On the evening of December 1964, the Linggu Temple Scenic Area on the eastern outskirts of Nanjing was as usual, with beautiful scenery and a quiet environment.
On this very ordinary winter day, a lady climbed the Linggu Pagoda in the scenic spot, and after a while, her figure fell from the tower, like a dead leaf in winter, and her life withered away in a flash...
Who is this woman who committed suicide? She was China's first female archaeologist and outstanding mushemist, Zeng Zhaoyi, then director of the Nanjing Museum.
<h1>Famous ladies, out of Changsha to see the world</h1>
Zeng Zhaoyi was born in 1909 in a family of official eunuchs in Wanyi Hall, Heye Township, Xiangxiang County. Speaking of the famous Zeng Guofan in Modern Chinese History, everyone is certainly not unfamiliar, Zeng Zhaoyi's great-grandfather is Zeng Guofan's second brother Zeng Guohuang.
The Zeng family has a deep heritage and talents, Zeng Zhaoyi's brothers and sisters are very excellent, and they are all very outstanding social elites at that time.
Zeng Zhaocheng's eldest brother, Zeng Zhaocheng, was a Harvard master's degree and later served as the general manager of Taiwan Working Conditions Corporation; the second brother, Zeng Zhaocheng, was a doctor of science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first academician of academia sinensis before liberation, and the first member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences after liberation; and the younger brother Zeng Zhaozheng was a famous calligrapher and graduated from Shanghai Daxia University. The younger sister Zeng Zhaoyi is the proud protégé of Dr. Lin Qiaozhi, the "Mother of Ten Thousand Babies", and the other two sisters graduated from the Department of Economics and the Department of Biology of Southwest United University. And Zeng Zhaoyi grew up in this environment, how could he be an ordinary person?
Zeng Zhaoyi enrolled in a private school at a young age and was familiar with ancient books. At the age of 12, she was admitted to Changsha Yifang Girls' School, which was founded by her cousin Zeng Baosun. Zeng Baosun is also a very good woman, she has never been married in her life, and she has struggled for the cause of women's education all her life. When Zeng Zhaoyi was young, he was curious to ask her why she did not marry, and Zeng Baosun replied to her: If you marry someone, you can only help a few people in a family, and if you don't marry someone, you can serve tens of millions of people.
Figure | Young Zeng Zhaoyi
In her teens, when we slowly formed the Three Views, Zeng Zhaoyi's life of studying at a girls' school profoundly affected her life. She always remembers her cousin's morning conversation every morning: "To love others as if you want to love others as yourself, sacrifice yourself, and help others." She took this phrase as a belief and faithfully executed it throughout her life.
After graduating from the girls' school, Zeng Zhaoyi considered teaching at the girls' school, but her second brother Zeng Zhaoyi encouraged her to go out of Changsha and see the world...
Therefore, with the help of her brother, Zeng Zhaoyi was admitted to the Department of Foreign Languages of Nanjing National Central University in one fell swoop, and then transferred to the Department of Chinese because of her Chinese's good grades, so she became a proud protégé of the academic master Hu Xiaoshi. She followed her teacher to study oracle bones and gold texts, learn the rhyme of ancient characters, and listened to Hu Xiaoshi talk about literary history and Chu ci... And Zeng Zhaoyi himself is a good poet, known as "contemporary Li Qingzhao". I think it was the teacher's subtlety that made Zeng Zhaoyi interested in archaeology.
In 1935, Zeng Zhaoyi was a graduate student at Jinling University in Nanjing, however, she actually gave up her degree that was about to arrive and decided to go to the University of London to study archaeology at her own expense, which made many people puzzled, but this was her decision after deep thinking, she wanted to go outside, continue to study, and continue to see the world! She wanted to learn Western archaeological methods and serve the excavations of a long-standing Chinese civilization.
With the financial support of his brother, Zeng Zhaoyi began a study trip in a foreign country.
