Chapter 4 4
Dr. Franz Joseph Gower, a famous physiognomist, traveled around France and taught the theory of judging personality based on the skull.Wherever he went, there were those who admired him, those who made fun of him, those who praised him, and those who belittled him.He once saw a French youth in a Parisian's home, because from the point of view of phrenology, the shape of the young man's skull was extremely extraordinary.As soon as he saw it, he exclaimed: "This is a language genius!" At that time, the 16-year-old boy was proficient in 6 oriental languages besides Latin and Greek. Got it.
In the 19th century, it was popular to write vivid biographies, and there is a strange record of his birth in the book "Biography of Champollion".Since there is no evidence against this passage, and Champollion, a controversial figure, has made such a great contribution to archaeological science, it is necessary to write this record here, so as to help understand his image.
Jacques Champollion, a book seller lived in the small town of Fizik in France. His wife was bedridden for a long time due to disability.
Halfway through 1790, when the doctors were helpless, Jack invited the magician Jakku.It should be mentioned that the town of Fizic is located in the Dauphiny department in southeastern France, which is famous for its Seven Wonders.Dauphiny is also a scenic spot in France, and it can be said to be a place haunted by gods.Dauphinians are stubborn and conservative in nature, not easily moved, but once aroused they are extremely passionate.Catholicism also makes them receptive to the miraculous.
According to several historical records, after the wizard Jakku arrived, he put the sick woman on a heated herbal mat and gave her mulled wine.He said that if he followed his instructions, he would be cured soon.To the surprise of the patient's family, he also concluded that there was a male fetus in the sick woman's womb, which would soon be delivered;
The sick woman got up on the third day. At two o'clock in the morning on December 23, 1790, Jean-François Champollion, the destined interpreter of hieroglyphs, was born.
According to legend, if the devil's child's feet are like cow's hoofs after he is born, there will be some phenomena on his body that show that he was processed by a wizard before he was born.After little Francois was born, it was noticed that the corneas of his eyes were yellow, which is a common feature of Orientals and extremely rare in Western Europe.His skin was yellow, and the shape of his face was distinctly oriental. Twenty years later, he is called "The Egyptian" wherever he goes.
Jean-François Champollion was the son of the revolution. In September 1792 Fizik proclaimed the Republic and in April 1793 the period of terror began.The residence of the Champollion family was only 30 steps away from the "Plaza de Armas", on which a monument of liberty was erected, which was later renamed Plaza Champollion.The first sounds that Jean-François heard in his memory were the loud Carmenio music and the cries of the refugees who had come to Champollion's house to beg protection from the revolutionary masses, among whom a priest later became a priest. Jean-Francois's first teacher.
According to a biography, Jean-François began translating ancient languages when he was just 5 years old.He first memorized a batch of ancient characters from memory, and then compared them with the original texts, and used this method to teach himself to identify ancient characters.When he was nearly 7 years old, he first heard about the magical country of Egypt, but only once, it disappeared like a mirage. It turned out that François had a brother Jean Jacques who was 12 years older than him. He planned to go to Egypt with the Napoleon Expeditionary Force, but he failed to do so.
Both hearsay and witnesses know that Champollion did not do well in Fizik School when he was a child.His older brother was a talented linguist who also liked archeology.Because Champollion was not good at studying, he took him to Grannoble in 1801 and educated him personally. The 11-year-old Francois quickly showed a rare talent in learning Latin and Greek, and then concentrated on learning Hebrew, and his progress was amazing.His elder brother made a decisive decision and decided to try to stay as dark as possible from now on, so that his younger brother could emerge as soon as possible.At this time he changed his name to Champollion-Fizik, and then simply to Fizik.His own talents were indisputable, and yet he was able to be so humble, so convinced that his brother could shine more brightly on the mast than himself, it was indeed commendable.
■Superior wisdom In this year, the famous mathematician and physicist Jean-Baptiste Fouris had a conversation with this multilingual child.Fu Li took part in the Egyptian expedition and later served as secretary at the Egyptian Academy in Cairo.He also served as a commissioner and magistrate in the French military government in Egypt, and was the head of the scientific committee.At this time he was the prefect of the Isère district, and he was in the provincial capital Granoble, and he soon gathered around him a group of intellectuals.When he inspected the school, he had a debate with Francois on a question, appreciated Francois's superior wisdom, and soon invited him to his home as a guest, and showed him the cultural relics he had collected in Egypt. The dark-skinned boy was very fond of the fragments of ancient papyrus and the hieroglyphs on the stone tablets for the first time. "Does anyone know these words?"
he asks.Fu Li shook his head. "I will get to know each other," said Xiao Shangpoliang confidently, "in a few years. I will grow up by then." Several years later, he himself often mentioned this matter.
