wanted to express our position. Zhu Yuqi said.
When it comes to national sovereignty and dignity, Chinese league members "don't give in to an inch of land." During a camping trip, Sven Hedin casually planted the Swedish flag on the sand dunes, and When Huang Wenbi saw it, he immediately protested solemnly: "This is China's territory, and foreign flags are not allowed!" "Pull out the Swedish flag as he speaks.
"Including the fact that during the military-sensitive period at that time, the route could not be opened to foreigners, and all The Members of the Chinese Regiment had a consensus." Zhu Yuqi pointed out.
<h3>Tucked away at the back of a broom</h3>
The world is so powerful, so powerful, that it is impossible to give birth to the thought of changing them. However, no matter how the outside society is ups and downs, it is sincere to itself and adheres to principles. There are no distractions and doubts in the heart, in order to move forward.
—— The movie "No Questions Asked"
A northwest scientific expedition of the blue wisps of the road laid the foundation for the pioneer status of several of its members in the relevant academic circles, and also changed the career trajectory of some people.
Xu Bingchang was the head of the Department of Philosophy and provost of Peking University. From 1927 to 1929, he was the first head of the Sino-Swiss Northwest Science Expedition Mission, and his coordination and organizational ability was highly praised by Hedin and loved by the members of the regiment. Influenced by this examination, his research direction has since shifted to archaeology, and he has pioneering achievements in exploring Xia culture
In addition to Huang Wenbi's career completely transformed from Song Ming Science and Bibliography to Archaeology, Xu Bingchang, one of the important scholars who once engaged in academic debates with the "Ancient History Discernment Movement" and the first head of the Chinese delegation of the Northwest Scientific Expedition, also shifted his academic path from philosophy to archaeology and historical research. In the summer of 1959, the 72-year-old Xu Bingchang personally went to the western Henan region to conduct on-the-spot investigation of the "Xia Ruins", inspected important sites such as Shucheng, Shiyangguan, Yan zhai, Gushuihe, and Erlitou, and wrote "Preliminary Report on the Investigation of the 'Xia Ruins' in Western Henan in the Summer of 1959".
Mr. Yuan Fuli and others often told students about the experience of the Northwest Scientific Expedition in their subsequent teaching careers, and many students were deeply touched and inspired, and germinated their yearning for the Northwest. For example, Chen Mengxiong, a hydrogeologist, studied under Yuan Fuli in the Geology Department of Southwest United University. At that time, the northeast had been occupied by the Japanese army, and the country was in urgent need of strategic materials such as oil, coal, and steel, and called on the Chinese people to vigorously develop the great northwest. Chen Mengxiong was inspired by this and the influence of Mr. Chen Mengxiong, and resolutely devoted himself to the geological survey and research of Northwest China after graduation.
Chen Mengxiong once recalled the time of study: "Professor Yuan Fuli led us to a field internship in the second village north of Kunming. During that internship, we found most of the Paleozoic strata, and also collected trilobites, penstones, mussel shell fossils and fish fossils. The biggest gain was that Professor Yuan led everyone to learn how to use the compass to measure the road map. This method was used by Professor Yuan to draw a geological map of the route during his previous expedition in Xinjiang. Later, Chen Mengxiong came to Gansu to work after graduation. Although there is no accurate topographic map, with the method learned from Yuan Fuli, Chen Mengxiong has done a good job of surveying the geological map.
However, the past of contact with foreign parties has become a "minefield" in the archives since then.
Gong Changqiao, who lives in the United States, remembers that when he was a child, he lived in Shanghai and helped his grandmother burn photos, "When I grew up, I knew that a lot of them were scientific expeditions, and I didn't understand it at that time." In 2004, by chance, a friend sent her a copy of "Wandering Lake", and she was very excited to read it. Gradually came into contact with the history of the Northwest Scientific Expedition, and slowly got to know Wang Chen, Chen Yadan and others.
"Later, I always thought that the short life of my grandfather Gong Jicheng at the age of 45 actually lived two wonderful lives in the northwest (Suixin Highway) examination and the construction of the Yunnan Burma Highway, which is so remarkable!"
"But then, why didn't anyone pay attention to it and let people mention [this history]?" On the eve of attending the donation ceremony of Liu Yanhuai's relics, she asked yuan gang (yuan fuli's second daughter) who was over eighty years old, the senior at the same table.
"I can't say it later!" Yuan Gang, who had silver hair, answered.
