The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Wang Wenlong was curious: "Why did Mr. Zhao come to Jiangnan?" He was not so conceited as to think that his reputation could attract such a famous person from Guanzhong to Jiangnan to attend lectures.

Zhao Kan smiled and said: "I came here from Henan. I didn't want to be so lucky as to meet my husband giving a lecture."

It turns out that Zhao Kan had already taken time to go to Zhangde Mansion to see Dong Qichang's archaeological excavations last year. After arriving in Henan, Zhao Kan stayed in Zhangde Mansion for a few months and received an invitation from a friend in Changzhou, so he stopped by Jiangnan. You, and Feng Congwu, the master of Guanxi, came with him.

When the two arrived in Nanjing, they happened to catch up with Wang Wenlong's lecture. Feng Congwu couldn't bear the fatigue of traveling and traveling and rested in the library. Zhao Kan, as an epigrapher, was very curious about Wang Wenlong's theory, so he rushed to listen to the lecture.

Wang Wenlong was also somewhat curious about Dong Qichang's excavation and research, and upon hearing this, he quickly asked about the recent excavation progress.

Zhao Kan said: "When I left Zhangde Mansion at the beginning of this year, Dong Shenzheng had just excavated a large oracle bone pit in Zhangde. The number of oracle bones is still being counted, but at least there are hundreds of pieces, and the excavation has not yet been completed. Just looking at the oracle bones that have been excavated, we can see that some of them are quite complete, but their shapes are very different from the previous ones. For example, there is a large turtle plate with some place names recorded on it, but it doesn’t say anything. I don’t know what it means.”

Wang Wenlong said: "Perhaps it is the map or location record used in ancient times. I have seen in ancient books that ancient people used tortoise shells to record the names of winds in the four directions. This oracle bone is probably the evidence. Sir, you can try to look up "Xia Xiaozheng" and "Yao Dian" Waiting for the book to see if there is content corresponding to it.”

"Fengming from all directions?" Zhao Kan thought for a moment, then nodded excitedly, "This statement is indeed very reasonable. I have copied the words on the oracle bones and will look up the book when I get back."

Wang Wenlong said kindly: "There are many rare ancient books in the Imperial College. I can apply to borrow them for Pingguo."

"This is great." Zhao Kan was happy and thought after thinking: "But there are too many oracle bones unearthed this time. I'm afraid it will be difficult to protect them even if they are unearthed. We still need help from big forces."

"Indeed." Wang Wenlong nodded and said.

Only two or three pieces of the large oracle bones that recorded the reputation of the Four Directions were discovered in later history. In addition, Zhao Kan described how a large number of oracle bones were hidden in a cellar. Wang Wenlong suspected that they might have unearthed the famous YH127 oracle bone pit... …

Wang Wenlong was exhausted after giving lectures and was thinking about Oracle. However, when he got home, he was under curfew and couldn't go out, so he had to rest for one night.

The next day was the ten-day holiday for the Imperial College. Officials of the Ming Dynasty and the Imperial College had a holiday once every ten days. On this day, as long as they were not too busy, they could basically rest at home.

Wang Wenlong had already posted a message to Ye Xianggao's family, so he took the gift and went out to find Ye Xianggao early.

Ye Xianggao greeted Wang Wenlong with a smile and said: "Jianyang, I read the lecture content of your "Exegetical Methodology" that others copied. It is really insightful. If you can finish this course, the students of the Imperial College will be A few people are going to come out."

"Ye Siye is indeed responsible. After being promoted, he did not forget to check the homework of the students in the Imperial College." Wang Wenlong made a joke.

Hearing this, Ye Xianggao smiled and said, "That's not a big deal? I took the lead in inviting you, Wang Jianyang, to come to the Imperial Academy. Now it seems that your invitation is really good."

Ye Xianggao's praise of Wang Wenlong was not just a compliment. In addition to being a political boss during the Wanli period, he was also a great scholar, and his research spanned many fields. He was the first person in the pavilion style in the Wanli era poetry circle. He is a historian and geologist who also studies exegesis. His book "The Complete Collection of Ancient and Modern Dafang Shijing" circulated in later generations contains a large amount of exegetical content.

Ye Xianggao said with a smile: "Jianyang separates exegesis in primary schools into a separate subject and proposes several related research methods. Such an insight is indeed unprecedented. It makes exegesis a separate subject. The amount of knowledge involved in Jianyang's lecture yesterday is enough to impress me deeply." Wang Wenlong said with a smile: "The reason why I started to lecture on exegesis is actually because Dong Shenzheng excavated oracle bones in Zhangde Mansion. There are many words in it that people today do not understand. If there is relevant research on hermeneutics, it will be very convenient for identifying the oracle bones."