This anecdote is naturally reminiscent of another man who said to his father "I'm going to find Troy" as a child.Both children are so confident, and both are so absurd.However, how different the two people are in the process of realizing their youthful ideals!Schliemann was self-taught all his life, but Champollion never left his regular study for a moment, although his intelligence developed rapidly and he often left his classmates far behind.Schliemann worked without any technical equipment, and Champollion's learning conditions made all contemporary knowledge available to him.
His older brother supervised his studies, and he tried to curb the boy's excessive thirst for knowledge, but it was impossible.Champollion continued to attack the most esoteric field of knowledge, achieving peaks one after another.He completed his first book "History of Famous Dogs" when he was 12 years old.He felt that the lack of a chronological list of major events was not conducive to the work of historical research, so he compiled a set by himself and named it "Chronology from Adam to Shang Boliang".Because the elder brother deliberately kept his name anonymous to create conditions for Jean-Francois to be famous, the younger brother also signed his name as "Little Champollion" in order to teach people not to forget that there was another Champollion above him.
At the age of 13 he began to learn Arabic, Syriac, Chaldi and Coptic.Coincidentally, no matter what he studies or does, and no matter what unexpected opportunities he has, they are more or less related to Egyptian culture without exception. One step closer.He dabbled in ancient Chinese texts in order to investigate whether there is any connection between ancient Chinese texts and ancient Egyptian texts.These are rare ancient texts that he studied, which could not be obtained in Granoble without the power of Fouris.In this way, Champollion compiled the first historical chronology of the Egyptian Pharaoh Dynasty based on all the materials at hand. It was the summer of 1807, and Champollion was just 17 years old.
This can be called a bold attempt, because all the materials available to Shang Boliang at that time were only fragments of the Bible and scattered and distorted Latin, Arabic and Hebrew materials. In addition, the only thing to compare is the Coptic text. The only language closely related to ancient Egyptian, Coptic was still popular in northern Egypt until the seventeenth century.
When the education authorities learned that Champollion wanted to go to Paris for research work, they asked him to write a thesis on his own topic.They thought that he could only write an ordinary student composition, but they didn't expect that he would actually write the idea of a whole book called "Egypt Under the Pharaohs".
On September 1, 1807, Champollion read the introduction to this book, and the audience was all the teachers of Grannoble Public School.The slender boy stood upright on the podium with a serious attitude and a genius look on his face. He expounded his arguments with bold arguments and strict logic.After hearing this, the teachers were greatly appreciative, and they chose him as a teacher on the spot, and joined their ranks: Principal Renaudton stood up, hugged Champollion, and said to him, "We choose you as a teacher based on the achievements you have already made." Yes, but we believe that your future achievements will never stop there, we believe that you will not disappoint our expectations, and also believe that you will not forget these people who first discovered your genius after you become famous in the future."
In this way, Champollion changed from a student to a teacher at once.
■Chang Boliang, the key to the kingdom of the past, passed out after he came out of public school.At this time he was a highly sensitive teenager, his personality reacting extremely violently to mood swings.Many people knew him as a genius, and his precocious intellect had become famous.His physical development is also beyond his actual age. For example, he decided to get married just after graduation, which is not at all out of a teenager's first love.
He knew that he was about to enter a new stage in his career and that Paris was the political and cultural center of Europe.
Champollion and his brother traveled in a long-distance carriage for 70 hours. When they arrived not far from Paris, his heart had already turned from reality to vision.He seemed to see the old yellowing papyrus and heard dozens of different languages.He thought of the Rosetta Tablet; he had seen a copy of it when he said goodbye to Foley.Those hieroglyphs carved on basalt came to his mind from time to time.
According to reliable rumors, while the two brothers were driving to Paris, Champollion suddenly uttered what was in his heart.He told Fizik what he wanted to do, but now he suddenly saw that he had the power to realize his wish.His black eyes gleamed in his yellow face: "I'm going to translate the hieroglyphs; I can do it."
At that time, it was generally believed that the Rosetta Stele was discovered by a man named Dotpur, and some people said that it was Bouchard, but after investigation, it was proved that Bouchard was just the one who commanded the soldiers to excavate the ruins of the Razid Fortress. Officer, he himself did not find the stele.This fortress, renamed Fort Julian by the French, is situated on the banks of the Nile, about four or five miles northwest of Rosetta.The Rosetta Stele was transported to Cairo by Bouchard.