"Oh, can't cooperate with imperialism! accomplice! Right? Gong Changqiao made the gesture of hammering his fist into the table.
11 years ago, Zhang Jiuchen, a researcher at the Institute of Natural Science History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, participated in the research group for the Northwest Scientific Expedition. Regarding the process of the Chinese Academy of Sciences receiving the former "Northwest Science Expedition", her research results are: In the early 1950s, the state basically held a negative attitude.
At that time, the social background was that China was politically on the side of the Soviet Union, and the views of Western scholars were also a little more ideologically biased, and Western scholars who came to China were basically regarded as "cultural invaders." Of course, scientific and technological cooperation with the West is also a bad thing, and there is even a suspicion of collusion with the West, so the comments at that time were inevitably biased. Among them is the sentence: "The former Northwest China Science Expedition ... Its organization is extremely scattered, so there have been many people participating, but there has never been a person who is responsible for it. Finally, there are the following concluding observations: "It can be seen that most of the data excavated and collected by the Northwest Scientific Expedition have been lost or stored abroad." The motives for the establishment of the Northwest Scientific Expedition were good and they wanted to resist imperialism, but unfortunately the result was still compromise with imperialism. ”
In the evaluation of the Northwest Scientific Expedition In recent years, one point that is often criticized is that on the Chinese side, after the end of the examination, the published results are scattered and have little impact on the world. "So far, there has not been a complete catalog of the results of the examination team in China." On the other hand, from 1937 until the 1990s, foreign members collected research results and published 11 major categories and 56 volumes of reports.
Yuan Fuli in his later years Photo / Courtesy of Yuan Yang
Zhang Jiuchen said that the Chinese side was "born at the wrong time": soon after the end of the field work, Chinese society was shrouded in the shadow of war. Years of war not only affected the follow-up work of the expedition, but even the information obtained in the wild was lost: 17 boxes of specimens collected by Yuan Fuli's examination were lost during the anti-Japanese war from Beijing to the south (other plant fossils and reptile fossils, which were later sent to Professor Si Xingjian and Yang Zhongjian for study). The third volume of the Northwest Meteorological Survey Report edited by Hao De was destroyed in World War II by the Allied artillery fire suffered by Breslau, "Dozens of people in the expedition group traveled thousands of miles, worked hard for many years, spent tens of thousands of dollars, and in exchange for complete meteorological observations, encountered unprecedented catastrophe, and from then on, there was no hope of survival." ”
In the political environment at that time and later, neither the academic community nor all sectors of society could give the delegation full recognition.
At the end of 1950, the 85-year-old Sven Hedin wrote to Huang Jiqing to inquire about the whereabouts of his Chinese friend Chen Zongqi. Huang Jiqing forwarded the letter to Chen Zongqi, who was working in the General Office of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Chen Zongqi did not reply to the letter, but later mentioned the matter in his "autobiography to the organization".
"In those days, communicating with foreign countries was 'going through foreign countries', where did my father dare?" Chen Yadan said.
Chen Zongqi named his son "Sven", but until his death in the 1960s, his children never heard a single word from their father about Hedin and Lop Nur.
The experience of the second batch of scientific expedition members, meteorologist Hu Zhenduo, is lamentable. In 1931, he was recommended and dispatched by Zhu Kezhen as a meteorological assistant to participate in the examination in Inner Mongolia. In 1951, the wind rectification began, and Hu Zhenduo, who had served as the director of the Gansu Meteorological Institute and a cadre of the Northwest Meteorological Management Office, was put under control and review. The review ended because of his participation in the "important history" of China's Northwest Science Expedition, hu Zhenduo was considered "unfit to work in the army" and was purged from the army. In order to make a living, he went to lanzhou city to work in the daily miscellaneous company, because the abacus was good, until the age of 76 and still worked as an accountant. It took 10 years for Hu Zhenduo, 81, to implement the policy.
"A good meteorologist, but the second half of his life has nothing to do with his scholarship!" In the speech of the "90th Anniversary of the Northwest Scientific Expedition Group Entering Xinjiang" held by Xinjiang Normal University, Yuan Gang shouted loudly.
