Professor Fengjun Liu is recognized by academic circles as the first person to establish the theoretical system of art archaeology, the discoverer of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the founder of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's theoretical framework, the discoverer and researcher of ancestral forest of Chongshan Stone, the cultural messenger of the return of the Buddha's head in Jinan Temple Gate Pagoda, and the proponent of "Qingzhou-style" Buddha statue. In 2002, he was rated as one of the 100 famous archaeological experts in China by China Cultural Relics Newspaper. In 2004, he was hired as a famous contemporary painter in China by Xishan Service Office of the State Council Municipal Organs Administration Bureau. His discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions is regarded as "another major discovery in the development of China characters after Wang discovered Oracle Bone Inscriptions more than 100 years ago, an important milestone in the history of China characters research and a great contribution to the study of China's history and culture."
He has published China Ancient Ceramic Art, Research on Archaeology and Sculpture Art History, Introduction to Art Archaeology, Shandong Buddha Art, Bone Carving Discovery and Research Series Changle Bone Carving, Sculpture Art and Bone Carving Discovery and Research Series Shouguang Bone Carving in Archaeology, co-authored Research on Buddhist Statues in the Yellow River Delta and edited four books. Nearly 100 academic papers have been published, some of which have been translated into English, Japanese and Korean.
First, Professor Fengjun Liu discovered Oracle Bone Inscriptions.
Since the 1980s, ancient cultural sites from Weifang, Shandong Province to Jinan, Guanzhong area of Inner Mongolia and Chifeng area have often been unearthed with carved tools, jade articles, pottery and pottery pieces. Most of them are bones, accounting for more than 95%. Most of them were dug up by local farmers when they turned over the soil. From the end of last century, some cultural relics lovers began to collect these cultural relics. Archaeologists have also encountered some problems in field archaeological excavation and investigation, but they have not attracted the attention of academic circles.
In 2002, after the return of the Buddha's head in the Simen Pagoda in Jinan, Professor Fengjun Liu began a special study on "Early Writing and Calligraphy Art in China" and began to collect sporadic materials of archaeological discoveries and folk collections. He found that there was still a gap between Yangshao culture and Dawenkou culture, a symbol of pottery in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which was separated by 1000 years. This period should be a new symbol or writing after pottery symbols, and it should also be the main source of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Searching for symbols or characters in this period has become the main content of Liu Jiaoshou's special research.
In the spring of 2005, Professor Fengjun Liu saw a small bone engraved with patterns in Jinan. At that time, he said with certainty: "This is a prehistoric bone with words engraved on it. This is a very important cultural relic and an early writing of China. " Liu Jiaoshou's discovery and understanding had a certain impact on society. In 2007, he discovered and identified a batch of Oracle Bone Inscriptions collected in Changle County. At that time, he further confirmed and publicly announced that they were "relics of Longshan culture period in Shandong Province, belonging to Dongyi script about 4000-4500 years ago, and were early hieroglyphics in China. It is different from Oracle Bone Inscriptions's Oracle Inscriptions in Anyang Yin Ruins. It has no signs of divination, it is a batch of notes. " Many media have publicly reported Liu Jiaoshou's findings and appraisal conclusions.
Professor Fengjun Liu affirmed that Oracle Bone Inscriptions is an early script of China. His main reasons are: first, there are many words engraved in this batch, which should be the phenomenon of writing notes; Secondly, these graphic symbols depicting most people, animals and plants, "painting and calligraphy are of the same origin" have been well explained here; Thirdly, we can find that the layout and structure of these symbols are regular, and some radicals appear many times; Fourth, there are a lot of Oracle Bone Inscriptions carved in rows, some with a few words, some with a dozen words, and some even with dozens of words, with seals appearing; 5. In recent years, the characters of Longshan culture and Yueshi culture have been discovered in Zouping, Huantai and other counties and cities in Shandong, Longqiu Village in Gaoyou, Jiangsu, and Anhualouzi in Xi 'an, but they have not attracted due attention.
