Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1730 The Origin of Writing, the Origin of Civilization

"Why are you being so polite to us?" Feng Xueshan said with a smile, "Let's go. I hope you can pass the test without getting scolded."

Although the old expert dormitories of USTC are villas, they are really a bit small and were built too long ago. Just looking at the old trees around them, you can tell that they were built decades ago.

Because it was well pruned, the small-leaved banyan tree is very lush, and the luxuriant branches and leaves make it look particularly quiet.

In front of the villa is a small courtyard of about six or seven square meters, with a two-meter-high flower wall separated by red bricks outside. Feng Xueshan took out a key, opened the thin iron door painted green and walked in. In the courtyard, there were also short square pillars made of red bricks, and on each square pillar was a pot of orchid, which looked very beautiful in its green color.

There was an old-fashioned Phoenix bicycle parked at the door. Feng Xueshan said, "The old man is still at home today."

The small villa is also made of red bricks, with green painted wooden doors and windows. It looks quite nice after years of use.

Probably to make the old experts live more comfortably, these small villas underwent a unified renovation before moving in. At least Zhou Zhi found that the wooden doors and windows, including the iron door just now, were all painted.

"Master!" Zhou Zhi raised his head and shouted to the second floor, "I'm back."

"How do you know which room Master is in?" Feng Xueshan was curious.

"It must be the room with the best light on the second floor that is used as the study." Zhou Zhi was a little proud: "If nothing unexpected happens, Master will be sitting at the desk facing the window."

Sure enough, a figure appeared from the room upstairs. It should be the person who was sitting who stood up: "You are back? Come in, come in."

When Zhou Zhi and the others entered the hall on the first floor, Gu Youwen also came down from the upper floor: "Monk Xueshan is here too? Good children, come and sit down."

"I won't sit down." Yang He waved his hands and said, "I'm going to report to Mr. Hu. I also have to go to the Second Hospital to wait."

"Then let's have dinner together tonight." Zhou Zhi simply arranged: "At Suihuaxuan, you call them all."

"Okay." Yang He smiled and said, "Master, I still have a lot of things to do at work. I'll go to work first."

"Okay, you young people should go and do what you have to do. Whether it's studying or working, you should be busy and fulfilled!" Gu Youwen said, "The country will not block the path for those who love learning to make progress. I hope you can pass your undergraduate correspondence course quickly. If you pass, you can continue to take the postgraduate entrance examination."

"I'll try my best, I'll try my best..." Yang He couldn't help but speed up his turn and then fled.

"Master, have you convinced the monk?" Zhou Zhi asked with a smile.

"Not really. He himself realized his lack of knowledge." Gu Youwen said, "Besides, it would be a pity for him to give up his undergraduate degree given his knowledge level. Even if he wants to work earlier, he can do both without any delay!"

In fact, there is also a problem of resources and vision. Although Gu Youwen is a liberal arts scholar, it does not mean that he has no connections in science and engineering. In fact, Gu Youwen does not need to do anything. With the academic background behind Clover Company, it is too easy to do such a small operation. As long as Yang He wants to make progress and learn, and is not too stupid, there are plenty of opportunities for advancement in the group, whether it is work or study.

Just like Gu Youwen said, as long as you are willing, you can do both.

"Grandpa Master, I've been away for half a year, and it seems like you've been a little slow in your training." Zhou Zhi looked at the long sword hanging on the wall in the living room: "It seems to be covered with dust."

"Nonsense." Gu Youwen waved his hand: "I just moved in and I'm not familiar with the environment yet. Besides, I've been looking at the things you asked Xueshan to send for the past two weeks. It took a little time, so it's impossible for it to accumulate dust!"

Feng Xueshan brought a plate of grapes out from the kitchen. Upon hearing this, she silently mouthed to Zhou Zhi: "Cunning!"

Just before getting off the car, Feng Xueshan teased Zhou Zhi, saying that his paper might not pass and he would be scolded. As a result, Zhou Zhi took the initiative as soon as he came in and found out Gu Youwen's mistakes. From then on, whenever Gu Youwen wanted to criticize Zhou Zhi, he would have to feel timid in his heart, and Zhou Zhi would have an easier time.

Feng Xueshan knew Zhou Zhi very well. Whenever Zhou Zhi did something funny, Feng Xueshan knew what tricks he was going to play.

Sure enough, Zhou Zhi just said it casually, and now he took out the paper from his bag: "Grandpa, you have read the details. This is the essence of my paper, about 3,000 words, which can be regarded as the outline."

Gu Youwen took the paper and said, "You've got a good opportunity, but is this off topic?"

Zhou Zhi was cheeky and smiled, "It's not off topic, is it? Jiahu is in Hunan Province, and Peiligang is in Henan Province. Both are the birthplaces of Chinese civilization. Bone flutes and pottery tripods were unearthed in Jiahu, and stone mills and pointed-foot pottery from the pre-Yangshao civilization were unearthed in Peiligang. Green pine ornaments were unearthed in both places. They all represent the forerunners of ritual and music in Chinese civilization."

"More than 20 examples of inscribed symbols were found in the two sites, appearing on tortoise shells, bone tools, stone tools, and pottery. They are about 5,000 years earlier than the oracle bone script of Yinxu, and are also ahead of the ancient Egyptian papyrus script and the cuneiform script of the Mesopotamian region."

"My paper also demonstrates the philosophy of Chinese and Yi character creation. They are two flowers of the Chinese civilization. By comparing the carved symbols in Jiahu and Peiligang with Chinese and Yi characters, their basic structure, combination method and writing characteristics are basically the same. This not only shows that they are likely to have the nature of primitive characters, but also explores their internal relationship with the two characters."

"From the current analysis, although many of the carved symbols in Jiahu and Peiligang are also carved on oracle bones, and the way of creating characters also conforms to the six methods of writing, they have basically no inheritance relationship with oracle bone inscriptions. In other words, based on the limited discoveries so far, they have not yet been able to match the meaning of oracle bone inscriptions."

"Only the characters for 目 and 日 have similar shapes, the rest are unintelligible."

"But in the ancient Yi language, we found some glyphs that can match several carvings."

"In the Dinggong site in Zouping, Shandong Province, a few fragments of gray pottery flat-bottomed basins from the late Longshan culture with an absolute age of 2,200 BC were discovered. Eleven characters were engraved on them, which are called 'Longshan pottery inscriptions'."

"Longshan pottery inscriptions are different from previously discovered Neolithic pottery inscriptions. They appear in groups, have complete character structures, and have the form of written language. This shows that the inscriptions were obviously used to record language, so they are already a mature form of writing."

"Its basic strokes and character structure are significantly different from the Chinese character system represented by oracle bone inscriptions, which is reflected in the large number of curved and arc strokes in pottery inscriptions."

"In the Yin and Shang Dynasty writing, a large number of curved and arc-shaped strokes on pottery have disappeared, and its character structure is also very different from that of pottery writing. However, its stroke system and almost all characters can be found in the known ancient Yi script."