"Xu Xusheng's Journey to the West Diary" Photo / Reporter Liang Chen
Xu Shizhou recalled that his grandfather's "Diary of Xu Xusheng's Journey to the West", which he read when he was a child, could not talk about it carefully (interest is not here). "I remember that he always picked up a book and read it, and he still maintained the habit of reading ancient books and reading sentences. At that time, the only books in the family were Mao Xuan, and he could continue to read them if he secretly changed one. Because it was the Cultural Revolution, the family (especially the third generation) could not hide from this history, let alone understand. The detailed details could only be asked from aunt Wang Chen later. It is said that the Institute of Archaeology once wanted to write something to summarize that period of history, but later had to shelve it. ”
In Beijing, I visited Wang Shimin, a retired researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Wang Shimin, then the administrative secretary of the Institute of Archaeology, worked with Huang Wenbi in his final years.
"Huang Lao's home is 200 meters away from the office. He is in poor health, has a heart attack, and loves to smoke. On the tweed wool clothes, there are always soot falling down. At 200 meters, he had to gasp for half a day each time, spraying medicine in his mouth, and the skin sac was inserted in the throat tube. In 1966, the Archaeological Institute carried out the 'Cow Ghost Snake God Garden', with 150 people in the institute and 30 people visiting the garden. I don't know who rumored that Huang Lao ate a chicken one day and put a paper hat on his head and inserted chicken feathers. He was frightened and overwhelmed. Write a check, and also enter the wrong room. ”
Huang Wenbi's granddaughter, Huang Xiaohong, recalled that Xia Nai was branded a "bourgeois roader" and his grandfather and Xu Bingchang, who was also in the same office, were branded as "reactionary academic authorities."
"On December 17, 1966, Grandpa was able to go to the toilet by himself. Grandma boiled a nutritious soup, and he couldn't drink it. The next day, he was gone. I remember it was a cloudy day with snowflakes. Mr. Xu Bingchang came to see my grandfather, Mr. Xu is very burly, with white hair and a long beard. He didn't say anything, hurriedly came, and hurried away again. But the shadow of him leaving with a broom (a penalty for cleaning the toilet and yard after being knocked down) is something I'll never forget for the rest of my life. ”
At the Xinjiang Division Conference, Huang Xiaohong finished talking about this past, and the whole audience was silent.
The Huang Wenbi Center of Xinjiang Normal University issued certificates to the three descendants who donated the scientist's materials. From left: Yuan Gang, daughter of Yuan Fuli, Wu Wenwu, secretary of the Party Committee of Xinjiang Normal University, Huang Rongrong, granddaughter of Huang Wenbi, and Liu Meili, daughter of Liu Yanhuai/ Liu Xin
<h3>Salvage and error correction, cooperation and independence</h3>
In the past, our world history was a Eurocentric world history, and our Chinese history was a China-centrist Chinese history, so many civilizations on the Silk Road were marginalized, or forgotten. Now, through the study of the history of east-west cultural exchanges on the Silk Road, we will be provided with a new perspective, that is, to see civilizations outside the mainstream civilizations of Europe and China on an equal footing; to understand the exchanges, integration and interaction of different civilizations from the perspective of cultural exchanges, and to understand the history of civilizational exchanges on the Silk Road from a global perspective.
——Professor Rong Xinjiang, Department of History, Peking University
In 1985, Xu Guilun, Wang Chen's younger brother and Xu Shizhou's father, saw a picture caption in the People's Pictorial that read: "The Baiyun Obo Iron Ore mine was discovered by Ding Daoheng, a young geologist in China, when he traveled west with a foreign expedition in 1927. ”
The sisters and brothers were surprised. From an early age, they listened to their mother tell the story of their father's deep research expedition into the northwestern hinterland. More than half a century later, how can people regard the Sino-Swiss Joint Examination Mission as a foreign examination mission? Wang Chen found that this error message came from the Chinese translation of the Concise Encyclopedia Britannica. She called the magazine to ask for a correction. Since then, Wang Chen has devoted all his energy to the work of sorting out materials, visiting old gentlemen such as Yuan Fuli and Li Xianzhi who were still alive at that time to salvage and restore history. The 700-page Epitaph of the Noble Is the result of the first phase, which contains the full text of Xu Xusheng's Diary of His Journey to the West and the scientific expedition memories of several scientists. There are several posthumous works and reports by Mr. Ding Daoheng and Chen Zongqi, all of which were copied by Wang Chen in the library, word for word, according to the documents in the library collection.
