Wang Wei, witness of the 40 year development of Chinese Archaeology: want to make cultural relics "closer" to the people
2022-04-14
We have a long history of cultural materials. Why not build a theme park like Disney and Universal Studios, what is left behind to inherit our own traditional culture? We can make full use of VR (virtual reality) and other digital technologies, so that people all over the country and the world who are full of longing for Chinese civilization can immerse themselves in the long history, rich and colorful, broad and profound Chinese civilization—— As a deputy to the National People's Congress, at this year's two sessions, Wang Wei suggested that China choose some central cities with a long history to build a theme park of Chinese civilization This year, Wang Wei, member of the academic department of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and chairman of the Chinese archaeological society, ushered in his 40th year in the archaeological industry. Archaeology in China developed rapidly from 1979 to 2000 and began to flourish in 2001. According to Wang Wei, his 40 year archaeological career is equivalent to personally experiencing the development and changes of Archaeology in China since the reform and opening up. As a cultural undertaking, early archaeology has always been regarded as the most distant discipline from reality. Up to now, the distance between Archaeology and ordinary people is still far away. Most people just look forward to what bright "treasures" have been unearthed behind a startling discovery. Chinese archaeologists are trying to break this situation. They tried to guide people to pay attention to the cultural significance behind cultural relics through "archaeological discoveries, we can know..." and establish cultural confidence in the field of archaeology or Chinese civilization. Wang Wei regarded the archaeological excavation of Sanxingdui site last year as a model of Chinese Archaeology in the new era. He used to lie on a mobile trolley and look at hundreds of "gluttonous feasts" unearthed in the six sacrificial pits of "Shangxin" at a distance of only 40 cm. The 2000 square meter greenhouse and four constant temperature and humidity archaeological excavation compartments were unimaginable before. This scene made him realize that modern Chinese Archaeology is in the golden age. "From a large country of archaeological resources to a large country of archaeological discoveries, we are now moving towards an archaeological power." Wang Wei said. Excavating Che Ma Keng is a unique skill of Archaeology in China After the founding of new China, Chinese archaeology, which entered the initial development period, began to recover. A number of archaeological discoveries such as Yangshao cultural settlement sites, ancient capitals and important cemeteries gradually came out, which gave an outline to the development sequence of China's prehistoric culture. In 1950, the first national archaeological research institution in New China, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was officially established. Since then, many provinces have begun to establish cultural relics teams, and a few colleges and universities have also established archaeology majors. But even after half a century, the scale of new China's archaeological system is still difficult to match this "resource rich" land. "There were few archaeological projects at that time, and there were only two or three in some provinces a year." Wang Wei said. In the era of economic recovery, he felt that some "good things" were regarded as "old things", and the term of cultural heritage protection had not entered the hearts of the public, or even been ignored. Wang Wei was the first batch of college students after the resumption of the college entrance examination. At that time, the first volunteer was archaeology. Archaeological discoveries such as Qin Shihuang Terracotta Army, Mancheng Han tombs and Mawangdui Han Tombs in a documentary made him interested in archaeology. In early 1982, Wang Wei graduated from university and entered the Institute of archaeology, Chinese Academy of social sciences. Here, he participated in his first archaeological excavation project: Liulihe site in Fangshan District, Beijing. It took five years to excavate the capital and cemetery of Yan state in the Western Zhou Dynasty. According to the documentary records, in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhao Gongyi (SH ì) was granted to Yan. There are great disputes about the initial fief of Yan state in the Western Zhou Dynasty, including Jixian County in Tianjin (today's Jizhou District) and Laishui in Hebei. Later, Wang Wei and other archaeologists excavated the existing rammed earth wall, the noble burial area outside the city and the residential area in the city in Liulihe Town, Fangshan, and concluded that it was the capital and initial fief of the state of Yan in the Western Zhou Dynasty, thus dating back to 3000 years ago. For the ancients, the unique charm that archaeology can rewrite history naturally endows them with a strong sense of mission. "The task I was given at that time was to explore the chariot pits in the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, noble tombs often had burial carriages. According to the identity of the tomb owner, the number of burial carriages was also different." Previously, the local government had cleared the cart and horse pit and found no trace of the car. Only the shaft heads with copper ornaments at both ends were found at the bottom of the pit. Therefore, it was speculated that at that time, it was popular to bury with an axle symbolizing the carriage instead of a real carriage. In fact, carriages have been excavated from the Yin Ruins before, and there has never been a case of burial with axles instead of carriages, so Wang Wei also wants to verify whether this statement is tenable. The carriages buried in Yin Ruins were all buried in complete vehicles. However, in Liulihe ruins, all carriages were buried in the pit after the wheels were disassembled. The structure of carriages was scattered and difficult to identify. Wang Wei said that the wooden carriage buried more than 3000 years ago has a soft texture after decay, which is different from the hard soil rammed around the pit. During excavation, the traces of the carriage can only be identified by the soft and hard soil and color. First, use a small brush to clean up the traces of the carriage. After careful cleaning, Wang Wei and his team found a complete carriage, which proved that the state of Yan in the Western Zhou Dynasty was also buried with a whole carriage, rather than just using an axle instead of a car. The number of carriages and ritual vessels in the chariot pit also reflects the ritual system of funerary vehicles in the Western Zhou Dynasty. From 1981 to 1985, Wang Wei and other archaeologists excavated 21 car and horse pits at Liulihe site, found 14 buried horses and 5 cars in the "1100" car and horse pit that Wang Wei was responsible for cleaning, and cleared the umbrella cover inserted on the car for the