Wang Xiang
Wang Xiang
Wang Xiang (1876.12.31-1965.1.31) was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and lived in Tianjin. Modern Chinese epigraphists and Oracle Bone experts. He has been engaged in the study of epigraphy and oracle bone for a long time, and has made great contributions to the study of epigraphy and oracle bone in China, especially to the discovery and protection of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins.
After the founding of the people's Republic of China, he once served as the director of Tianjin literature and History Research Institute, member of the oracle bone inscriptions collection Committee of the Institute of history of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and member of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference. In 1959, Tianjin Calligraphy Research Association was established in Tianjin literature and history museum. He was the first president until his death.
Life story
In 1876, Wang Xiang was born in a cultural relics research family at the entrance of licangmen, east gate of Tianjin. His father was Wang enhan and his mother was Zheng. At the age of seven, Wang Xiang went to a private school with his elder brother. When he was 10 years old, his father passed the exam; when he was 11 years old, he changed to study in fan's private school. Wang Xiang has been fond of Xiaozhuan and ancient books since he was a child. He once studied from Wang Shouan. In 1910, he graduated from the Mining Department of the higher Industrial School of the Ministry of agriculture, industry and Commerce of Beijing, and in 1913, he graduated from the political and Economic Department of Tianjin law and Politics Institute of the Republic of China. He has worked for many years in the salt audit Institutes of Tianjin, Fujian, Guangdong, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Hubei and other provinces. He has studied martial arts and thirteen sections of internal skills under the guidance of Baoding, a master of xinyiquan, in the North Sichuan Salt Bureau (now Santai County, Sichuan Province), and participated in the verification of thirteen sections of internal skills of Baoding.
Fan shouxuan was an antique dealer who often traveled to Beijing and Tianjin in the late Qing Dynasty. One day, fan shouxuan came to Wang Xiang's house in a hurry. He said that he saw a kind of "keel" in Henan Province, which was engraved with ancient characters. He asked him if he wanted it. Wang Xiang was very interested. Meng Guanghui is also here. Meng Guanghui is a famous calligrapher in Modern Tianjin. It's said that there are ancient characters. They urge fan shouxuan to buy them. Because the transportation was not convenient at that time, it was only one year later, that is, in 1899, that fan shouxuan returned to Tianjin with the keel purchased from Henan. It turns out that in the late Qing Dynasty, men had to wear long braids and shave all the hair in the front of their heads. At that time, the barber tool was a sharp razor. If he was not careful, he would scratch his scalp, so the barber had to keep some hemostatic drugs, which were made by crushing the keel. But Wang Xiang is not interested in these. He saw that these "keels" were big and small, with different shapes, some like tortoise shells, and some like ordinary animal bones. He carefully studied the keel under the lamp and found that there were many carved paths on it. He put the big and small keels together to form two or three tortoise shells. He carefully wiped off the soil on the tortoise shells and found that these "keels" had great research value. He asked fan shouxuan to buy these "keels". Fan shouxuan claimed to be a strange product and asked Wang Xiang for a high price. Wang Xiang was unable to pay a huge sum of money, so he had to buy small pieces and failed to get large pieces of tortoise bones.
After Wang Xiang according to the turtle bones unearthed in Henan Anyang Xiaotun village, concluded that these turtle bones are relics of Yin Ruins. Later I learned that there were tortoise shells and animal bones, which were used in divination in Shang Dynasty. The characters on tortoise shells and animal bones were the result of divination.
Oracle bone inscriptions are divination characters used by the royal nobles in the late Shang Dynasty. They are named because they are carved on tortoise shells or shoulder blades of cattle. Oracle bone inscriptions unearthed in the "Yin Ruins" in Anyang, Henan Province, are the earliest known characters in China. In the history of Book Development in China, oracle bone inscriptions are considered to be the earliest books. It records the life segments of the ancestors. From the perspective of human civilization, the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions is as important as the discovery of cuneiform characters in the two river basins, papyrus documents in Egypt and linear characters in Greece. From the perspective of academic research, oracle bone inscriptions, together with Dunhuang manuscripts, Han bamboo slips and the Imperial Palace archives of Ming and Qing Dynasties, are known as the four major academic discoveries in modern China.
Wang Xiang and Wang Yirong were the earliest identification and purchasers of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins. Although Wang Yirong was the first to identify and purchase oracle bones, he committed suicide and died in 1900. He didn't have time to make a comprehensive study of the oracle bones, so he didn't leave a discussion on this subject. Wang Xiang not only had the ability to identify and purchase oracle bones, but also had his works handed down to the world, making a certain contribution to the study of oracle bones.
After the Allied forces of the eight countries entered Beijing, Tianjin was also occupied. Fan shouxuan sold a large number of oracle bones at a low price. Wang Xiang bought a large number of tortoise bones.
When Wang Xiang returned to Tianjin from Hubei Province in 1934, he packed the oracle bones and other things with the Railway Bureau and transported them back to Tianjin. However, when he picked up the consigned goods in Tianjin, he found that all the other boxes were there, only the armored bone inscriptions were missing. The disappearance of these "treasures" which have accumulated many years of painstaking efforts made him very anxious. Later, after searching for more than 50 days, I finally found this box of oracle bones in Zhangjiakou station. It turned out that the person in charge of checking luggage on the railway thought that there were priceless treasures in this box, but when I opened it, I found that it was a dead bone turtle. Fortunately, they did not know the precious oracle bones.
