Page 35 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

prise with steady, though modest, financial support from the government. Guo Moruo (Chi-
nese, 1892-1978) launched these initiatives, while Xia Nai implemented them.
Guo Moruo, a renowned man of letters and a leading spirit of Chinese history, literature,
and epigraphy (all mastered by self-study), was more than a patron of archaeology. Vice Premier
of the State Council and President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences from 1950 until 1978, he
proposed and received approval from Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) to establish the Bureau
of Cultural Relics (now the State Bureau of Cultural Relics) under the Ministry of Culture. He
also proposed an Institute of Archaeology under the Academy, which became part of the Chi-
55
nese Academy of Social Sciences in 1977. Both were established in 1949 and 195O. The former
is the government branch that administers the affairs of archaeologists and museums, while the
latter is the national academic agency for excavation and research. Zheng Zhenduo (Chinese,
56
1898-1958), a noted scholar, was the founding director of both. Guo also selected Liang Siy-
ong and Xia Nai as deputy directors for the Institute of Archaeology. Zheng, who was not a field
archaeologist, devoted himself to the administration of archaeological affairs until his death in

1958 (Liang, incapacitated by severe tuberculosis, had died in 1954). In 1962 Xia became direc-
tor of the institute by default but emerged as a major policymaker from the 19505 through the
mid-^Sos.
Xia Nai had been an intern under Liang Siyong in field archaeology during the Anyang
excavations and had studied at the University of London from 1935 to 1939. There, one of his
advisors was Mortimer Wheeler (British, 1890-1977). Liang's studies abroad greatly benefited
him later. 57
When Xia assumed the leadership of the Institute in 1950, he quickly organized and dis-
patched a team of his young proteges to Huixian, Henan province, in the Yellow River valley. Xia
taught each one how to conduct field work, and in the depths of winter he personally excavated
remains of nineteen chariots dated to the Warring States period (475 - 221 BCE) — an exceed-
ingly laborious and intricate task. Xia cultivated a generation of core archaeologists for the
institute while continuing to achieve such discoveries as the Shang culture remains at Huixian
and Zhengzhou, both in Henan province, which antedated those from Anyang. Features of Chu
tombs in Changsha, Hunan province, were preliminarily observed through large-scale excava-
58
tions that laid the foundation for further research into Chu culture. These projects expanded
our knowledge of the sequence and regional distribution of the Shang culture and extended
controlled archaeological excavations into the Yangzi River reaches. From the 19508 through

the 19705, under the direction of Xia, the Institute was at the center of most major archaeologi-
cal excavations.
In the early 19805, Xia Nai was the greatest authority in Chinese archaeology, and I was
inspired by his gentle, amiable, and approachable manner. A man of principle and integrity,
he did not hesitate to state his beliefs or even to oppose his supervisors or high government
officials. The story of the excavation from 1956 to 1958 of one of the imperial mausoleums of the

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