first time. In 1983, China undertook the World Archaeological Conference - the Asian regional (Chinese) archaeological seminar for the first time. "Dozens of foreign archaeologists came to Beijing for a meeting. The organizers arranged for the delegates to visit the Liulihe archaeological excavation site in Fangshan. The foreign archaeologists were shocked when they saw the excavated Chema pit and asked us how we distinguished it." The excavation of Che Ma Keng has been recognized by international peers, and Wang Wei also has a sense of achievement. He said that from the first clearing of carriages at Yin Ruins in the 1930s to the discovery of carriages in the Warring States period in liulige, Huixian County, Henan Province in the early 1950s, several generations of ancient people have summarized excavation methods through continuous practice, making the excavation of chariot and horse pits a unique skill of our national archaeological excavation. The unearthed cultural relics in Beijing confirm the "state closure and founding" in the early Western Zhou Dynasty In the field excavation, the ancients experienced the "tingling feeling" from the theft of the tomb in front of them. Wang Wei recalled that when excavating the noble tombs of Liulihe site, he found that the bronze wares buried in most tombs had been stolen. In 1986, archaeologists excavated the "1193 tomb" in Liulihe Town, Fangshan, Beijing, near the southwest corner of the threshing field of Huangtupo village on the east side of the Beijing Guangzhou railway. The tomb chamber is rectangular. Different from the shape of ordinary tombs, there is also a tomb passage at the four corners of the tomb, and the four tomb passages extend to the tomb chamber in a slope shape. According to the burial custom, the coffin chamber faces north, and some valuable bronze sacrificial vessels and containers will be placed on the racking platform at the north end. "We were disappointed to find that the bronze ware was stolen on the second floor of the tomb." However, Wang Wei was slightly gratified that there were abundant bronze weapons and lacquer shields on both sides of the coffin, and two pieces of bronze ware containing wine were unearthed in the direction of the owner's feet. The bigger surprise comes from the long inscriptions with the same content on the two bronzes. The inscriptions on the bronze ware record the content that the king of Zhou granted the Duke of Zhao as the Duke of Yan. Through the archaeological material and historical materials, it is the first time to confirm the "enfeoffment and founding of the state" in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In addition, affected by the climate, the lacquerware unearthed in the south is well preserved when it is saturated with water. In the north, the weather is dry and the lacquer skin is easy to fall off. Wang Wei and other archaeologists used creative methods to pack the lacquerware together with the surrounding soil, insert the board from the bottom, transport it indoors as a whole, brush it gently with a brush dipped in water, and then clean it layer by layer to get a lot of complete lacquerware. Some of these valuable historical materials are now placed in the Beijing Capital Museum and displayed in front of the public. In the summer of 1996, Wang Wei was appointed director of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Archaeology Research Office of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of social sciences. At this time, the national key scientific and technological research project of the Ninth Five Year Plan - the dating project of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties was officially launched. The project focuses on solving the chronological problems of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties in Chinese history. "Although the chronology produced by the engineers at that time was controversial in the academic circles, the project was also of great significance. It created a precedent for interdisciplinary joint research. Before that, there was no such great support for major issues in the humanities at the national level." Wang Wei said. From 1996 to 1998, he led a team and gathered several scholars from the research institute to explore the palace ruins in the early Shang Dynasty Capital in Yanshi mall, Henan Province, which provided a landmark for the Xia and Shang Dynasties and their cultural boundaries. Then, starting from 1999, he led a team to the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Zhouyuan, Shaanxi Province, and found a group of ancestral temple buildings of the Western Zhou Dynasty for the first time, which provided new data for the study of the history and culture of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Explore the origin of Chinese civilization and put forward the symbol of judging civilization The origin of mankind, the origin of agriculture and the origin of civilization are the three major topics of world archaeology. The research on the origin of Chinese civilization is also an important issue concerned by Wang Wei. In 2002, the "source exploration project of Chinese civilization" was officially launched. Wang Wei was appointed Project Leader (chief expert). More than 400 experts and scholars from more than 70 units of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and many universities and nearly 20 first-class disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology, molecular biology, remote sensing, astronomy, geology, metallurgy and computer science participated. It is a large-scale comprehensive research project for the study of ancient civilization with the largest number of disciplines and the highest scientific and technological content in the world. Archaeologists carried out large-scale archaeological investigations and key excavations around several urban sites and other central sites in the Yellow River Basin, the Yangtze River Basin and the Liaohe River Basin and their surrounding settlements from 3500 to 1500 B.C., and studied the process, mode and mechanism of the formation of the diversified and integrated pattern of Chinese civilization centered on the Central Plains The road and its characteristics have been comprehensively studied in many disciplines. During his previous study in Japan, Wang Wei read many books on ancient history. When introducing world civilization, some foreign books described in detail the ancient Egyptian civilization of more than 5000 years and the ancient Indian Harappa civilization of 4600 years, but only 3300 years of Chinese civilization were mentioned. This touched his nerves. "At that time, the three elements of civilization were metallurgy, writing and city. Because these three elements were available in the late Shang Dynasty, others said that we had a civilization history of more than 3000 years." Wang Wei realized that this problem can only be solved through the evidence obtained from archaeological excavations. According to international judgment
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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