After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese war in 1937, Wang Xiang lost his job at home and was in financial difficulties. Antique dealers in Tianjin often went to his home to persuade him to sell oracle bones to the Japanese. However, Wang Xiang said that oracle bones had been stored in the mainland. In order not to let the precious cultural relics of the motherland go abroad, he would rather sell clothes and things at home to maintain his livelihood than the high price of the Japanese. After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, the boss of zaoyutang bookstore in Beijing and the leaders of several universities went to Tianjin and pestered him for more than a month to buy his oracle bones. Wang Xiang later said: "oracle bone is a treasure of the motherland. There are no new discoveries now, and many of them will not be discovered in the future. If they are sold to those universities, they are all set up by foreign countries, and they will also lose foreign groups in the future. It will be difficult for the Chinese people to study them."
In the early days of liberation, until 1952, Wang Xiang's family was still very difficult. Dong Zuobin wrote from the United States to ask if he intended to sell oracle bones to a university in the United States, and Wang Xiang refused. In 1953, Wang Xiang became the curator of Tianjin Museum of culture and history. He dedicated all the oracle bone inscriptions he had collected all his life to the country.
Main achievements
Pioneer of Oracle Bone Research
Wang Xiang not only has the merit of appraising and purchasing oracle bone inscriptions, but also has a lot of works handed down from generation to generation. There are more than 40 manuscripts on oracle bone inscriptions, inscriptions on gold and stone and personal poems, most of which have not been published.
In Wang Xiang's preface to the Yin Qi of Zhen Shi, it clearly records the process of his first discovery, identification and acquisition of oracle bone in 1898, and his subsequent research on oracle bone inscriptions.
He wrote the first dictionary in the history of oracle bone science, which was published in 1920. In 1925, he published his collection of more than 5000 oracle bones.
In addition to the three Appellants, he also wrote some monographs on oracle bone inscriptions, such as the textual research of Yin Qi in Zhen Shi, the waiting list of Yin Dai Zhen Shi, the waiting list of Yin Xu Shu Qi, Yin Qi in Zhen Shi Suo and Yin Qi in Lun Ge Suo.
Research on Epigraphy
In addition to the study of oracle bone inscriptions, Mr. Wang Xiang has made great achievements in the study of gold and stone, pottery and Jiance. The main monographs are "Mao Gong Ding Shi Wen", "Tengxian Han stone carvings and paintings", "three body stone scriptures textual research edition", "ancient mirror writing", "Song Qian Zhi Yi Lu", "lunge Fu Jin Shi Wen", "ancient pottery Jin Shi", "ancient pottery remains Xu Yu", "quicksand falling bamboo slips errata" and "the rhyme forest of characters before Qin Dynasty".
Other works
In addition to the Monographs on ancient Chinese characters, Mr. Wang Xiang also has his own poetry anthology and four miscellaneous works, mainly including lunge manuscripts, lunge poetry manuscripts, Jishi inscriptions and postscripts, Jishi notes, Jishi miscellaneous manuscripts, Jishi extracurricular miscellaneous manuscripts, Jishi Conglu, Conglu Beizhi, examples of cultural relics of the Han Dynasty, and notes on entering Shu, etc.
In memory of the pioneers
1. In order to highlight the outstanding contributions made by Mr. Wang Xiang and other sages in the discovery and research of oracle bone inscriptions, on the anniversary of the centenary of the discovery of oracle bone inscriptions, Beijing Library Press compiled and published the collection of research materials on oracle bone inscriptions, which includes nearly 50 kinds of works of experts in oracle bone studies, such as Luo Zhenyu, Wang Xiang, Guo Moruo, Hu houxuan, Shang chengzuo, Rong Geng and Tang Lan He is a great master of the research achievements of oracle bone science. Mr. Wang Xiang is a pioneer in the study of oracle bone inscriptions.
2. On the morning of December 18, 2009, a symposium was held in Tianjin Museum of culture and history to commemorate the 110th anniversary of Wang Xiang's discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the protection of Majiadian site.
Character's former residence
Wang Xiang is a famous expert in the study of Yin Xu characters in China. His former residence is located at No.15 Daliujia Hutong, dongmennei street. It covers an area of 352 square meters and a building area of 237.46 square meters. It has more than 20 houses and is a two-way courtyard.
After entering the gate, plaques of "taishidi", "Jingkui", "Wenyuan" and "Xianshi" were hung on the lintel, indicating that it was the home of the Imperial Academy. The courtyard was built in the middle of Qing Dynasty. After entering the hospital, the hall on the right side, commonly known as the inverted seat, is used to receive guests. There are two small North rooms, also known as "Baogu jingshe", which is a study. The house has been demolished and rebuilt for several times, except for the north courtyard gatehouse, gatehouse, living room, backyard house frame, and the East Room's board wall. Now they are all residential buildings.
Chinese PinYin : Wang Xiang
Wang Xiang