Wang Chen, Wang Anhong Mother and Daughter Photo / Reporter Liang Chen
On May 1, 1987, with the support of Bao Erhan, Wang Chen and his sister Xu Heng published an article in the People's Daily entitled "Their Merits and Spirits Endure Forever - The Sixtieth Anniversary of the Northwest China Science Examination Group", which can be regarded as the long-denied and distorted "Northwest Science Examination Group". With the efforts of Wang Chen, Li Zengzhong, Chen Yadan and others, they initiated the establishment of the Northwest Scientific Expedition Research Association.
As he grew older, the leaders of the society were passed down from Wang Chen to the generation of Huang Jisu and Xu Shizhou. Huang Xu and the two of them were even ashamed. Huang Jisu said more bluntly, don't let the research association become just a clan association. "If research can be launched by scientific means, there is a credible platform to collect the relics and research results of the ancestors, and it can be publicly shared and used by those in need."
He never forgot an adventure at home. "There was a young man who looked like a reader, with a deep face, deep eyes, and not much to say. Somehow touched our house. Q, which one are you (Mr. Huang Wenbi's grandson)? I said yes. He looked east and west of our house and said, "Your grandfather is amazing." Looked at me and said what are you doing? I told him, and he shook his head and said it was a pity. ”
The impression this man gave huang Jisu lingered for many years. "He speaks very rudely and directly, just because there is no need to be polite with the world." He came here for no other purpose than to express his admiration for my grandfather. There are many young people who advocate adventure, which is not a bad thing. But let's also not overly romanticize and maximize history. Grandfather, they just did something that others wanted to do but didn't dare to do or couldn't do. ”
In the circle of posterity, Chen Yadan, Yuan Gang's mother and son, gong Changqiao and his wife are all re-embarking on the scientific expedition path of their fathers and grandparents. In 2017, teachers and students of Lanzhou University also organized a group to re-walk the "Yuan Fuli Line" and part of the "Huang Wenbi Line" (brigade line). These actions come from genes in the blood and the need for academic research, which is reasonable.
In November 1997, Chen Yadan was in front of three rooms in guloulan ruins Photo / Courtesy of Chen Yadan
Thousands of miles away in Ejina Banner, Inner Mongolia, two civil servants visited with their footsteps and a love of history, which gave great surprise and encouragement to the future generations of the visit.
Chen Yadan said that after writing "Towards Lop Nur with Water", she had the opportunity to meet Li Wenqing and Li Jing, civil servants in Ejina. Last year, she wrote to them:
Father had gone to the "Dreson Kuduk" between Yingen and Ejin. I don't know what this place is called now? Here longitude 102 degrees 59 minutes 13.7 seconds east, latitude 41 degrees 55 minutes 42.3 seconds north, convenient time I do not know if you can go there to help me take pictures.
Li Wenqing immediately replied: "This place is 60 kilometers east of the Yagan Mountains, and the old highway (Eqi to Alxa Left Banner) passes through since then. The current place name is No. 8 Militia Point, which belongs to the Alxa Right Banner Realm. ”
Unexpectedly, not long after, Li Jing, Li Wenqing, and another Eqi Mongolian scholar, Gala Monk, really drove 180 kilometers in Li Jing's private car and found the place where his father had made astronomical measurements 83 years ago! According to them, the name of the well is Deleson Hudug, which means In Mongolian: 芨芨井. They introduced that when his father came, Delesun Huduge was a necessary place for the Suiyuan Xinjiang Camel Road, so it was easy to have a shepherd. Later, the owner changed frequently, and now the well is guarded by hadab and a family who came here in 1972, who are individual herders who have become rangers and enjoy state awards after the implementation of the policy of returning grazing land to grassland. Unfortunately, there was very little thick mustard grass in the past.
During the interview, Li Wenqing told me that he had worked in the Animal Husbandry Bureau for a long time and loved to read history. Ever since he received a compilation of historical records of the Ejin Banner in 1988, he has been unable to put it down. "It was amazing to find this place, starting from the Han Dynasty, suddenly jumping to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Western Xia, and then to the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China, and the examination group of Sven Hedin, and Stein also came." And I didn't know anything. I'll collect it little by little. I want to know more and more. Unlike other readers, I wonder where these people once gathered, where they lived, and where the place names should be recorded. ”
Don't talk about mobile phones, not even cameras. Li Wenqing drove the motorcycle, stepping on the dots one by one according to the text description and intuition, and taking notes. In 2015, he published Those Things in the History of Ejina.
