December 15, 2023 in ShanghaiThe 5th World Archaeological Forum awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award to Professor Yan Wenming of Peking University.
A recent photo of Mr. Yan Wenming.
The Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the World Forum on Archaeology, recognizes scholars who are globally acclaimed, have profound academic attainments, and have had a broad and far-reaching impact on the field of archaeology. Previous editions have been conferred on Lord Colin Renfrew, Professor Brian Fagan, Academician Jane White, etc. This is the first time that the forum has awarded this award to a Chinese archaeologist. "This is not only a recognition of Mr. Yan Wenming's outstanding contribution to the development of archaeology, but also an affirmation of his tireless efforts to educate the public about the importance of archaeology to the contemporary society and the common future of the world." ”
"Thank you for the high honor that has been given me, but I am only diligent in my cultivation and do not care about the harvest. ”92-year-old Mr. Yan Wenming wrote his testimonial.
Mr. Yan Wenming said.
Mr. Yan Wenming was born in Huarong, Hunan Province in 1932, graduated from the Department of History of Beijing University in 1958, majoring in archaeology, and stayed on to teach. He has served as the head of the Department of Archaeology at Peking University, the vice chairman of the Archaeological Society of China, and is now a senior professor at Peking University.
Starting from the excellent study of Yangshao culture, he made a comprehensive and in-depth investigation of the Neolithic period across the country, and established the chronological and genealogical framework of Chinese Neolithic culture. He used the speculation of a philosopher and the vision of a poet to gain insight into the structural beauty of China's prehistoric civilization, put forward the thesis of "double-petaled flowers", and told the code of Chinese civilization that has continued to this day. He advocated a multidisciplinary research method combining archaeology and natural sciences, and spared no effort to promote the internationalization of Chinese archaeology, and was an important leader in the development of archaeology in China.
His book "Yangshao Cultural Research" won the first National Humanities and Social Science Research Outstanding Achievement Award in Colleges and Universities, and many of his books have won the special prize of the Beijing Philosophy and Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award, the Top Ten Books of National Cultural Heritage, and the Wenjin Book Award of the National Library.
Chinese archaeology has been exploring early Chinese civilization since the beginning.
Since the archaeology of Yangshao Village in Henan Province in 1921, Chinese archaeology has gone through a hundred years. In the past 100 years, archaeology has developed in China like never before. In 1923, Andersen published "The Ancient Culture of China", which is the archaeological report of Yangshao, the first archaeological site in China, which is an exploration of early Chinese civilization, the relationship between Chinese culture and Western culture, and the Chinese archaeology is considered in the context of world civilization, and the starting point is quite high. Mr. Yan Wenming said.
It is at such a high starting point that we have the archaeology of Xiyin Village in Xia County, the archaeology of Yinxu, and the discovery of black pottery of Longshan culture in Chengziya, Shandong. Mr. Liang Siyong found the famous three-fold layer in the back post of Anyang, the bottom is the red pottery painted pottery of Yangshao, the middle is the black pottery of Longshan, and the top is the gray pottery of the late Shang Yinxu. ”
However, the important archaeology of the Neolithic period in China was mainly carried out after 1950. In 1958, after graduating from the Department of History of Peking University, Yan Wenming stayed on to teach, lecturing on Neolithic archaeology. In 1960, when he first led students to Luoyang Wangwan archaeological Xi, Yan Wenming instructed students to use the Wangwan site, which has clear stratigraphies and meticulous periodization, as a yardstick to measure the staging of the nearby Yangshao site. In 1964, a red-skin lead copy of "The Neolithic Age of China" was published, and Yan Wenming sent it to Jian Bozan, then the head of the history department of Peking University. ”
Mr. Yan Wenming in the study.
At that time, there were important discoveries of Banpo and Miaodigou, but the relevant basic research was insufficient, for example, there were many debates about Yangshao culture at that time, what types of Yangshao culture were there, which was earlier and which was later than the Banpo type of Yangshao culture and the type of Miaodigou, or was it basically at the same timeWhat is the social nature of Yangshao culture?These questions prompted me to start researching Yangshao culture. ”
Yan Wenming reorganized the materials of Yangshao cultural sites such as Yangshao Village, Xiyin Village, Miaodigou, Banpo, and Sanli Bridge. Firstly, the stratigraphic relationship and staging of typical sites are analyzed, then the staging of each region is studied, and finally the corresponding cultural staging of each region is compared and summarized, and the development of Yangshao culture is divided into four phases and two stages through typology and stratigraphy, which lays the foundation for the study of Yangshao culture. Mr. Su Bingqi read the article "A Brief Discussion on the Origin and Development Stage of Yangshao Culture" and believed that Yan Wenming "found a key to the study of the Neolithic period in China". In 1989, Yan Wenming's 30-year-old book "Yangshao Culture Research" was published, and its academic significance is not limited to Yangshao culture itself, but also has an important theoretical guiding role for the entire Chinese archaeological research.
