Although he and Xu Zhimo had very different personalities, they were close friends; in his youth, although he was a "newborn calf", he had already worked with the four great mentors of Tsinghua; at the time of the national crisis, although he was unarmed, he and Fu Sinian were in the same boat in Lizhuang. This person is Li Ji. He is an excellent anthropologist, and his greater achievements in archaeology have opened up modern archaeology in China, and can be called the "father of Chinese archaeology". So how did he go from a patriotic young man to a good archaeologist?
Mr. Li Ji was born in Shuxiangmendi and received a good education from an early age. And his father is also unique, his father adhered to the principle of "changing sons and training", sent Li Ji to his uncle. What Li Ji has been exposed to since he was a child is not "the beginning of man, the nature is good", but "Pangu is the first out, the sun and the beginning of the moon." After that, he was admitted to the Preparatory Department of Tsinghua University in the United States, because of his excellent results, he used the official fee to study in the United States, and when he went abroad, he held the idea of serving the motherland, and when he came to the United States, he began to study psychology and sociology, but then changed to demography. In 1924, because of a casual opportunity, he conducted an archaeology and developed a strong interest in archaeology, so he began his own archaeological career. From a young man to an archaeologist, he completed his metamorphosis.
In 1928, at his suggestion, he presided over the excavation of the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan, which shocked the world, a process that lasted for ten years. After this excavation, he changed the history of Yin Shang from legend to real history, and to this day, his excavation is still regarded as one of the most important excavations in the history of human civilization, and his excavation of Yin Ruins is still the most authoritative and convincing for our understanding of Yin Shang. Therefore, some people evaluate him: from the beginning of the archaeologist, to the later father of archaeology, and then as the head of archaeology, his academic ideas have always occupied a dominant position in the development of Chinese archaeology.
Li Ao once commented that Mr. Li Ji was "the last heavyweight scholar". Because Mr. Li Ji is quite diligent, attentive and dedicated in his research. But why use the word "valve"? It reflects a kind of stubbornness of Mr. Li Ji, which may be stubborn and sometimes bad, but I think that only stubborn people will know how to persist and will know how to study wholeheartedly.
Mr. Li Ji's life has realized his own value. He once wrote on his resume: If he had the opportunity, he would go to Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, and India to dig graves, search for ancient monuments, and find some antiques that people don't want to find the original chinese. His contribution, in my opinion, has not been surpassed. We should learn from Mr. Li Ji's insistence on contributing only to one thing in his life, and only with such persistence can we realize the value of our lives.