It was an unknown soldier who actually dug up the Rosetta Tablet.It is estimated that this person probably has a certain culture, or at least some common sense, so it can be seen that this stele is a rare thing.Or he may have been an ignorant and superstitious person who, seeing a mass of symbols carved in stone on the stele, thought they were spells, and made such a fuss that Bouchard knew about it.
The Rosetta Tablet is approximately the size of a tabletop, measuring 3 feet 9 inches long by 2 feet 4½ inches wide and 11 inches thick.The body of the stele is polished basalt, "as hard as a hammer." Three paragraphs of text are engraved on one side of the stele, which have become somewhat blurred after 2000 years of wind and sand erosion.The first section is in hieroglyphics, with a total of 11 lines; the second section is in demotic script, with a total of 32 lines; the third section is in Greek, with a total of 54 lines.
Greek!This is understandable!
A general under Napoleon who knew Greek immediately began to translate this Greek text. This is a decree written by an Egyptian priest in 196 BC, and the content is to praise the achievements of the ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy Epiphanus. .
After the surrender of the French army in Alexandria, this monument was transported to the British Museum together with many cultural relics taken away by the French army from Egypt.Fortunately, the "committee" had already ordered that this stele and other cultural relics be made into plaster replicas.After these replicas were shipped to Paris, scholars gathered around to conduct comparative studies.
The reason why it is a comparative study is that the arrangement of the three paragraphs itself shows that their content is the same. The "Egyptian Courier" has already said that the key to this past kingdom can be found on the Rosetta Tablet, through which it is possible to "explain Egypt with the mouth of the Egyptians." After correctly translating the Greek text , and try to find the relationship between Greek characters and those hieroglyphs, it should not be very difficult.
Those who participated in this work were all the most famous scholars at that time. The translation work was carried out in England (using the original Rosetta tablet), Germany, Italy and France at the same time, but there was no result.These scholars made the same mistake without exception, and they made the mistake of trying to find what was in Herodotus' frame from these hieroglyphs.This is a typical misconception that has always existed in the human mind.If you want to uncover the mysteries of Egyptian writing, you need to change your views completely like Copernicus, and you must have the courage to break the shackles of tradition.
■An unexpected blow Champollion's elder brother Champollion-Fizik had a teacher named De Sassi who lived in Paris.De Sassi is not amazing, but he is a scholar with international reputation.Fizik took his younger brother to see De Sassi. Champollion was only 17 years old at the time, but he talked with his peers in front of De Sassi.And it's no surprise: Champollion behaved the same way in front of that celebrity when he was introduced to Freeze six years ago.
De Sassi was dubious about this foreign prodigy.He was 49 years old at the time, and he was one of the best figures in the intellectual world: he had only read the introduction to Champollion's "Egypt Under the Pharaohs", and the plan put forward in the book even the author himself admitted that he could not realize it in his lifetime .De Sassi didn't know how to evaluate such a young man.However, a long time later, he recalled that when he first met Champollion, he said that he was "deeply impressed" by this young man.This is not surprising, since the book was almost finished by the end of the year when Champollion met him.
It took another seven years for the book to finally hit the ground running, but by the time it was written, the 17-year-old author was well-deserved of the honors.
Champollion devoted himself to research work.The colorful world of Paris has nothing to do with him. He buried himself in the library, traveled among scientific research institutions, and learned Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian——De Sassi once called Persian "the Italian of the East" .In short, Champollion is immersed in the study of various oriental languages. After he has laid down the basic knowledge, he can understand the development of these languages in use.At this time, he also wrote to his brother, asking him to get him a Chinese grammar, saying that it was "for entertainment".
He learned Arabic to such a degree that his voice changed.On a social occasion, an Arab regarded him as a fellow countryman, so he gave him a gift.He acquired a wealth of knowledge about Egypt from books.The famous African traveler Somini de Manecourt praised this young man after talking with him: "He understands some of the countries we talked about as clearly as I understand myself!"
After another year, he learned Coptic, speaking and writing it.He said: "I often speak Coptic to myself." He kept his diary in Coptic just for practice; who knows that this weird result turned into a famous joke 40 years later.When a French scientist saw these diaries, he regarded them as ancient Egyptian writings from the era of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and wrote a special article to discuss them.This is very similar to the joke of Professor Bailinger in Germany who regarded the animal bones buried by children as ancient fossils, which is really unique.
During the French Revolution, Champollion was in a very difficult situation. If it weren't for his brother's strong support, he would have almost starved to death.
