Although the fragment of stone slab in Chen Wenzhe's hand is not part of the Rosetta Stone, this stone slab comes from the same ancient Egyptian temple as the Rosetta Stone.
This stone slab also comes from a mural in this temple.
To be more precise, it is a shallow relief in the temple.
It's a pity that this piece of relief is really badly broken.
The temple was destroyed back then, and the Rosetta Stone and the piece of gravel in Chen Wenzhe's hands were packed into boxes and buried underground.
Later, he was discovered by the soldier and reborn.
However, after they were born, they had a different fate from the well-preserved Rosetta Stone. They were privately divided among soldiers, officers, and nobles.
The whole Rosetta Stone attracts the attention of the world, covering up the light of other small gravel slabs.
Therefore, carving up these gravel slabs has become inevitable.
"It's no wonder that Westerners think that ancient Egypt is the oldest civilization on earth. They have the earliest writings left!"
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics date back more than 5,000 years ago, but what about our oracle bone inscriptions?
The contents of the oracle bone inscriptions we have discovered now only reflect all aspects of social life in my country's Shang Dynasty from 1300 BC to 1000 BC.
Judging from the more than 100,000 oracle bone inscriptions discovered so far, the contents are inscriptions recording the 270 years between Pan Geng's move to Yin and the reign of King Zhou.
The Yin and Shang Dynasties had three major characteristics: trusting history, drinking alcohol and worshiping ghosts and gods;
It is also because of this that these tortoise shells, which determine many things such as fishing, conquest, and agriculture, can be seen again in later generations and become important materials for the study of Chinese characters.
Different from the writing on the stone slab in front of me, sophisticated pen and ink existed in my country's Shang Dynasty. The calligraphy was engraved with scriptures, and the style was thin, sharp, and interesting like a knife's edge.
Affected by the rise and fall of writing styles, the contents recorded in oracle bone inscriptions can be roughly divided into five periods.
In the late Shang Dynasty, it lasted about 273 years from Pan Geng to Yin to King Zhou of Shang Dynasty, and experienced 8 generations and 12 kings.
The oracle bone inscriptions of this period should also be divided into early and late.
There are many opinions on the periodization and dating of oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty.
Nowadays, Dong Zuobin's five-period theory is mainly used based on ten criteria such as lineage, title, and virginity.
That is, the first period: Pan Geng, Xiao Xin, Xiao Yi, Wu Ding;
The second period: Zu Geng, Zu Jia;
The third issue: Lin Xin, Kang Ding;
The fourth period: Wu Yi, Wen Ding;
The fifth issue: Emperor Yi, Emperor Xin.
There is only the Shang Dynasty and no history of the Xia Dynasty.
Because until now, we have not discovered the writing of the Xia Dynasty, many scholars internationally do not believe that Chinese civilization has a civilization of five thousand years.
If according to their conditions, they had writing, could make pottery and other tools, etc., then our Chinese civilization would only have a history of 3,300 years at most.
Of course we don't recognize this, so later we came up with the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasty project.
Our Chinese civilization has a long history, but the "faithful history" that actually has documented dates began in the first year of the Republic of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
That is, 841 BC, as found in "Historical Records: Chronology of the Twelve Princes".
The previous historical eras are all unclear.
Sima Qian said in "Historical Records" that he had read many documents since the Yellow Emperor. Although there were chronological records in them, these dates were relatively vague and inconsistent.
Therefore, he discarded it. In "Historical Records: Three Dynasties Genealogy", he only recorded the lineage of the kings of Xia, Shang and Zhou without specific reign years.
Therefore, there has never been a generally accepted chronology of our country's history before the first year of the Republic.
The first scholar to conduct systematic research on the chronology of Chinese history before the first year of the Republic was Liu Xin in the late Western Han Dynasty.
Liu Xin's calculations and research results are reflected in his "Shi Jing".
The main contents of "Shi Jing" were later included in "Han Shu·Lü Li Zhi".
From Liu Xin onwards until the middle of the Qing Dynasty, many scholars conducted calculations and research on the chronology of my country's history before the first year of the Republic of China.
These works have certain limitations, because the documents used in their calculations basically do not exceed the documents Sima Qian saw, so it is difficult to make breakthroughs.
The situation changed somewhat after the late Qing Dynasty. Scholars began to conduct chronological research based on the inscriptions on bronze vessels, which expanded the sources of data.
The discovery of oracle bone inscriptions in 1899 provided a new source of material for chronological research.
After entering the 20th century, the development of archeology in my country has accumulated a large amount of material for the study of the chronology of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.
In fact, the ancients did not deceive us. Sima Qian said long ago: "The residences of the past three generations were all between Heluo."
Important archaeological discoveries about the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties in recent decades have proven how close the relationship between the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties and Heluo was.
However, there is no exact chronology of the history of our country before the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.
The exact dates of antiquity recorded in ancient Chinese books can only be traced back to the first year of the Republic of the Western Zhou Dynasty (i.e. 841 BC) according to Sima Qian's "Historical Records: Chronology of the Twelve Princes".
Further up, there are differences, or there are kings but no years, and there is an abnormal phenomenon of "five thousand years of civilization and three thousand years of history".
Did the Xia Dynasty exist? When was the handover between Xia and Shang?
Is the Erlitou site between Heluo and Heluo really the capital of Xia, the first dynasty of my country?
Some foreign scholars even believe that the so-called Xia Dynasty is simply a historical legend imagined by businessmen.
Xia, Shang and Zhou were respectfully called the "Three Dynasties" by the ancients, and their main activity areas were all in the Heluo area.
It occupies an extremely important position in our country's five thousand years of civilization.
It would be a pity if there is no exact date.
Therefore, in May 1996, the country launched the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasty project.
This project is to combine the humanities and natural sciences, concentrate on the advantages of related disciplines, and formulate a scientifically based "Annual Schedule of Xia and Shang".
According to the different circumstances of the materials in each historical stage, the "Xia and Shang Chronological Table" aims to provide a more accurate date for the kings before the first year of the Republic of the Western Zhou Dynasty;
For the kings below Wu Ding in the late Shang Dynasty, a more accurate date is proposed;
For the early Shang Dynasty, a relatively detailed chronological framework is proposed;
For the Xia Dynasty, a basic chronological framework is proposed.
The Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasty project focuses on 9 disciplines and 12 majors, and more than 200 experts and scholars jointly tackle key problems.
Based on historical documents, they will collect as much material as possible about the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties and celestial phenomena from ancient Chinese classics, and analyze and organize them;
Astronomers must comprehensively summarize the achievements of predecessors in astronomical chronology, infer a number of absolute ages, and determine scientific and accurate coordinates for the Xia, Shang and Zhou chronology;
Archaeologists will conduct systematic research on archaeological remains closely related to the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties and establish relative chronological series and phases;
In terms of dating science and technology, carbon 14 dating methods are mainly used, including conventional methods and accelerator mass spectrometer methods.