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olithic  archaeologists,  which included  Pei Wenzhong (1904-1982), who had  excavated the first
                            almost intact  cranium of Peking Man at Zhoukoudian in  1929 and  discovered  in situ stone  tool
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                            artifacts  and  evidence of the  use  of fire by the  Peking Man in  1931.  Tragically, the  more  than
                            forty  fossil remains of Peking Man which had  been  kept by several Americans in China, were
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                            all lost  in December  1941.  After  Black's death  in  1934,  Weidenreich was hired to  continue
                            anatomical studies  on the  Peking Man. Weidenriech published  most of his own research,
                            and  his publications,  as well as those of Black, proved  to be vital records  after  the  fossils'
                            disappearance. 38
                                 Andersson established  the  practice  of gathering experts  from  different  disciplines to
                            research  and  excavate archaeological  sites.  For example, Yuan Fuli (Chinese, 1893-1987), an
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                            American-educated geologist,  and Zdansky were the  principals in the Yangshao excavation
                            and topographical  survey. At Andersson's invitation, Black studied  the  human  skeletons  at
                            Yangshao, identifying them  as proto-Chinese,  similar to those of the  present-day  northern Chi-
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                            nese.  Such collaborative strategies  remain the  method  of choice  for interpreting  the  findings
                            of archaeological excavations.
                                 While archaeological work continued,  academics in other  related fields had  come to be
                            called the  "Questioning Antiquity" school  (yi  gu pai). Headed  by Gu Jiegang (1893-1980), they
                            determined  that the  chronicles  of the three huang "emperors"  and five di "emperors" of pre-

                            dynastic China (before 2000  BCE) had been  created  by Confucians and other schools that
                            arose  only after  the  Eastern Zhou period.  Records of the  early dynastic epoch (or Xia and
                            Shang dynasties, c. the 2ist-nth century  BCE), moreover, were extremely sparse, and those that
                            recount  the  history of the  Xia and  early Shang were also found to be unreliable, to the  point
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                            that some even doubted the  existence  of the  Xia.  More than  two thousand years of received
                            wisdom and  Chinese  historiography  were being challenged:  suddenly  an entire corpus  of his-
                            tory— and the  legendary sages of antiquity, model rulers, and  early dynasties —had been  sub-
                            verted. China itself seemed to have lost  its roots.  Who but  the  Chinese archaeologist  would be
                            able to reconstruct  early Chinese  history?
                                 Locating Yinxu  (the  Ruins of Yin) at Anyang, the  purported  Late Shang capital,  became
                            the first priority of Chinese  scholars. The archaeologists' objective  was the  same as that of tra-
                            ditional  Chinese  historiographers  and antiquarians: to test the  veracity of the  classics and  their
                            annotations  and, in so doing, to fill in the  lacunae of history  (zhengjing  bushi).  In 1928, the  Insti-
                            tute of History and  Philology of Academia Sinica founded an  official  Archaeological  Section,
                            which embarked on  its initial field work at Anyang in the  fall  of that same year under  Fu Sinian
                             (1896-1950), the  director of the  institute  and an eminent  historian. Dong Zuobin  (1895-1963),
                            a gifted palaeographer  of oracle-bone  inscriptions  despite a lack of university or  archaeological
                            training, was the  engineer.  Dong's intention  was to explore whether  oracle  bones  might still
                             survive in underground  Yinxu after thirty years of exhaustive hunting had turned  up little. The
                             field work yielded nearly eight  hundred  pieces  of inscribed  oracle bones. 42




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