After further field investigation and comprehensive and in-depth research, Professor Fengjun Liu discovered Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Guanzhong and Chifeng areas. He gradually thought that it was more scientific to call this early writing "Bone Inscription" directly. In the future, the series "Discovery and Research on Bone Carvings" will be published, and each book in the series will be preceded by an unearthed place name or more eye-catching text symbols, such as Changle Bone Carvings and Shouguang Bone Carvings. In this way, readers can understand the location of excavation, conduct regional research, and explore the relationship between the emergence and development of early characters in various regions. Many experts agree with Liu Jiaoshou's opinion. Some experts said, "This corresponds to Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, which has become a common practice and can be successfully incorporated into the domestic ancient Chinese character research system." In the second half of 2009, Liu Jiaoshou named it "Bone Carving".
On July 30th, 2008, the Institute of Fine Arts and Archaeology of Shandong University invited five experts to hold an academic seminar in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and on February 25th, 20 10, the School of History and Culture of Shandong University invited five experts to hold an academic seminar in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Experts at both seminars fully affirmed that Oracle Bone Inscriptions discovered by Professor Fengjun Liu was an early script.
Second, the main achievements of Professor Fengjun Liu's research on Oracle Bone Inscriptions.
From 65438 to February 2008, Professor Fengjun Liu edited and published the Discovery and Research Series of Changle Bone Carvings, which was evaluated by the academic circles as "a masterpiece integrating philology, archaeology and art, the foundation work of Changle bone carving literature, and the first work to study the emergence and early opening of China characters." 20 10 in may, Liu Jiaoshou compiled and published "Oracle Bone Inscriptions discovery and research series Shouguang Oracle Bone Inscriptions". Academic circles highly praised Liu Jiaoshou's two monographs on bone carving "initially laid the theoretical framework foundation of bone carving literature." In September this year, a series of books entitled "Oracle Bone Inscriptions Discovered and Studied Longshan Oracle Bone Inscriptions" was edited and published. In addition, he has published many academic papers in China Heritage, China Art Research and Korean academic magazines.
In recent years, in addition to spending most of his time investigating the ancient cultural sites in the Yellow River Basin and Liaohe River Basin, he took the time to sort out and publish bone carving documents all over the country and make more physical materials public to the academic community and society. On the other hand, concentrate on studying and demonstrating why Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the early writing of China. What is its word formation law? As well as the relationship with Oracle Bone Inscriptions and how to interpret Oracle Bone Inscriptions and a series of theoretical issues related to bone carving literature. Professor Fengjun Liu's related research results can be summarized as the following five aspects:
1. On the Law of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the Classification of Font Modeling.
As early as 2008, Professor Fengjun Liu published the book "Discovery and Research Series of Changle and Oracle Bone Inscriptions", which clearly pointed out that after long-term observation and research on Oracle Bone Inscriptions, "the aesthetic re-creation of objects, the symbolic combination of references, the dragon and phoenix culture and the diversity of phoenix characters should be the three basic laws of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's word-making. Only by understanding these laws can we interpret them well. "
At present, Liu Jiaoshou has analyzed and mastered more than 1000 bone inscriptions, 8 jade carving tools and 7 pottery pieces belonging to the bone inscription period, with a rough calculation of more than 3,000 words. He said: "Its font modeling can be roughly divided into three categories: realistic object type, trunk branch type and central circle or approximate circle type." Professor Fengjun Liu's exposition on Oracle Bone Inscriptions's classification and word formation has theoretical guiding significance for the future study of Oracle Bone Inscriptions.
2. Investigation and analysis of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's layout and inscriptions.
According to Professor Fengjun Liu, most Oracle inscriptions only engrave 1-5 words on a bone, and there are also a certain number of inscriptions of 6- 10 words, and some bones are more than 10 words to dozens of words. Its composition and layout should be free to drift with the flow, and has initially formed * * * knowledge. There are about three kinds of layouts: one is that some only carve a big character on a bone, or some find a few words on a bone, but some are carved in a vacancy alone, which is not closely related to other words around, and it is one word and one game; The other is to carve one or several words in the middle and carve some words around in a certain space, which is a layout of combined word groups and can be called scattered combination; The other is top-down or horizontal layout. At present, I have seen dozens of Oracle Bone Inscriptions with this format, which has developed into the main format form of calligraphy art in the future. Professor Fengjun Liu particularly emphasized that the layout of lines can better show that Oracle Bone Inscriptions is already a writing with the meaning of words and chapters.