Figure | In 1932, Zeng Zhaoyi's family took a group photo. In the middle is Zeng Zhaoyi's mother, and the fourth person standing in the back row is Zeng Zhaoyi
<h1>After completing his studies, he returned to China and devoted himself to the cause of Chinese archaeology</h1>
When a person has a dream in his heart, he is always full of motivation, and Zeng Zhaoyi is like this. She studied so hard and so intently that it took her just over a year to obtain a Master's degree in Archaeology from the University of London. Not only that, Zeng Zhaoyi was also sent to the Berlin State Museum and the Munich Museum in Germany for further study, so she became the first scholar in China to be officially assigned to study museology abroad.
After the Lugou Bridge incident, Zeng Zhaoyi, who was far away in a foreign country, was very shocked, and the news that had been transmitted abroad one after another made her anxious and cry bitterly, she was thousands of miles away, powerless, and only by completing her studies could she serve the country in the future.
Figure | In 1938, Zeng Zhaoyi interned at the Museum of Prehistory and Antihistory in Berlin, Germany
In 1938, Zeng Zhaoyi, who had excellent grades, had already received an offer of appointment from the University of London, but she was concerned about the motherland, and despite the persuasion of her family, she resolutely refused the olive branch from the University of London and returned to China.
Zeng Zhaoyi left enough money to pay for the journey, so he donated the money he saved in Britain and his gold ring to the Chinese army fighting on the front line. She returned home with a passion, accompanied by a photograph published in the News Daily, showing a toddler sitting next to her mother's body crying on the edge of the ruins bombed by the invaders... This photograph she kept until the victory of the War of Resistance.
After returning to China, Zeng Zhaoyi immediately joined the Preparatory Department of the Central Museum as a special design committee member. She participated in the archaeological work in the Erhai Sea in Dali, Yunnan, Zeng Zhaoyi worked tirelessly, was not afraid of the sun and the wind, insisted on on the site investigation every day, the kung fu paid off, and her archaeological discoveries in Dali were named "Cang'er Culture".
Figure | Zeng Zhaoyi and other scholars
In that era of war, it was precisely because there were people like Zeng Zhaoyi that China's cultural and educational undertakings could develop tenaciously, and the culture that lasted for thousands of years would not be broken.
In addition to the investigation of the monuments, Zeng Zhaoyi also co-authored the book "Museum" with the famous archaeologist Li Ji, which is a classic book on the basic theory of museums.
In early 1942, Zeng Zhaoyi, Xia Nai and Wu Jinding went to Lizhuang to excavate the cliff tomb of pengshan Han Dynasty. As the only woman in the team, she slept in the wind and never complained. She climbed up and down every day, alone in charge of all the field archaeological notes, which were considered by the academic community at that time to be "beyond the scope of traditional Chinese epigraphy" and truly "represented the advanced level of Britain and the world at that time", and at that time, she had just passed the age of establishment.
<h1>Sticking to the mainland, "marrying" the archaeologists of the museum</h1>
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zeng Zhaoyi returned to Nanjing, and she successively participated in the organization of the "Wartime Cultural Relics Loss Clearance Committee" and the "Theater Cultural Relics Preservation Committee". There, she organized the construction of the main hall of the Central Museum, in addition to which an exhibition hall was built to display the collection and open to the public.
Therefore, Liang Baiquan, who served as the director of the Nanjing Museum, speculated that Zeng Zhaoyi insisted on sticking to the mainland in 1949: "It is likely that the main hall and exhibition hall of the Preparatory Department of the Central Museum condensed her sweat and emotions, or it may be that she thought that the archaeological cause was still in the mainland."
In 1948, when the Nationalist government was in decline, officials at the time began packing cultural relics and heading to Taiwan, an act that Zeng zhaoyi was extremely opposed to. She also wrote to Hang Liwu, then director of the Preparatory Department of the Central Museum, angrily denouncing this act: If there is any loss on the way or after arriving in Taiwan, the person who presides over this matter will always be a national sinner!
Figure | In 1957, Zeng Zhaoyi was at work
Under her mediation, three batches of 852 boxes of cultural relics transported to Taiwan were re-shipped back to the mainland. She excused that some cultural relics were "too big and too heavy to be packaged", leaving behind many large cultural relics, among which there was the later national heavy weapon "Houmu Pengding".
