Xi highlights vital role of archaeology

President calls for utilizing Chinese features, styles, ethos in related work

President Xi Jinping has commended the role of China’s archaeological discoveries over the past century in demonstrating the longlasting and profound Chinese civilization and has called for developing archaeology with Chinese features, style and ethos so that it contributes to national rejuvenation.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a congratulatory message delivered at a meeting held in Sanmenxia, Henan province, on Sunday to mark the centenary of the discovery of Yangshao Culture and the beginning of modern archaeology in China.

Yangshao Culture, dating from 5,000 to 7,000 years ago, is the longest-lasting cultural type in archaeological studies from China’s prehistoric period. In October 1921, Swedish scholar Johan Gunnar Andersson, then a geology consultant for the Chinese government, led a major excavation in the village of Yangshao in Sanmenxia, Henan, and discovered a Neolithic culture best recognized for its painted pottery.

The discovery astonished Chinese academia and inspired domestic archaeologists to make a series of milestone additional discoveries nationwide in the 1920s. These are also seen as the beginning of modern archaeology in China.

Xi said in his message that over the past 100 years, generations of archaeologists have made a series of major discoveries through their unrelenting efforts, demonstrating the origins of Chinese civilization, its developments, achievements and contributions to the civilizations of the world.

They have played an important role in making the long-lasting and profound Chinese civilization better understood, he said.

Xi urged Chinese archaeologists to strive to develop archaeology with Chinese features, style and ethos to better showcase the splendor of the Chinese civilization, carry forward the fine traditional Chinese culture and make new and greater contributions to realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Xi, who has striven to boost confidence in Chinese culture in recent years, has often emphasized the importance of developing archaeology to better understand Chinese civilization, protecting historical and cultural heritage and promoting exchanges with various cultures to build a better world.

While presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in September last year, he stressed that archaeological work is not only an important cultural undertaking but also has great social and political significance. “Historical and cultural heritages tell vivid stories of the past and profoundly influence the present and future.”

Highlighting the importance of archaeological research, Xi called for paying high attention to archaeological work to provide strong support for promoting a fine traditional culture and strengthening people’s confidence in Chinese culture.

Archaeologists participating in the meeting hailed the importance of Yangshao Culture centered in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, saying it was the first named archaeological culture in China.

“Yangshao Culture was the root and mainstream source during the formation of Chinese civilization,” said Wang Wei, president of the Archaeological Society of China. “It marked China’s Central Plains as a cultural hub and created a foundation for a united country with diversity in a later period of Chinese history.”

In recent years, new findings on Yangshao Culture have continued to emerge not only in Henan, but also in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, among others, which further uncover its ritual system, craftsmanship, agricultural development and many more fields.

“Yangshao was a cultural core with a wide and lasting influence,” said Chen Xingcan, head of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Tian Kai, director of the Henan Provincial Cultural Heritage Administration, said that the growth of Chinese archaeology in the past century has always been closely connected with an exploration of how modern society should develop.

“Archaeology offers abundant references for our modernization in China, and historical rules reflected through the findings can inspire our path of national rejuvenation leading to the future,” Tian said.

“Modern China has its roots in the millennia’s ancient civilization,” said Liu Qingzhu, a senior archaeology researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Archaeology explains our cultural genes. Since Yangshao, Chinese culture has uninterruptedly developed across such a wide geographic area, which is rare in the world.

“By better understanding where we came from, we can advance via a path of lasting prosperity,” he said.

Li Boqian, a veteran archaeology professor at Peking University, said wide adoption of hightech approaches in labs, new research methods and interdisciplinary cooperation have greatly benefited Chinese archaeology in recent years, but field research

remains the fundamental approach for archaeologists. He said it is also important for modern archaeologists to better explain their archaeological findings to the public.

On Sunday, an archaeological ruins park opened on the site of Yangshao village to display the achievements of academic research to the public.