3. Shi Zulin's discovery confirmed Oracle Bone Inscriptions and denied the theory of nature.
In recent decades, archaeologists often meet Oracle Bone Inscriptions when they are working in the field, and many of them are dug up by local people while digging deep into the soil. Not only did it not attract attention, but it was often mistaken for grass root corrosion or moth-eaten, and some people thought it was a naturally formed bone flower.
In order to explain the fundamental differences between Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bone, such as moth-eaten, grass root corrosion and bone flower, Professor Fengjun Liu has been looking for various physical specimens in field investigations in recent years. After several years of on-the-spot investigation and observation of many skeletons, the difference between them is further clarified: Oracle Bone Inscriptions is obviously hand-carved, with exquisite and perfect shape, mostly arc-shaped, with deep and shallow carvings, the bottom of the carving is not on a horizontal line, the lines are smooth and even, and there are obvious hard scratches on the bottom of the concave line. The natural phenomena such as moth-eaten and grass root corrosion were explained in detail, which clarified many people's vague understanding.
Opportunity is sometimes rewarded by heaven. On July 22nd, 2008, Professor Fengjun Liu discovered Shi Zulin in the Longshan Culture Period in Changle County, which has a history of more than 4,000 years, roughly close to that of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. On the premise that there were no metal tools 4000 years ago, it is easy to carve such a large stone ancestor with superb technology, which makes today's viewers sigh. In contrast, it is easy to carve words on bones. On February 20th, 65438, Liu Jiaoshou appraised and studied shouyangshan's stone carving calligraphy in Changle County, which further confirmed that his research conclusion on Oracle Bone Inscriptions was scientific. No miracle or great invention of the times appears alone. Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Shi Zulin and Yan Shu proved each other, and they were the products of highly developed civilized society in ancient times.
4. Further understanding of the Oracle Bone Inscriptions era.
In 2008, according to the analogy method of archaeological typology and the specific situation of unearthed Oracle Bone Inscriptions site, Liu Jiaoshou put forward seven bases for inferring the age of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Later, when Liu Jiaoshou focused on the ancient cultural sites from Jinan to Weifang, he found three noteworthy situations: first, he would find this kind of Oracle Bone Inscriptions when he visited Dawenkou culture, Longshan culture, Yueshi culture and Shang Dynasty sites; Second, small sites are generally not seen, and often appear in large sites of hundreds of thousands of square meters or more; Thirdly, not all the sites have Oracle Bone Inscriptions, but the length is within the range of 100 meters or 200 meters. This shows that although the Oracle Bone Inscriptions era was mainly popular in the Longshan culture period, Dawenkou culture may have been produced and used in the later period, and continued to Yueshi culture and Shang Dynasty; It can also be seen that Oracle Bone Inscriptions's creation at that time was mainly in a certain part of the living area, and the scope of circulation and use also had certain norms.
20 10/0,6543810.7, Professor Fengjun Liu sent the bone inscription "Shougu 60" unearthed in the ash pit of the late Longshan culture site in the northeast corner of Shouguang City to the carbon 14 laboratory of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Sciences for dating. The test results were corrected by annual rings to be1690bc (68.2%)1625bc. According to the comprehensive analysis of the field archaeological investigation, the queuing of objects and the results of scientific inspection, Professor Fengjun Liu thinks that the age of Oracle Bone Inscriptions is about 3300-4600 years ago.
5. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the main source of Oracle Bone Inscriptions.
As early as 2008, Professor Fengjun Liu published "Bone Carving Discovery and Research Series Changle Bone Carving", and he pointed out that bone carving is the main source of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Recently, Professor Fengjun Liu divided Oracle Bone Inscriptions's existence 1000 years into two development periods, 3700 years ago.
