Summary: The Momumental Work of the Chinese Scholarship on the Silk Road: an Review of Huang Wenbi’s Xiyu shidi kaogu lunji/The Analects of the Archaeology of the History and Geography of the Western Regions 　　 Huang Wenbi (1893-1966) is the renowned archaeolog

　　

    Huang Wenbi (1893-1966) is the renowned archaeologist and historial geographer of the twentieth century. He participated in the China-Sweden joint Scientific Mission to North-Western China in 1927 as the only Chinese archaeologist. The first trip set out on May 9^th, 1927, marks the start of the over three years trip of the investigation in Mongolia and Xinjiang, as well as his life-long journey of the study of the North-Western China.

　　

    The Commercial Press published the selected works of Huang Wenbi under the titled “Xiyu shidi kaogu lunji,” and selected the book into “The series of the Modern Classics of the Chinese Academy.” This selected anthology highlights the unique methodologies applied by Huang Wenbi on the investigation and research of the North-Western China, including the equal attention paid by him to multiple disciplines such as archaeology, history, and geography, and his dynamic integration of the investigation of specific sites in the North-Western with the evaluation of the regional features of the Silk Road area. Emphasizing the importance of archaeological physical evidences, his research on the historial geography of the North-Western region broke through the limitation of the one-sided emphasis on literature evidences in the Qing scholarship. His case-by-case study of the archaeological sites well applied the “dual-evidence” methodology by quoting literary evidences from the descendant classic works.

　　

    Through his four investigations at Xinjiang, Huang Wenbi has traveled over 38000 kilometres, investigated over hundreds of sites, and excavated dozens of them with specific focuses. He kept records of all these sites with details at different levels. Therefore, he is worthy of the title of the initiator of the Chinese archaeological study of Xinjiang, whether talking about how early his work was, how long he has worked on the archaeological research of Xinjiang and the historial geographical study of the North-Western region, or how wide, deep, and the fruitful that his investigations were.

　　

    The rich field work experience achieved by Huang Wenbi at Mongolia during the first investigation and the following trips to sites such as Qin Great wall, Heliutu, and Juyanbu has provided him abundant archaeologial materials for the further study of the historial geography of the Northern region. After arriving at Xinjiang, Huang Wenbi completed the first scientific archaeological investigation and excavation at Xinjiang by himself in the Turfan Basin, Taklamakan Desert, and Lop Nor. It was this excavation that laid the foundation for the publication about Gaochang potteries and Turfan epigraphs, and the discoveries of the site of Tuyin and the southern and northern rivers. The second expedition to Mongolia and Xinjiang was taken place from 1933 to 1934. Starting from 1943, the third expedition to Xinjiang was commissioned by the Northwestern University. In 1957, at his age of 64, Huang Wenbi led the archaeological team to Xinjiang after the founding of the new China. This was the fourth, as well as the last expedition to the Western region of his life.

　

    The early publications of Huang Wenbi focused on the archaeological discoveries at the Turfan Basin, including Gaochang zhuanji/The Collection of Bricks of Gaochang (1931) and Gaochang taoji/The Collection of Pottery of Gaochang (1933). These works were highly recommended by a group of leading scholars including Xiang Da and Zheng Shixu in less than one year after their publications. Xiang Da said that “Huang’s work had the highest accomplishment among the Chinese publications about the discovery of the Scientific Mission to North-Western China. Zheng Shixu said that “his research neither followed blindly the idea that considered the Han people to be descendents of the West, nor overstated that Chinese culture was above all.”

　　

    Using his own system of classification, Huang Wenbi contributed excellently to the study of potteries, brick epigraphs, and manuscripts of Turfan in Gaochang zhuanji/The Collection of Bricks of Gaochang (Revised and Enlarged) published in 1951 and Tulufan kaogu ji/The Turfan Archaeological Record in 1954. His research represented in Gaochang jiangyu juncheng kao/The Interpretation of the Territory and Prefecture of Gaochang, Gaochang guo guanzhi biao/The Official System of Gaochang, Gaochang guo Qushi jinian/The Chronology of the Qu Family of Gaochang, Ningshuo jiangjun Qu Bin zaosibei jiaoji/The Emending Excursus of the Ningshuo General Qu Bin’s Stele of the Establishment of an Temple, and Zhang Huaiji muzhiming jiaoji/The Emending Excursus of the Epigraph of Zhang Huaiji laid foundation for the further study of the history of Gaochang. From the 30’s to the 50’s of the twentieth century, Huang Wenbi’s scholarship has been tracked and studied by a series of renowned Japanese scholars of the history of the Western Regions, such as Mizuno Seiichi, Fujieda Akira, Ishida Mikinosuke, and so on. For instance, Mizuno Seiichi said that “it should be celebrated the Chinese archaeology began to adopt the scientific method that should have been used,” as a response to contribution made by Huang Wenbi in his Gaochang taoji/The Collection of Pottery of Gaochang, which broke the limitation of the traditional Chinese study of implements by adopting the scientific methods.

　　

    Luobuzhuoer kaogu ji/The Archaeological Record of Lop Nor is the representative of the first wave of publications on the research of Lop Nor taken by Chinese scholars. Huang Wenbi contributed to the field primarily on the discovery and research of the Tuyin site and Juyan bamboo slips of the Han Dynasty found there, the ancient route at the northern bank of the Peacock River and other surrounding sites. Tuyin bamboo slip was the earliest and largest excavation of the Western Han slips of Xinjiang. It was on the base of this excavation and the slips found that Huang Wenbi achieved some new insights on the study of the bureaucratic system, transportation, and storage during Western Han’s governing of the Western Region. Thus, the Tuyin site was considered as the second most significant excavation at the area of Lob Nor after the discovery of the ancient city ruins at Loulan. The distinction of the culture between the southern and the northern bank of the Peacock River is significant to the study of the changes of the Peacock riverway and the site of Loulan.

　　

    Talimu pendi kaogu ji/The Archaeological Record of the Tarim Basin further highlighted Huang Wenbi’s contribution to the research of the oasis city sites spread around the Tarim Basin at Xinjiang. He left his footprints at Yanqi, Korla, Luntai, Kucha, Xayar, Baiceng, Khotan, Yutian, Pishan, Karghalik, Bachu, Kashgar, and Aksu. He focused on the study of the riverways and historic sites of the desert hinterland during the trip starting from Shaya and passing through the Taklamakan Desert to Yutian. Combining his advantage in the study of the classical documents and evidences collected from the field work, Huang Wenbi gave full play of the “dual-evidence” methodology in the study of the ruined capital cities and historic sites of Karasahr, Kucha, and Khotan. Huang Wenbi’s last archaeological report is Xinjiang kaogu fajue baogao (1957-1958)/The Archaeological Report of Excavations at Xinjiang (1957-1958) has been completed before he passed away, and was edited and published by Meng Fanren.