Mr. Yan Wenming is on the front line of field archaeology.
Mr. Yan Wenming at the archaeological site.
On the basis of analyzing and studying a large number of archaeological data, Yan Wenming summarized the cultural development genealogy of the Neolithic in China into four stages of development: early, middle, late and "copper-stone era", tracing the tradition of the Paleolithic Age and the bronze civilization of the Xia, Shang and Third dynasties, which is integrated with the historical pattern of Chinese social development, and has contributed to the establishment of the archaeological system of the Neolithic in China, which has influenced it to this day.
The structure of the "double-petaled flower" is beautifulLi Boqian and Chen Xingcan edited a book "Intensive Reading of Chinese Archaeological Classics", in addition to the articles of Li Ji, Liang Siyong, Xia Nai, Su Bingqi, Zou Heng, Zhang Guangzhi and other archaeologists, Yan Wenming's "The Unity and Diversity of Chinese Prehistoric Culture" is also listed.
This was submitted by Yan Wenming in June 1986 for the International Symposium on "General Principles of Ancient Chinese History and Social Sciences". From the idea of this structure to the final preaching, it took less than a month. In this article, China's Neolithic culture is described as a giant double-petaled flower, the Central Plains cultural area is the heart of the flower, and the surrounding Ganqing, Shandong, Yanliao, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang cultural area are the first layer of petals, and the peripheral cultural area is the second layer of petals. The Central Plains Cultural District is located in the center of flowers, playing a core role in connecting various cultural districts, and also radiating culture to the surrounding cultural districts, while the peripheral cultural districts maintain their own vitality ......
In Yan Wenming's view, the formation of the two major agricultural systems, which are mainly based on millet and millet cultivation in northern China, and rice agriculture in the Yangtze River basin, have given Chinese civilization a broad foundation, and the two systems complement each other and make civilization continuous.
This theory of "double-petaled flowers" is both academic and poetic. At that international conference, everyone admired that Chinese scholars used the structure of a flower to explain the super-stable structure of Chinese civilization.
In March 1987, this article was published by Heritage magazine. This theory of Yan Wenming is considered to be an important achievement of Chinese prehistoric archaeological research. Archaeology has a lot to offer in ChinaIn the eyes of many students, Mr. Yan Wenming is an archaeologist who is very good at being a teacher. He has presided over more than 20 important field archaeological excavations or survey projects, and his footprints have traveled all over the country.
The advantage of being a teacher is that it forces you to not only study one place, but also understand the whole country, even a little bit of the world, to understand the methods and theories of archaeology, and to be able to guide students to conduct field archaeology, and to tell students how to learn Xi and how to research. Teaching is mutually beneficial, and I have truly experienced it. ”
In May 2022, Mr. Yan Wenming spoke at the 100th anniversary of archaeology at Peking University and the 70th anniversary of archaeological education in New China.
"The best way to find and discover the real thing is the best way to do it. Any theory that makes this information a good explanation of human history is a good theory. ”Yan Wenming often speaks this to his students.
Archaeology is science, and science means that your opinion must be verifiable. Mr. Yan's logical thinking ability is very strong, and many of the sites are advanced step by step in his scientific inference. Professor Han Jianye of the Department of Archaeology of Chinese University said. For example, Liangzhu, in 1986, high-level tombs such as Anti-Mountain and Yaoshan were discovered, and Mr. Yan deduced that the owner of the tomb must not be an ordinary person, and more than 600 pieces of jade were unearthed in Tomb No. 12, perhaps it was King Liangzhu, so there must be a decent residential area, there must be high-level buildings such as palaces, or there are palaces.
Later, the remains of a large hydraulic building were discovered. I went to see it in particular, like a big embankment, the south often builds the embankment, and it is very hard to carry a load of soil and a load of land. The profile of the dam is clear, and there are pottery shards inside, which are obviously from the Liangzhu period. This project is so big, tens of thousands of people have to work at the same time, who can transfer so many people?They still need food and shelter, and they have to have strong logistics, right?And there have to be scientific designers. Only a strong regime has such organizational ability, so it is not too much to infer that there is a Liangzhu country, right?In this way, step by step scientific excavation, more and more archaeological sites have been discovered in Liangzhu, and our understanding of it is becoming clearer and clearer, and it is certain that such archaeological sites will become world heritage sites. ”
The common ground of art and science is human creativity. Archaeology requires both an aesthetic appreciation of human art and a scientific understanding of the remains of civilization. This is an adventure full of wisdom, and Mr. Yan Wenming is very happy to do so.
"Be diligent in farming, not about the harvest".
With the poetic theory of "double-petaled flowers".
Explain the form of Chinese civilization
Kudos!
Congratulations to Mr. Yan Wenming!
Edited by Liang Xinyi.