The early period was about 3700-4600 years ago. As far as Shandong ancient culture is concerned, Oracle Bone Inscriptions in this period was in the late Dawenkou culture and Longshan culture. The characteristics of early Oracle Bone Inscriptions are: there are few words on bone fragments, and it is difficult to have bone fragments with more than 10. The shapes of words are very patterned, and some words are very complicated, which is close to painting. If divided according to the characters of the six books, it should refer to characters and pictographs, which are in the primary stage of the production of characters.
Later, Oracle Bone Inscriptions was about 3300-3700 years ago, during the Yueshi culture period and the early and middle Shang Dynasty. Later, the number of Oracle Bone Inscriptions gradually increased, with more than a dozen words, 50-60 words on a bone, forming articles. During this period, there may be a knowing word, and the pictographic character of the font gradually weakened, while the symbolic character increased, some of which were similar to Oracle Bone Inscriptions's modeling. Liu Jiaoshou also stressed that the later Oracle Bone Inscriptions has initially developed into a relatively mature writing. Later Oracle Bone Inscriptions was more common in Jinan and Zibo. Professor Fengjun Liu also said: "Later, the possibility of using it for religious sacrifice gradually increased, and divination also appeared. This practice and purpose were directly inherited by Oracle Bone Inscriptions. "
Daxinzhuang site was excavated in 2003, and Oracle Bone Inscriptions was also unearthed in the stratum of the late Shang Dynasty. Liu Jiaoshou thinks: "Oracle bones and Oracle Bone Inscriptions were unearthed at the same time in the middle and late Shang Dynasty stratum, and the relationship between their origins and styles is obvious, which further shows that Oracle bones are the main source of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Oracle Bone Inscriptions may have been produced in the middle of the Shang Dynasty, and central Shandong, especially Jinan, may be one of the main areas where Oracle Bone Inscriptions was produced. "
6. Pay attention to the study of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's interpretation.
Professor Fengjun Liu attached great importance to Oracle Bone Inscriptions's explanation. He said: "It is very important to find an ancient Chinese character, and it is equally important to interpret it. Because only by interpreting it can we know the information conveyed to us by the ancients. " In recent years, his interpretation of the words "dragon", "phoenix", "human", "bird", "deer", "Yao", "shun", "tapir" and "dog" has attracted the attention and approval of many experts and scholars, which has played a guiding role in the interpretation of Oracle Bone Inscriptions by many people at present. Professor Fengjun Liu summed up his previous experience in interpretation. There are five main ways to interpret Oracle Bone Inscriptions, namely, directly reading pictures by archaeological analogy, historical textual research, combination of reference and object decoding, comparison with Oracle Bone Inscriptions bronze inscriptions and comparison with Yi languages. Liu Jiaoshou further pointed out: "When using the above five methods, they are rarely used alone, but often one method is the main one, and one or more other methods are used to explain a word or a phrase. This is a scientific interpretation. "
Third, the academic evaluation of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's discovery and the significance of discovering Oracle Bone Inscriptions.
The discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions by Professor Fengjun Liu is called "the great discovery at the beginning of this century". Many media and famous experts at home and abroad have given many reports and high praise:
On June 5438+February 65438+February 2008, Guangming Daily published "What Information to Decode from Changle Oracle Bone Inscriptions", which said: "Oracle Bone Inscriptions was about 1000 earlier than Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins. This means that the appearance time of ancient Chinese characters in China will be greatly advanced, and even the known history of China characters may change. "
20 10 On February 25th, Shandong University held an academic seminar in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Professor Wang Zhimin, chief expert of Qilu Culture Research Center of Shandong Normal University, the research base of humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education, and researcher Zhang Xuehai, former director of Shandong Institute of Archaeology, and other experts attending the meeting said: "Oracle Bone Inscriptions's discovery and research are of great significance and international significance."