In October 2018, Li Jing, Li Wenqing and Gong Changqiao were offered in Ejina Tu / Gong Changqiao
On National Day in 2017 and 2018, Li Jing and Li Wenqing took Wang Chen's mother and daughter and Gong Changqiao and his wife who had come to search for them, and returned to the camp of the kaocha regiment camel team in Ejina that year, showing them the fragments of wooden boats that had been cut down to measure hydrological travel.
I asked him, what is the driving force behind this act of obligation?
"We actually want to position this place where we live in the long river of history." Wonder what happens here every time, when the country changes a lot. Times have changed, herders have changed, and many local scenes have been abandoned, equivalent to dead place names, and no one knows. He said that the next step is to take the Suixin Camel Road, use GPS positioning, and mark important locations on the map for posterity.
A week after contacting him, I was on the cliffs of Mingwu Tag Mountain in Kyzyl Town, Kuqabaicheng County, Xinjiang, and witnessed a long queue of tourists at the entrance of the Thousand Buddha Cave.
"Look above your head, every diamond-shaped grid is a Bunsen story. Gu Guizi believes in Theravada Buddhism, and the Lingge painting here is about the case of Duanzheng Wang Zhijue Xiao'er..."
The story is vivid and enlightening, and the indigo ochre line paintings are still clear and beautiful after thousands of years. Seven- and eight-year-old children are also curious to hear it. It's just that the further down from Cave 8, the more depressing it becomes: the arched shrine where Shakya Buddha was placed is empty; half or even the entire wall of murals have been removed, leaving only traces of axe chisels on the cave walls—before the Northwest Expedition in 1927, a succession of Western expeditions looted a large number of exquisite murals from the Kyzyl Caves.
"Today, they are all in the collection of the Asian Art Museum in Berlin." The narration of each cave guide is almost uniform in the end as this sentence. It is said that 99% of the ancient turtle murals that have been lost overseas are stored in Germany.
"I want to go to Berlin to see—" one tourist couldn't help but sigh.
The ancient city of Gaochang. Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, it has been a hub connecting the Central Plains, Central Asia and Europe, and has been an important town of the Silk Road for more than a thousand years. In 1928 and 1930, Huang Wenbi conducted investigations and excavations in Gaochang and Jiaohe Ancient City. The excavation and research of Gaochang epitaphs, tomb bricks, and Uighur documents has great academic value Figure / Huang Bin
The ancient city of Gaochang, which is 800 kilometers away from the Thousand Buddhas Cave in Kyzyl, is more imposing than the Jiaohe River, and the wind erosion is equally serious. The domed pulpit, however, is largely well preserved.
It is said that more than 1,300 years ago, whenever Xuanzang preached the scriptures, Qi Wentai, the king of Gaochang, personally came to guide him with an incense burner, and when Xuanzang was seated, Qi Wentai knelt down as a step, and every day, his respectful attitude spread throughout Gaochang. When Xuanzang left, he once made an appointment with Qi Wentai to return to Gaochang City to preach the scriptures for a month. In order to keep the agreement with Qi Wentai, Xuanzang did not take the easy sea route, but still chose to turn over the snowy mountains and wade through quicksand back to the Central Plains. It was not until Khotan that Xuanzang learned that Qi Wentai had been dead for many years.
In the office of the Gaochang Ancient City Cultural Management Office, I met the head of the Gaochang Cultural Management Institute, who had studied at the Turpan Institute of the Brandenburg Academy of Sciences in Berlin. During the 5 months of his further studies at the institute, he studied the Uighur alphabet with his teacher every day, and gradually he was able to interpret the Uighur Buddhist scriptures assigned by the teacher. These documents were selected from the tens of thousands of ancient Gaochang multilingual Buddhist scriptures collected in Berlin.
"The largest document is 1 meter square, and the small one is half the size of a palm, holding two thin pieces of glass and sticking tape on the outside." My mood... How to say it. At that time, their archaeological expedition plundered a large number of first-hand Buddhist scriptures from Xinjiang. Many of these multilingual texts I studied are the Thousand Buddha Caves of Kyzyl and the Ancient City of Gaochang, and I come from the source of these cultural heritages. How good are these instruments to be collected in our country! "Vayiti bowed his head." These instruments, their experts have been studying for hundreds of years, and they are still studying them non-stop! But they all have great respect for Chinese culture and these precious documents. He remembered something and looked up again, "and every year their institute has several public open days for the public to share and experience their research." This is really good..."
