Li Ji (1896- 1979) was born in Zhongxiang, Hubei. 19 1 1 was admitted to Tsinghua University, an American preparatory school for studying abroad. 19 18 went to Clark university in Massachusetts to study psychology, and changed to demography the following year. 1920 After obtaining a master's degree in sociology, he transferred to Harvard University to study anthropology. From 65438 to 0925, 29-year-old Li Ji worked as an anthropology lecturer in Tsinghua University Institute of Chinese Studies, under the guidance of four famous teachers (Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei, Chen Yinque and Zhao Yuanren).
Li Ji has been engaged in field archaeology since 1924. /kloc-in the autumn of 0/926, he and geologist Yuan Fuli went to Xia county to excavate the prehistoric site of Yin Xi village. This is the first time in history that the site was excavated by modern archaeological methods hosted by China people, and the first page of modern archaeological history of China was written.
At the beginning of 1929, on the recommendation of Ding Wenjiang, Yang Xingfo and Li Siguang, Li Ji joined the Institute of History and Language of Academia Sinica led by Fu Sinian, and was hired as the director of the Archaeological Group. At that time, Chen Yinque was the head of the history group and Zhao Yuanren was the head of the language group. In March of the same year, Li Ji succeeded Dong Zuobin in leading the second excavation of Yin Ruins. Since then, Li Ji has presided over the archaeological excavation of Yin Ruins and achieved great success. In the last 30 years of his life, Li Ji made a comprehensive and systematic study on the excavated materials of Yin Ruins. On August 1979, Li Ji died of a heart attack in Taipei. Professor Zhang Guangzhi, a Li Ji student and Chinese-American archaeologist, believes that Li Ji's main academic achievement in his life is: "Focusing on the excavated materials of Yin ruins, he conducted a special and comprehensive study and established the position of Yin Shang culture in history. It also laid the foundation for the study of ancient pottery, bronze ware and stone jade in China archaeology in the next 70 years. " Known as "the father of archaeology in China".
Li Ji's scholarship involves three fields: archaeology, history and anthropology. The main works published in Chinese mainland in recent years are: Selected Works of Archaeology in Li Ji published by Cultural Relics Publishing House 1990, and Li Ji Juan, a Modern Academic Classic in China published by Hebei Education Publishing House 1996; Recently, Jiangsu Education Press published The Formation of Chinese Nation and the Beginning of Chinese Civilization. Studying Li Ji's academic thoughts, these works can basically be regarded as representatives. From 65438 to 0928, Harvard University Press published Li Ji's doctoral thesis "The Formation of China Nation". This book provides an example for studying the China issue with modern western academic methods such as anthropology. The main contents include the measurement and analysis of China people's physical characteristics in modern times, 1500 years' China population statistics, population migration, invasion and integration, etc.
Another book, Prehistoric Remains of Yin Xi Village, is an archaeological site excavation report, which is the embryonic form of China Archaeological Site Excavation Report. Another book by Li Ji is The Beginning of China Civilization, which was first published by Washington University Press on 1957. In this book, he talked about the purpose of archaeological research:
"The work of modern China archaeologists can't be limited to finding evidence to reproduce China's past glory. Its more important responsibility is to answer some questions that have been vaguely explained by historians before, but are brewing under the influence of modern science. The resulting problems fall into two categories, but they are closely related. One is about the origin and formation of the Chinese nation and the other is about the nature and growth of Chinese civilization. "
These problems, which belong to two categories but are closely related, actually constitute the core content of the study of China people and their history.
In the article "Reconstruction and Problems of Ancient History in China", he said: "Historians in China regard the ancient history of China as something south of the Great Wall, which is not only the boundary of territory, but also the boundary of spirit; Looking for the primitive nation and culture of China people, in the north, it was blocked by the Great Wall. " "In short, if we regard the history of China as a part of the whole history of mankind, it is much farther than the traditional history." "When we discuss the history of China, the most important thing is that we feel and have proved that there are other historical sources besides written records in ancient history; The new materials obtained from these sources have caused many new problems and are accepted by ordinary historians. They must include archaeological and ethnographic materials, which can not only help them solve old problems, but also inspire new ones. "
In the article "Re-talking about the Reconstruction of China's Ancient History", he said: "The history of China is the most glorious aspect in the whole history of mankind, and its brilliance is even more vivid only when it is placed in the background of the whole history of mankind. The days of locking it in the old room and enjoying itself are over. "
He also expounded four realms that a new historian should reach: "The first realm was told by the geologist Mr. Ding Wenjiang to his friends. He said,' It's really peanuts for modern academics in China, as long as someone picks them. ""This is about respecting our own academic resources. " The second realm can be said to be' seeing is believing', and relying on others is better than relying on yourself. "That is to say, as a new historian, we should attach importance to acquiring knowledge from practice." The third realm should be' I would rather have chaos in the world than be disturbed by my heart'. The raw materials can almost complement each other when they meet such courageous people. ""the fourth realm is called' useless, for great use'. "This last article seems to contain the meaning of defending academic conditions such as history. Finally, he concluded: "Historical linguistics can be said to have the same work in this field as biologists and geologists. "
Li Ji's thought finally seems to be attributed to China's promotion of scientific thought. This is thought-provoking. He believes that the most urgent practical problem in China "is not whether there is science in China, but how to promote science in China." The disadvantages of the education system lead to "what we want is scientific achievements, not science itself". "We have not got rid of Zhang Zhidong's concept of taking middle school as the body and western learning as the use." This should be examined from the domestic academic mainstream. He criticized Xunzi's suggestion that "ceremony" is the highest peak of learning ("so learning should stop at ceremony"), and thought that "China's cultural system with ceremony as the core naturally contains many valuable achievements of human beings, but the ideological habits formed by attaching to this cultural system are gradually different from the scientific thinking of pursuing truth." The crux of the problem lies in the "right-to-right" thinking mode cultivated by the old education system and people's attitude towards writing. "China's theory of" knowing things from things "has never been far from books. It can be said that it is out of the belief that the text carries the Tao. " The essence of scientific thinking, which is particularly obvious, is not superstitious about words, because the status of words is "always just a tool." He said:
"If you want to advocate the scientific spirit in a proper way, you must learn from Zen monks; Because Zen is not nonsense. The starting point of scientific thought is also here; There is no precise statement or red tape in scientific thinking. "