It's a pity, although Chen Han thinks that the Liangzhu people should have developed the original script.

However, until more solid evidence is found, it is not possible to draw a definite conclusion whether the inscriptions on the stone of the Zhuangqiao tomb, including other inscriptions of the Liangzhu culture, are written or not.

However, this does not detract from the importance of this batch of newly excavated materials.

The archaeological value of the symbol itself is extremely important, and the meaning of the symbol itself is clarified, and the question of whether it is a text or not may be solved.

To this end, archaeologists and researchers of the Liangzhu culture, as well as Assyriologists, gathered in Pinghu to hold an "Academic Report on Prehistoric Symbols and Early Writing" online and offline

Chen Han also attended the meeting, and sat in the corner of the stage with Kong Jianwen and other teachers and colleagues.

"While we discuss or focus on the problems of early writing, we should pay more attention to the relationship between symbols and carriers, the relationship between symbols and relic units, the relationship between symbols and settlements, and the relationship between symbols and cross-culture."

Yu Hongguo, an expert in paleography research at the Zhejiang Institute, said: "During the Liangzhu period, such a complex social administration and operation, the organization and implementation of large-scale projects, the establishment of a high-level government-run handicraft system and the payment of tribute and a series of state actions were completed. ”

Yu Hongguo still looks forward to the day when the complete Liangzhu script will be discovered.

However, Zhu Xuefei, a librarian at the ZJ Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, tried to study the inscription of Liangzhu in a way that sounded very brainy.

"When we say whether there is a text in Liangzhu, we should not first discuss the question of yes and no, but first see if we are on the same channel, how we define the text, and whether the concept of the text we discuss is unified."

In her own words, her research method is based on traditional archaeological typology.

She believes that scholars and experts can "use the carved symbols of Liangzhu to explain the carved symbols of Liangzhu".

It sounds a bit winding, but it does avoid some subjective pure guesswork on the meaning of the symbol.

She advocated the discovery of the laws of the inscription itself and the construction of the meaning of the symbol according to the regularity therein.

Because the regularity of the engraving itself can be obtained through observation and analysis.

For example, most of the symbols will be repeated at different frequencies, and the symbols in different levels of sites are highly similar and systematic.

There are many kinds of classification criteria for symbols, and different researchers have different grasps of the classification criteria.

Zhu Xuefei's discussion of engraving is based on the three levels she distinguishes.

The first level is the difference between the three carriers of pottery, stone and jade, because the symbolic performance on different carriers is very different.

The second level is to distinguish between pre-firing and post-firing engraving on pottery.

Because the engraving before burning is mostly engraved in some hidden parts and has the nature of marking, and the engraving after burning is mostly engraved in conspicuous parts, which has the possibility of transmitting meaning.

At the third level, it is the analysis of specific symbols.

Finally, she concluded: "The carved symbols have not yet entered the Chinese character system, but it cannot be ruled out that the rules of character creation in later generations have been inherited, and the construction rules of the carved symbols of the Liangzhu culture have been inherited. ”

"If we want to talk about the influence of the Liangzhu civilization on Chinese civilization on the standard of 'writing', even if it does not directly provide writing, it may provide some logical rules for the creation of writing."

Chen Han nodded frequently in the audience.

Regardless of whether Liangzhu directly contributed to the mature writing of later generations, that is, the oracle bone inscription.

What is certain is that in the process of the birth of Oracle, Liangzhu definitely helped.

At least those inscriptions that look almost exactly the same as the oracle bone inscription definitely provided the support of logical laws for the later birth of the oracle bone inscription.

Again, the oracle bone inscription could not have appeared suddenly, and the merchant who created the oracle bone inscription must have referred to the original script that had been born before.

He and Li Si engaged in seal script, which also referred to Zhong Dingwen, and it was impossible to really create a new text from scratch.

Coming all the way from the capital, Assyrian Qiao Xiang, a professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of West Asia at the School of Foreign Languages and Chinese at Peking University, said: "The intricate symbols of Liangzhu artifacts reflect some different characteristics of the early symbol system, and behind these characteristics there may be little-known cultural aspects. ”

"A simple inscription may be the potter's code name, such as a first name, surname, or clan, or it may represent the type of artifact, such as wheat or rice, or it may be a number, indicating the capacity of the artifact."

The four or five symbols on the piercing ear pot seem to have a certain connection with Chinese characters, and the experts of the Capital Oracle Bone Research Institute interpreted it as "Fang Yue will be lost", which seems to make sense, but it seems that other interpretations can be made. ”

"The 12 symbols on the black-skinned clay pot are most likely a text painting, which is very freehand, and seems to depict the process of hunting and harvesting."

"It is possible that the six characters on the stone Yue are alphabetic characters, and the high repetition rate is a distinctive feature of alphabetic characters."

"However, none of the known alphabets date back to 2000 B.C., and there is no tradition of alphabetic writing in this part of China, so this speculation is too bold."

Perhaps, like the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt, the characters represented by these six symbols, if they are words, are phonetic characters, Egyptian characters pictographs, and the symbols of the writing system represented by these six Liangzhu symbols are more abstract? It's just impression-driven speculation. ”

"Regardless, the diversity and complexity of the Liangzhu symbols give the impression that Liangzhu may be a meeting point of many cultures."

"In other words, it is an early stage of the creation and collision of multiple scripts in the budding birth."

"The Liangzhu people may have been exploring how to create a mature writing system at that time, and they have taken many routes, all of which are being perfected or collided."

"This is a very brilliant cultural process!"

"It's a pity that it is difficult for people today to explore the frenzy of writing creation at that time, and most of the words that were created may have dissipated into history, leaving only these few engraved characters engraved on utensils, which have undergone changes over the years and survived to the present."

Whether there is writing in Liangzhu is not a debate, and the archaeological research of "primitive writing" should be considered from the materials and approaches.

In the Liangzhu culture, we see so many graphic symbols, how can we accurately convey information in a broad sense?

In what kind of social class is such a social function realized?

From an archaeological point of view, we should consider and answer these questions in addition to interpretation.

Kong Qin, an associate professor at the School of Culture and Museums of Peking University, put forward a very interesting idea after smiling.

"Are the emojis we use on the Internet considered words?"