Our ancestors have gone through a long and tortuous road from knotting in ancient times to well-known Chinese characters now. In this process, many ancient Chinese characters have been unrecognizable, leaving many mysteries today. However, once these hard-to-recognize ancient characters are recognized, they will play a revolutionary role in promoting all aspects of the study of ancient characters. Engaged in the study of ancient Chinese characters is a very boring and hard work, and many people are discouraged. However, Zhao Ping-an, a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute of History, has made many remarkable scientific achievements in the field of ancient Chinese characters after careful training by many famous teachers and more than 20 years of painstaking research.
Zhao Ping 'an 1963 was born in a middle school teacher's family in Shaodong, Hunan. My father studied in a private school for eight years in his early years, which laid a good foundation for Ping An's Chinese. After Zhao Ping-an 1980 was admitted to the Chinese Department of Huazhong Normal University, his academic performance was outstanding, and his class teacher Zhou Guangqing liked him very much. Mr Zhou is the nephew of Huang Kan, a Confucian scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, and a graduate student of phonology. He learns from Zhao Pingan several times a week. Seeing that he worked so hard on ancient Chinese, Mr. Zhou recommended him to attend the "Ancient Literature Research Class" for training young teachers. Zhang Shunhui, president of the National Ancient Literature Research Association, and other academic celebrities give lectures on phonology, exegetics, philology and philology. Xiao Zhao has been auditing for two semesters, which is equivalent to studying as a graduate student in advance. In the 1980s, the learning atmosphere in the school was particularly good. Xiao Zhao studied late into the night every night and read all the classics and historical subsets. Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Zhong Ding, Seal Brush and Han Li all had their ideas. At that time, the school established the "Guizishan Language Society", and Zhao Pingan, who was only 20 years old, was recommended as a consultant of the society. His academic performance in professional courses has always been the first in his class.
When he took the postgraduate entrance examination, he chose the Chinese Department of Hebei University, because his tutor Huang Qi was a linguist and a famous calligrapher of the older generation, who studied under Tang Lan. What Zhao Ping-an admires most is a talented and well-educated teacher. At that time, more than 20 people applied for the exam. Xiao Zhao is the only high school student after two teachers were selected in our school. Two seniors, one is older than him 12 years old and the other is 8 years older than him. Under the leadership of predecessors, Xiao Zhao studied hard for three years. He wrote his master's thesis "The Transformation of Chinese Characters' Form Structure Around Phonology and Meaning Expression", which summarized various situations of Chinese characters' transformation from a large number of materials of Jin Jia seal script and near-vulgar characters, and obtained the mutual transformation of Chinese characters' form, sound and meaning, as well as the Chinese character list. Professor Xu Jialu, the current vice chairman of the National People's Congress, was the director of his thesis defense committee at that time, and his evaluation was that it was a very meaningful exploration. The author's rich data collection, careful investigation and analysis combined with social psychology and cognitive characteristics are particularly commendable. This paper is very valuable. After obtaining a master's degree, Zhao Ping-an stayed in school as a teaching assistant. 1988 was admitted to Sun Yat-sen University, a major town in ancient Chinese characters research, to pursue a doctorate. Rong Geng and Chengzuo of this school are well-known at home and abroad for their attainments in the study of ancient Chinese characters. Moreover, it has a rich collection of books, pays attention to discipline construction and has a set of teaching methods for cultivating graduate students. Zhang Zhenlin, Zhao Ping's doctoral supervisor, is the youngest doctoral supervisor in this school. Under the guidance of Mr. Zhang, Zhao Ping-an learned a lot of knowledge of inscriptions on bronze and also learned a lot of knowledge of bamboo and silk characters in the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties from Professor Zeng Xiantong. During this period, Zhao Ping-an's main direction was "the study of official changes". Due to the limitation of materials, this Chinese character is a key turning point from official change to official change, which has been seldom studied and misunderstood by predecessors. Due to the discovery of a large number of ancient Chinese cultural relics from the Warring States Period to the early Han Dynasty, Zhao Ping 'an made many ancient Chinese characters cards collected from various aspects, analyzed and identified the radicals one by one, and sorted out the complicated written materials according to the logical process of the evolution of glyphs, which made the dynamic process of official transformation appear impressively. He used this feasible method to analyze the evolution of Chinese characters from the mid-Warring States period to the Eastern Han Dynasty, and summarized some regular conclusions. After the defense, this paper was well received by experts. Zeng Xiantong, dean of the College of Literature of Sun Yat-sen University, believes that Zhao Ping's research on "Li change is a complex dynamic process" and "the process of Li change is multi-directional". This paper summarizes the "four basic laws followed by the official reform" and expounds the influence of the official reform on Chinese characters and written language. His views are wonderful, which will play a positive role in promoting the study of Li Yi. Wang Ning, director of the Institute of Chinese Characters of Beijing Normal University, believes that this is a good paper with level and value, which has solved some problems. Li Pu, director of the Chinese Character Research and Application Center of East China Normal University, believes that this paper has a broad vision, informative materials and many achievements, and it is the most outstanding one on the study of official change that can be seen at present. As the first book in the academic library of Hebei University, A Study on Li Debate was published in 1993, which was praised by many famous scholars. Some schools offering the major of ancient Chinese characters regard this book as a required reading for graduate students. A Korean scholar, unable to afford this book, made a special trip to Baoding to look for it.
