Chapter 10 In the Afterglow of Brilliance Li Ji: The Father of Chinese Archeology (1)

Li Ji (1896-1979), courtesy name Jizhi, was born in Zhongxiang, Hubei. After graduating from Tsinghua University, he studied in the United States and received a doctorate in anthropology from Harvard University.The pioneer of Chinese archaeology, he once presided over major archaeological excavations such as Yin Ruins in Anyang. He has a dream. The young Chinese student wrote at the end of his "self-written resume": "If given the opportunity, I would like to go to Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, India, and Persia to dig graves, dig monuments, find ancient monuments, and find some antiques that others don't want. Find out the origin of the Chinese people.”

That year, he was 22 years old and was about to go to Harvard to study anthropology.Later, he really went to "digging graves and digging for ancient monuments", but he did not go to Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, India or Persia, but in Henan, Shanxi and Shandong in the Central Plains. In 1926, he presided over the excavation of the Yangshao Cultural Site in Xiyin Village, Xia County, Shanxi Province. He became the first Chinese scholar to excavate an archaeological site. In 1930, he presided over the excavation of the Chengziya site in Longshan Town, Jinan, and he presented the Longshan culture to the world.

Today, Yangshao Culture and Longshan Culture have become iconic terms in ancient Chinese history, and many people who know nothing about archaeology are familiar with them.However, most people have never heard of him. From 1928 to 1937, he presided over the world-shocking excavation of the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province, turning the Yin Shang culture from a legend into a trusted history, and thus advancing the history of China for hundreds of years.To this day, it is still regarded as one of the most significant excavations in the history of human civilization. In the history of modern Chinese academics, this is a very important name --- Li Ji.

Our knowledge of the Shang Dynasty is largely delineated for us by Li Chi.The Anyang excavation led by him had a decisive impact on the development of Chinese archaeology in the second half of the 20th century—including Xia Nai, director of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Gao Quxun, director of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. The leaders of the Chinese archaeological circles in the area all received archaeological training in Anyang. The late Zhang Guangzhi, an academician of Academia Sinica, a member of the National Academy of Sciences in Taiwan, and a professor at Harvard University, the late master of archaeological anthropology, once commented on his mentor Li Ji: In the past 60 years, as the first Chinese archeology Father, and then as the head of Chinese archaeology, his academic thoughts have always occupied a dominant position in the development of this science in China.

If Zhang Guangzhi's "Chinese academic circle" is not narrowed down to Taiwanese academic circles, then his judgment is obviously too optimistic.Li Ji moved to Taiwan with Shiyu at the end of 1948. It is difficult to judge whether this choice is good or bad, but the embarrassing situation it caused is obvious. In 1959, the mainland archaeological community represented by the "Archaeology" magazine launched a fierce "encirclement and suppression" against Li Ji.Li Ji's son Li Guangmo even collected an issue of "Archaeology" that year, criticizing Li Ji throughout the entire issue.Since then, like many famous scholars who have chosen to make political mistakes, this name has gradually disappeared from our reading field.

I don’t know how Li Ji reacted to this kind of “encirclement and suppression”, but he once made severe criticisms of the archaeological excavation reports in the mainland after 1949. He believed that they lacked actual materials and were full of political terms. The content is actually called "confidential". "I think, according to his usual standards, these are not enough for archaeology." Li Guangmo sighed to the reporter.