He lived in a humble hut in Louvre for eighteen francs a month.But even this little money he could not afford; he often wrote to his brother asking for help, saying that he himself was helpless, that he could not go on living.My brother wrote back asking him to cut down on expenses, otherwise he would have to pawn his books.But his living expenses couldn't be cut any further. His shoes were worn out and his shirt was so torn that he couldn't show his face in public.The winter of that year was extremely cold, and he lay sick in a damp and cold room, and the root cause of the disease was planted, which finally took his life away.Xing Er had two small things that went well, otherwise he would really have a nervous breakdown.
Misfortunes never come singly, the emperor needed more troops, and in 1808 he ordered all young men who had reached the age of 16 to be drafted, which frightened Champollion.He was born against all mandatory orders, and he could be the strictest for learning, but he shuddered at the sight of those soldiers marching in groups, because he thought that the restraints these small soldiers were subject to destroyed a person's personality.Didn't Winkelman also experience the threat of joining the army?That's why he complained in a letter to Fizik: "Sometimes I just go crazy."
At this moment, his brother, who had always loved him the most, stepped forward and tried to protect Champollion.While asking his friends for help, he complained in writing, and he wrote countless letters.As a result, Champollion was finally able to continue to study his ancient characters in the war-torn era.
There is another thing that gives him spiritual sustenance, which makes him sometimes forget the threat of conscripts, and that is the study of the Rosetta Tablet.On this issue, he is very similar to Schliemann, because Schliemann deliberately postponed the study of Greek, and did not start learning Greek until he was able to speak and write European languages through self-study.The Rosetta Stone was to Champollion what the Greek language was to Schliemann.The young man's heart has been longing for the mysterious inscription, but he has been hesitant, because he thinks that he is not mature enough to deal with such a difficult task.
But at this time, after he saw the replica of the newly-made Rosetta Monument in London, he couldn't control it anymore and was eager to try it.However, he did not set out to decipher the inscription himself, only comparing it with an ancient text written on papyrus.
After a preliminary exploration of the black stele, he had been able to "figure out for himself the correct value of a whole line of letters."
In a letter to his brother on August 30, 1808, he wrote: "I submit the preliminary results to your review." The implicit pride of the author.
However, just when he had done the preliminary work and knew that he could succeed if he persevered, he suffered an unexpected blow.Hardship or adversity was not to his mind; but now it seemed that all his laborious preparations and good wishes had been thwarted by the news that the hieroglyphs had been translated.
■The Sword of Don Quixote At the beginning, Champollion was really overwhelmed by the news, but it was just a false alarm.On that day, Champollion met a friend who told him the news on his way to the French Academy. The person didn't realize how great a blow this was to Champollion.Champollion turned pale when he heard this, shook his head, and held on to his friend so that he did not fall down: all the hopes he had lived and worked, endured hunger, and worked so hard for for a long time suddenly came to naught!
"The translator is Alexandre Lenoir," said the friend. "The book has just been published. It is a pamphlet. He named it "New Translation". In the book, all the hieroglyphs have been translated. Come to think of it, this What a big deal!"
Indeed, what an event this is!
"Lenoir?" Champollion asked, then shook his head.He saw a glimmer of hope.He had also seen Lenoir yesterday.
He had known Lenoir for half a year, and Lenoir was a capable scholar, but by no means a genius. "This is impossible,"
Champollion said. "No one ever told me about deciphering hieroglyphics, not even Lenoir himself."
"Isn't that strange?" asked the friend, "who wouldn't keep a secret about such an important discovery!"
Champollion let go of his friend abruptly.He asked: "Where is the bookstore?" Then he ran away.When he arrived at the bookstore, he ordered some good books with trembling hands and placed them on the dusty counter.At this time, Lenoir's pamphlet was rarely asked.Champollion ran home, sat on the broken sofa and began to read.
In the kitchen, the widow of Meklan suddenly heard a roar of laughter from the next room, so frightened that she put the saucepan on the table and was almost stunned.She listened for a while in fear, and then ran to the porter to look in, and saw Champollion lying on the sofa, shaking with hysterical laughter.
In his hand was the book written by Lenoir.Does such a thing count as a work of deciphering hieroglyphics?This review is too early!Lenoir's book is a blah blah blah, a quixotic amalgam of subjective imagination and erroneous scholarship.With Champollion's knowledge, he could see through all this.
But it was a blow that Champollion would never forget.From his own reaction to this incident, he realized how strong his desire to bring these dead symbols back to life is!After falling asleep exhausted that night, he had many strange dreams. He dreamed that many Egyptians were talking to him, and his own image was clearly revealed. Study hieroglyphs like crazy.This dream portended victory, but in fact it was more than 20 years later that he finally achieved his goal.