199 1 year, Zhao Ping-an returned to Hebei University, opened a new major in ancient Chinese, and sent many doctoral students to Peking University and Sun Yat-sen University. 1995 10, Zhao Pingan was promoted to a professor by the school, concurrently served as deputy secretary-general of Hebei Language Society and member of Baoding CPPCC, and was later named "Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Key Teacher in Hebei Province".
Just when Zhao Ping-an became famous, higher goals and the pursuit of renewal appeared in his mind. He is determined to give up the existing conditions and treatment and continue his further study in a higher academic hall. 1995, recommended by Zhang, a master of ancient philology in our college, and Qiu Xigui, a scholar of ancient philology in Peking University, Zhao Pingan came to our college to do postdoctoral research in history, becoming the first postdoctoral fellow majoring in historical philology in China. The instructor is Li Xueqin, the chief scientist of the former Xia, Shang and Zhou Dating Project. During his two years in the station, Ping-an Zhao often discussed knowledge with Li Xueqin. Mr. Li is knowledgeable and can often put some unnoticed problems into the history of academic development, so he often finds something new. During his stay in the station, Zhao Ping 'an's research report was entitled "A Study on the Seal of Qin and Western Han Dynasties". Based on the unearthed materials, he fully collected the materials recorded by various families, analyzed and interpreted them with rigorous ancient writing methods, and combined with handed down and various unearthed writing materials, he conducted in-depth research and discussion on the nature, use, characteristics and significance of seals in historical and cultural research, and made new creations on some issues. When evaluating the paper, Li Xueqin thought, "This book is a breakthrough and of great value to the study of Qin and Han Dynasties." Qiu Xigui believes that Zhao Wen "was created from time to time. This paper corrects the previous misinterpretation of Chinese and Indian, and the textual research work is very skillful. " The expert group of the Academic Committee of the Institute of Experience and History commented that "this report integrates the previous research results, and strives to break through doubts, difficulties and weak links, and has made great progress. Zhao Pingan's research results are the most systematic and skillful achievements in the study of seals in Qin and Han dynasties, and have made beneficial contributions to the development of discipline construction. "
After leaving the station with excellent results, Zhao Ping 'an successively served as a researcher in the Institute of History and the Research Center of Bamboo and Silk in our college, and as a postgraduate tutor in ancient Chinese characters and ancient Chinese literature. It took him two years to sort out the evolution order of Chinese characters from a large number of ancient Chinese characters in Shang, Zhou, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Warring States and Qin and Han dynasties, and used it as a ruler to date and identify the Xiao Zhuan in Shuowen. Proofread hundreds of incorrect seal scripts, clean up more than 80 variant forms of seal scripts, interpret the sources of more than 50 seal scripts, and summarize many laws. Professor Gao Ming of Peking University thinks that he "used advanced scientific methods and made great achievements." Professor Wang Ning of Beijing Normal University thinks that he has "made outstanding achievements" and "played a very important role in the correct use of Shuowen and the correct evaluation of ancient China historical materials." This achievement was included in the series "New Horizons of Chinese Character Research", and was nominated by Guangxi Education Publishing House for the National Book Award with publication number 1999.
No pains, no gains. Zhao Ping 'an has participated in and presided over many scientific research projects, and is exerting his profound knowledge and intelligence in a broader world. We believe that in the near future, some mysteries of ancient Chinese characters will be uncovered by him. (Gao Wenchuan)