According to some sources, before the establishment of the National Museum, the Chinese History Museum used the documents collected by Huang Wenbi to cooperate with the Japanese side to publish the "Great View of the Law Books of the Chinese History Museum", which has a lot of materials from the western region. However, the important catalogue of Huang Wenbi's documents was not Chinese version. "Not only do we have no way to see the originals in China, but even the photocopies have to be viewed through the Japanese version."
On the plane to Urumqi, Yuan Gang and his son Liu Weidong watched the movie "No Questions Asked" screened on the plane. Among them, there is a shot of Mr. Yuan Fuli still insisting on lecturing students in the cave during the years when the Japanese army bombed the Southwest United University. End credits display:
Yuan Fuli. In 1941, he was 48 years old. At that time, he was a professor at the Department of Geology, Geography and Meteorology of Southwest Union University. He led a team deep into the northwest to conduct geological investigations. At that time, bandits were rampant, wild beasts were infested, and all the way relied on camel transport and walking. The large number of complete dinosaur fossils they found shocked the world. He also taught more than a dozen courses and cultivated generations of geologists.
Yuan Fuli Geological Report Photo / Courtesy of Wang Chen
Liu Weidong said that this time he came to Xinjiang to attend the meeting, there is also the intention of following the footsteps of his ancestors: at the Jimsar County Museum, he and his mother Yuan Gang were very pleased to see a relatively complete introduction to dinosaurs; in the Beiting Capital Protectorate, he did not find the whereabouts of the white fine crystal limestone Buddha head that Mr. Yuan Fuli had photographed, which was quite regrettable; at the Xinjiang Museum, he felt helpless when he saw the retrospective exhibition of the 30th anniversary of the joint excavation of the Niya site between China and Japan.
"Why helpless?"
"If the state has the ability, it will carry out the excavation work independently. Our country is poor and technologically backward, just like the original Northwest Scientific Expedition Group, using other people's money and equipment to do its own work, although there are major discoveries, the meaning of doing it independently with China and foreign countries has always been different. ”
I also visited the Sino-Japanese Archaeological Memorial Exhibition. The introduction of Stein on the wall of the exhibition hall surprised me a little:
Among the many foreign "explorers and archaeologists", (Stein) is the one who comes to (China) the most, excavates the most sites, and steals the most relics. The huge collections that Stein plundered during his expeditions are now in the British Museum in London, the British Library, the Ministry of Indian Affairs Library, and the National Museum in New Delhi, India. Some people say he is a treasure thief, but he has also turned the messy treasure hunt into a restoration of the ancient Central Asian world.
The first few comments and descriptions are normal. The last sentence, which does not contain negativity and reprimand, or even an affirmative tone, appears in public exhibitions in public museums, which is not simple.
"How do you view the relationship between the national consciousness of that time and the academic independence pursued by scholars today, as well as the international cooperation in archaeology and the preservation of national interests?" I asked Zhu Yuqi.
"At that time, it was a knuckle point for China, and the concept of the 'modern state' had just emerged. When this matter was placed before us, our scholarship had just begun. On the one hand, Chinese scientists have a sense of the state, and on the other hand, how to do this matter when it is really in our hands. So they really keep learning from Westerners in this 'mobile university', and at the same time they keep making progress and getting a lot of physical objects from the Northwest Examination. We also found that Sweden did respect the agreement at the time and returned a lot of things. The Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan has also published a number of articles on how these things that have been returned have been handled. Now these things are placed in the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in fact, many of them are shelved, and they have not done new in-depth research. This may indeed be a matter of responsibility. When we encounter a new point of academic growth, we continue to do it, but we forget that the previous things still need to be done in depth and depth. In fact, China's scholarship lacks a long-term effect - these things, we fight back, do we do research or not? Doesn't not doing research mean that it is in vain, but just getting it back? ”
(References: "Epitaph of the Noble", "Northwest China Science Expedition Group" (Synthesis, Monograph), "Commemorative Album of the 80th Anniversary of the Northwest China Science Expedition", "New Horizons in Western Archaeology, Historical Land and Language Research", "Eight Years of Exploration in the Hinterland of Asia", "Entering Lop Nur with Water", "Archaeology in the Western Region Should Go Out Along the "Huang Wenbi Road"" and so on. Thanks to all the interviewees, as well as the Huang Wenbi Center of Xinjiang Normal University, Zhang Jiuchen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qin Suyin of the Lu Xun Museum, Ji Zhenhong of the Swedish Oriental Museum, and Mr. Huang Bin, the photographer, for their great help in this article. )