起源

Antiquarian studies in China began to develop in the beginning of the Sung Dynasty (960-1126*, A.D.). They enjoyed a glorious period for more than one hundred years, during which a solid foundation was laid for later development. The classical revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries included a very strong current of antiquarian interest, which has been rightly considered as the direct descendant of Sung scholarship. Western science began to affect China seriously, only at the beginning of the twentieth century. So the concept of modern archaeology in China may be said to be developed from two entirely different, but mutually complementary traditions: on the one hand, it is related to that special branch of classical learning known as the Study of Metals and Stones; and on the other, to the field explorations and excavations, which were first developed in the science of geology and biology, and from which archaeology in the West has been gradually evolved. Such being the case, archaeology, therefore, unlike most other natural sciences which have come to China unprecedented, serves best to link together modern science and traditional Chinese learning. In order to make a proper estimate of what is being done at present and what can be achieved in the future, it is necessary that something should be known of China’s antiquarian past.