Along with the cultural relics is Zeng Zhaoyi, who has always chosen to stick to the mainland alongside her beloved archaeology as many relatives, friends, and colleagues have traveled to Taiwan. With her talents, there are many opportunities, but she chooses to stay without hesitation.
It is said that Hu Shi also inquired about the whereabouts of Zeng Zhaoyi at the airport: "Is Miss Zeng here?" Is Miss Zeng here? When he learned that Zeng Zhaoyi chose to stay in the mainland, he couldn't help but sigh: "Unfortunately, this person is really a talent." ”
This continent is the place where Zeng Zhaoyi's ancestors swore to die, the place where she completed her studies, the place where her mentors and relatives were located, and the place where her career was located. She firmly believes that New China needs her, and the archaeology of New China needs her even more. She once expressed this emotion in her diary: "Here is the rebirth of the museum with unlimited future, and it is also the beginning of my own career." ”
Figure | Zeng Zhaoyi's collected writings
After the founding of New China, the Central Museum was renamed the Nanjing Museum, where Zeng Zhaoyi spent the rest of his life. Her dormitory is right next to her office, and life and work have long been integrated.
Zeng Zhaoyi lived an ascetic life, eating coarse tea and light rice, and wearing simple clothes. But she was very generous to others, and her savings were used to help workers in financial difficulty and to aid nation-building.
"Love your neighbor as if you love yourself", this is the truth that her cousin taught her, and it is also the creed of her life.
Later, she was appointed president of the Nanjing Museum and established an unwritten rule: those engaged in cultural relics work in the hospital, especially those who do archaeological work, are absolutely not allowed to collect antiques privately. She led by example and even handed over her collection of Qing Dynasty tea sets to the state.
Figure | After the liberation of Nanjing, Zeng Zhaoyi welcomed the military representatives on behalf of the museum
In the Chinese archaeological community, there is a saying of "Southern Zeng and Northern Xia", "Northern Xia" refers to Xia Nai, director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and "Nan Zeng" refers to Zeng Zhaoyi.
In order to concentrate on archaeology, Zeng Zhaoyi may have been influenced by her cousin Zeng Baosun, who has never been married. When a Soviet expert visited Nambo, he kindly asked her: "When is Miss Zeng going to get married?" Zeng Zhaoyi replied with a smile: "I have long been married to the museum." "She did marry her whole life to the country's archaeological career.
Figure | In 1951, Zeng Zhaoyi was at the Nanjing Museum
<h1>Suicide, high talent short life who pity</h1>
After Zeng Zhaoyi stayed on the mainland, she has been working hard to integrate into the new regime. But in that special era, when the class struggle was the guideline, her family history was extremely special, and it also carried a heavy burden on the younger generations.
Her second brother Zeng Zhaoluo was suddenly branded a "rightist" and even removed from his post, and was sent from Beijing to Wuhan alone; her nephew Zeng Xianluo was also branded a "rightist" and sent down to the farm for labor reform, and his life and death are unknown... She watched as one relative after another around her was persecuted for political movements, but there was nothing she could do.
In the years leading up to her suicide, she was highly nervous and had trouble sleeping. Exhausted, Zeng Zhaoyi suffered from severe depression, and eventually she chose to climb the tower to commit suicide.
Before committing suicide, Zeng Zhaoyi also received a certificate of deputy to the National People's Congress, and she said to her colleague sadly: "This will not save me." ”
When Zeng Zhaoyi's good friend Chen Yinge learned of her death, he burst into tears and was filled with grief, and wrote a mourning poem for her: "On the old tongjia of the third emperor, the first time I saw the credit of the Chang'an years." He Waitjini knew Yun and did not hear of Xu Nu with Qin Jia. High talent short-lived people who pity, white bi green fly thing can be. Linggu was worried and wide should be crying, and the day was rainy and wet at the end of the world. "The rhetoric is poignant and lamentable.
Figure | Tomb of Zeng Zhaoyi
In the past few decades, few people in our generation know about Zeng Zhaoyi, but the grass and trees of the Linggu Pagoda remember her, the cultural relics of the Nanjing Museum remember her, and the archaeological history of China will always remember her!
Text | Yang Changsi
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