He thought for a while and then said: "Nowadays, more and more oracle bones are being unearthed, and it is no longer possible to preserve them with my own ability. In order to prevent the loss of oracle bones, I still need to ask for assistance."

Ye Xianggao is now the right minister of the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing, and he can really speak out about the preservation of oracle bones. After hearing this, he thought for a while and said: "This matter needs to be solved before it can be done. It is not easy."

Wang Wenlong felt a little nervous when he heard that Ye Xianggao didn't want to help.

The reason why he asked Dong Qichang to excavate the oracle bones was because the oracle bones in Anyang, Henan Province were too severely damaged in history. Some data say that oracle bones were sold on the market as medicinal materials such as dragon bones only in the late Qing Dynasty. However, with a little investigation, we can find that dragon bones have been used for a long time, and the pharmacopoeia records are very detailed, "Dragon bones are raw materials." "Jindi", and then check the real estate area of ​​​​keel, the place that ranks first is Henan.

It can be said that the oracle bones in Anyang, Henan Province have been widely used as dragon bone medicinal materials since the Eastern Han Dynasty, and they are still famous in the country. Even during the Republic of China when oracle bones were discovered, dragon bones were still produced in Anyang. It was not until after liberation that in order to protect paleontological fossil resources, " The keel was deleted from the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and the keel production in Anyang came to an end.

According to Wang Wenlong's guess, the reason why oracle bone inscriptions have not been taken seriously by epigraphers for thousands of years is mainly because the normal method of using dragon bones has always been to powder them. Ordinary people do not have grinding troughs for powdering. Dragon bones have always been called powdered in pharmacies. Yes, epigraphists are basically wealthy men with a good reputation. They don’t know how to go to the drugstore to get medicine by themselves. When they see the dragon bone, it is already fine dragon bone powder. Who knows what kind of oracle bone inscription it is?

Why was Wang Yirong able to discover oracle bones in the 25th year of Guangxu's reign? If you look at historical records, you will know: Wang Yirong himself is proficient in medical skills. When he discovered the oracle bone inscriptions, he ran to Heniantang to get medicine, and happened to see a large number of oracle bones piled up from Henan. This became the first time in thousands of years that A scholar who discovered oracle bones.

After Wang Yirong discovered oracle bone inscriptions, he went to Henan to purchase them through antique dealers and casually received more than 1,700 oracle bones. Later, the first group of archaeologists came to Anyang and heard that they wanted to collect dragon bones with inscriptions. Many of them The local people brought a large bag of medicinal materials that were crushed and prepared for grinding. Unfortunately, the tortoise shells were broken into pieces and only had a single word, which could not be linked to the context. Therefore, it was difficult to distinguish what was recorded, and the value of the cultural relic was damaged. too much.

But this also shows how widespread this thing is in the market.

Wang Wenlong himself discovered the existence of oracle bones with characters engraved on them in pharmacies in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, he knew that if these things were not protected early, there would be many more that would be made into medicinal materials in the next few hundred years.

Dong Qichang and others were digging canyons in Henan before, and the number they dug out was not too large, and most of the oracle bone pits were scattered. But yesterday, after hearing Zhao Kan describing the large bones with square scenery, Wang Wenlong knew that they had probably dug up No. YH217. Now Wang Wenlong had to pay attention to the Oracle Bone Pit.

The YH217 oracle bone pit was originally excavated in 1936. It is the most historically valuable oracle bone pit discovered in Anyang, Henan since the Chinese people recognized the existence of oracle bone inscriptions and excavated it. More than 1.7 tortoise shells were unearthed in this pit alone, recording During the Shang King Wu Ding's period, they were related to sacrifices, field animal husbandry, agriculture, astronomy, military affairs, etc., and because they are all oracle bones from the same period, it is very convenient to compare them with each other. The canyon in this pit alone enabled epigraphists in history to identify many oracle bone inscriptions.

This oracle bone pit is of great significance to the study of oracle bone inscriptions and the history of the Yin and Shang Dynasties. Wang Wenlong knew that with more than 10,000 oracle bones in this pit, even with the academic level of the Ming Dynasty people, after a little research, a lot of information about the Yin Dynasty could be obtained. Research results of the Shang Dynasty.

It is necessary to actively protect this important cultural relic that can enlighten the archeology of the Ming Dynasty. One or two of the more than 17,000 oracle bones were casually taken away by local people, which was an unbearable loss.

Wang Wenlong advised Ye Xianggao: "I'm really worried that the pit of oracle bones will be damaged. These are all antiquities from the pre-Shang Dynasty. At that time, even Zhou Gong and Wen Wu had not yet been born. The records about that time in the history books are also true. There are too few. If we can study these oracle bones clearly, it will be a great achievement that our ancestors have never seen before."

(End of this chapter)