On February 22nd, 2065438+0/kloc-0, the article "Looking at Dongyi-A Record of Ding Zaixian, a researcher of Dongyi culture" in Popular Daily said: "Oracle Bone Inscriptions is another major discovery made by the professor on the development of China characters after Wang discovered Oracle Bone Inscriptions more than 100 years ago. This is an important milestone in the history of the study of China characters and a great contribution to the study of China's history and culture.
On 2011May 3 1, People's Daily published Ding Zaixian's "Dongyi Bone Carvings-the Main Source of China Characters", which said: "The discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions is generally considered to be Mr. Wang 100 years ago, but there are some controversies because it was discovered in Wang. The author thinks that hundreds of years ago, some farmers dug up Oracle bones in the ruins of Yin Ruins and sold them to pharmacies, and some took them to Beijing for sale, but they didn't find the true value of Oracle bones, so they were not the real discoverers of Oracle bones. Just as everyone knows that apples will fall to the ground when they are ripe, the discoverer of the law of gravity can only be attributed to Newton. Oracle Bone Inscriptions had a similar experience, which was discovered by Professor Fengjun Liu. This is another great discovery in the history of the development of China characters after Wang discovered Oracle Bone Inscriptions more than 65,438,000 years ago. It is an important milestone in the history of China writing research and a major contribution to the study of China's history and culture. "
2011On August 6th, Professor Liu Qingzhu, director of the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and former director of the academic committee, met with Professor Fengjun Liu during the celebration of Shandong University 1 10, and learned that "Oracle Bone Inscriptions's discovery and research" has been listed as one of the "first in one hundred years". He said happily, "The Oracle Bone Inscriptions you have discovered and are studying is far away from the mountains.
Professor Fengjun Liu went to the National Museum of Seoul, South Korea to attend the International Civilization Seminar in Northeast Asia on July 5, 2065, 438+08, and April 0/8, 2065, respectively, at the invitation of Korean National College, and gave keynote speeches. Last year, he gave a speech "Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the early script of China", and this year, he gave a speech "Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the main source of Oracle Bone Inscriptions". Joining experts have given great attention and high evaluation. Professor Jiang, president of Korean National College, said: "The Oracle Bone Inscriptions discovered and being studied by the professor is of great significance, a major cultural event in Northeast Asia and a symbol of early civilization in East Asia. You are welcome to give a speech next year! "
The eighth issue of Urban Construction, 20 1 1, published Zhao Huanxiang's Rewriting the History of China-Decoding Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Professor Fengjun Liu's Discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The article said: The discovery of the word "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" means that the appearance of ancient Chinese characters in China will be thousands of years ahead of schedule, and even the known history of the development of China characters will be changed. It is as important as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. "
The significance of Oracle Bone Inscriptions discovered by Professor Fengjun Liu mainly includes the following three aspects:
1. At the beginning of the last century, the discovery and research of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Anyang promoted people's understanding of China characters to the Shang Dynasty, and inspired the self-esteem of the Chinese nation. But at the same time, everyone shouted: We are one of the four ancient civilizations. Why is the history of our writing so many years later than that of ancient Egypt? Oracle Bone Inscriptions's discovery has found the answer to this historical question. It is the main source of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which proves that China is one of the earliest ancient civilizations in the world. Five thousand years of Chinese civilization is beyond doubt.
2. The emergence and popularity of Oracle Bone Inscriptions was about 3300 to 4600 years ago. The Huangdi, Chiyou and their successors Yao, Shun and Yu recorded in the literature were all active in this period. They belong to two major cultural groups, Huaxia and Dongyi. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's discovery has deepened the long-standing research and debate on the highly developed civilization of China in Dongyi, and also made a true interpretation of the long-standing debate on the origin and emergence of Chinese civilization from the time and main contents of its origin. Prove that this ancient legendary history is a written history.
3. The cuneiform characters in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the two river basins and the hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt are the oldest three-Daimonji system in the world. But the first two scripts disappeared as early as the third century AD. China's characters have been in the same strain since they were carved on bones. Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jin Wen's regular script are the only characters with the longest history and the most perfect development vein to study the development of human thought and culture.
Shandong University Press 20 1 1 September edition, edited by Liu Peiping.