Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1718: Concern for Academics

"Thank you, Brother Li. Actually, I only have seven courses and a paper left this semester." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "The courses are relatively simple, and three of them are electives. I feel very confident."

"The paper is almost ready. It mainly proves the originality and antiquity of Yi characters. The former is based on the handwritten mimeographed version of the Yi Dictionary found in Hong Kong in 1978 in Bijie as a sample of Yi characters. The pictographic characters are extracted from it. Then, based on the formation of characters described by the old man Chi Ri, the differences in their originality are compared with the pictographic characters in the oracle bone inscriptions. This proves that Yi characters developed from the original pictographic characters."

"For example, the Chinese character for water is the easiest to identify. The pictograph of the Chinese character for water is a river flowing in a curve, with tributaries flowing into it from all around. This is an image inspired by the shape of the rivers in the areas where the Han people live."

"And the Yi language word for water is a horizontal line drawn from left to right, then drawn downward in a circle and continued to the right, simulating a whirlpool in a stream."

"The shape of this character is completely different from the Chinese character for water in terms of its meaning. It is also related to the fact that the Yi people have lived in the mountains for a long time and have been exposed to large rivers like the Meigu River. It is natural to use a turbulent whirlpool to represent it."

"With this water character, adding a dot on top of it, it becomes the ideographic character for 'drifting'; if two water characters are connected, it means 'lake'; if three water characters are connected, and the middle one is turned over with the circle on top, it means 'far'; and if three dots are added on water, it means 'wave'."

"The logic of expressing these characters in Chinese characters is completely different, which fully demonstrates that the Yi characters and oracle bone scripts have similar logics in creating characters. They also have many methods of creating characters, such as pictographic, ideographic, borrowed, borrowed, and homophonic, but the creation process is two completely independent systems."

"Then how do you prove the antiquity of Yi language in your paper?" Li Yutang asked.

"We have to look for evidence from archaeological data," Zhou Zhi said. "But this is not my own original idea. Several scholars have tried to use ancient Yi language to interpret the stone carvings at the Pengtoushan site in Li County, the carved symbols unearthed at the Jiahu site in Wuyang, and the carvings found on the mouths of pottery bowls and on the outer walls and bottoms of a few pottery basins at the Banpo site, and have achieved some success."

"I plan to quote this part, and add to it eight other carved symbols or characters that are identical or similar to the Yi language, including the ivory carvings from Xinglong Cave in Yunwu Township, Fengjie County, the pottery decorations unearthed from Yuchan Cave in Dao County, Hunan Province, the phoenix patterns from Gaomiao Site, and the pottery carvings from Peiligang Site, to prove that humans were using pottery carvings or painted symbols that were identical or similar to the Yi language as early as 1600 BC to 7800 BC."

"Of course, we can't say that those symbols are definitely ancient Yi characters." Zhou Zhi saw Li Yutang's surprised expression and quickly explained: "My paper only lists these facts to show that we cannot deny the possibility that Yi characters are older than oracle bone inscriptions."

"As for proving this point, I'm afraid it's beyond the ability of an undergraduate thesis to explain it clearly."

"Enough, enough." Li Yutang was sweating on his back. "Are the requirements for undergraduate graduation theses at Shu University so high? Fortunately, I graduated early..."

"In fact, it is somewhat contrary to the conventional requirements of the Chinese Department of Shu University." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "After all, although Chinese can be divided into standard language and dialect, its standard definition still refers specifically to the language and writing of the Han people, that is, Chinese and Chinese characters."

"Fortunately, my field is paleography, and the study of the evolution of ancient Yi characters is a perfect reference tool for studying Chinese characters." Zhou Zhi said: "Both are constructed with square characters. At first, they were divided into pictographic systems and engraved systems, and finally merged to form a common character creation rule. Later, similar six methods of character creation were developed. It's like two melons untied from the same vine. It's perfect for analogical research."

"It's no use saying that." Li Yutang was still a little cautious: "Does your master agree with you doing this?"

"He has agreed." Zhou Zhi nodded: "In fact, I have submitted quite a few Chinese Department papers over the years, and several of them have been published in "Literature and History". It's the same to use those. Choosing this direction this time is also an experimental practice of the methodologies that will be needed in the future. My grandfather even praised me for finding a good angle." "That's great." Li Yutang was relieved: "How about Elbow, why don't you stay with me as an assistant? The conditions in Lianhe Township are too difficult, and it's really a waste of your talent to keep you there..."

Wu Renzhong on the side felt like crying after hearing this. This was his own brother-in-law. He had thrown him in Lianhe Township for more than a year and he never said a word about the difficult conditions. And he felt sorry for him after he had only been there for a month? !

Li Yutang knew what his resentful brother-in-law was thinking, and sneered: "If you can achieve results like Elbow, don't even think about being my assistant. I'll even be your assistant!"

"Brother-in-law, it's meaningless if you say that." Wu Renzhong's resentment immediately dissipated, and he said with a playful smile: "I didn't say a word..."

"I know you've been working hard during this period." Li Yutang then said, "If you have any other requests, please ask."

"Road!" Wu Renzhong and Zhou Zhi said in unison.

"There's still electricity!" Wu Renzhong quickly added.

"Don't worry about these two things. The two research bases are to be located in Lianhe Township, and of course it won't work without roads and electricity. Our report has been approved by the province, and the funds will be allocated from the treasury soon."

At this point, Li Yutang couldn't help laughing: "The comrades from the Provincial Department of Agriculture also made fun of us, saying that we were shameless to find a place for the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences to conduct research in a poor place with no electricity and almost zero scientific research conditions, but we treated the Academy of Agricultural Sciences as a treasure!"

"This just shows that we have done a detailed preliminary work and know what the experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences need." Zhou Zhi lied without hesitation, saying, "If it weren't so remote, Huili pomegranates and Puge cherries would have been planted in Lianhe Township long ago. If Grandma Liu and her family want to find a pure land like our Lianhe Township, it will be even more troublesome!"

“Hahahaha…” Li Yutang almost swore because of Zhou Zhi’s annoyance: “You’re really good, Elbow. You managed to turn such a weak position into an advantage! I don’t have the face to say that…”

After laughing, Li Yutang became serious again: "We will build the road! We will provide electricity! But if Lianhe Township doesn't work out, I won't look for Tu Liangzhi..."

He pointed at Zhou Zhi and Wu Renzhong and said, "I just want an explanation from you!"

"Make sure you complete the mission!" Wu Renzhong and Zhou Zhi stood at attention at the same time, still learning from Tu Liangzhi: "If there are difficulties, we must go ahead. If there are no difficulties, we must create difficulties and go ahead!"

"Nonsense! Go back now, I won't keep you for dinner!"