October 5, 1999, Athens, Greece, overnight at Royal Olympic Hotel

Wake up in the morning and sit on the balcony to read a few copies of the English documents I got yesterday at the door of the Parthenon. I didn't want to just sit down and stand up again, and it turned out that the Parthenon was on the top of the hill in front of me on the left. I was busy going out early and returning home every day, but I occasionally glanced at the stone pillar of the Temple of Zeus in Athens in front of me, and I didn't see the more conspicuous Barthenon!

I sat back down and looked up at it for a long time.

It is dedicated to Athena, the patron saint of the city of Athens, and the gradual prosperity of Greek civilization was completed step by step under its protection. It was devastated in the Greco-Persian War and rebuilt during the Golden Age of Athens, and I don't know how many rare geniuses have paid attention to its fate.

But when the golden age of Greek civilization passed, it was still there. Is this a great fortune or a great misfortune for all the relics? The glory that accompanied him is gone, and he can only stand in the decaying grass and the sun with a sad memory. It is too magnificent, too beautiful, and none of the powerful in later generations can let it go, and they will not let it be quiet.

In the days of the Roman Empire, it became Christianity; During the Turkish occupation, it became a mosque again; During the war between the Venetian and Turkish armies in the 17th century, it became the powder magazine of the Turkish army, which exploded and the Venetian army used it as an enemy stronghold for heavy bombardment. In the midst of a veritable ruin, in the early 19th century, the British ambassador to Turkey transported the carvings of the best part of the Parthenon to England, where they are still stored in the British Museum.

No wonder so many ancient civilizations in the world have been annihilated in external destruction one by one, you see how much humiliation it endured just because of the use of marble materials, it is difficult to destroy! Devastation comes from barbarism, but also from other civilizations that try to impose on others. Therefore, Barthenon is not only a symbol of the continuation of civilization, but also a symbol of the humiliation of civilization.

The humiliated grandmother is even more respected by the younger generations. In the middle of the century, a few days towards the end of World War II, when the German fascists were still ruling Greece, two young Greeks climbed the vertical cliff at the eastern end of the Parthenon with their bare hands and raised a Greek flag. This brought glory to the Parthenon, and the two young men were immediately arrested, and a few days later Germany surrendered, and they became heroes. Today, the Greek flag still flies there, a flag dedicated by children and grandchildren to their grandmothers.

I remember that we left the Parthenon very late yesterday evening, and it was time to close the door, and the staff took turns urging us to leave in Greek, English, and Japanese, and we pretended not to understand, but still looked around hungrily, which touched the staff. They suddenly remembered that it might be the group of Chinese who had been repeatedly reported in the local newspaper? Instead, they stopped to look at us. Most of the staff were young women, standard Greek beauties, who guarded the millennial temple and their lithe figures with their old pillars. They walked on the hillside, and everything except for their clothes was like the priestess of 2,000 years ago.

When we finally had to leave, someone at the door handed us a few documents, which we didn't have time to look at at the time, but now we pick them up and read them, and our eyes can't take them away. It turned out that an organization and several professors were appealing to tourists from all over the world to bring back the best carvings of the Parthenon from the British Museum in London. The reasons are strongly written:

1. These relics have their own common name, called Barthenon, and Barthenon is in Athens, not in London;

2. Only when these cultural relics return to Athens can they find their natural orientation and constitute the integrity of the front and back;

3. Barthenon is the highest symbol of Greek civilization and the cultural heritage of humanity selected by the United Nations......

It's really righteous and strict, and it's moving, especially for Chinese like me.

I suddenly remembered that many years ago, I had written an article expressing my unwillingness to Stein and others to take away the Dunhuang cultural relics, saying that I would like to be born many years earlier to stop their convoy in the desert and debate with them. Unexpectedly, this idea was ridiculed by many young critics, one of whom said, "Can you argue with the erudite Stein?" It's better to get acquainted and release it as soon as possible. "I don't get angry at other people's mockery, but this time it's really sad because it's not for me personally. Seeing that Greece asked Britain for the Parthenon antiquities, I would like to follow suit and answer a few of the young critics in China:

First, those cultural relics are named after Dunhuang, which is not in Paris or London, but in China, not to mention Chinese scholars, even Chinese peasants have the right to stop the convoy and debate a few words;

Second, we may lack the level, but the Dunhuang scriptures are written in Chinese, and Stein does not understand Chinese at all, is he more capable of reading and comprehension?

3. At the same time as the discovery of the Dunhuang Scripture Cave, the oracle bone inscription was also found in China. A clear Shang dynasty was found from the oracle bone inscriptions, which was completed by Chinese scholars without consulting Stein. Therefore, the Chinese also had the level of studying Dunhuang at that time.

I don't say this out of narrow nationalism to disparage all foreign archaeologists who come to China, but I really can't understand the hearts of us young critics a century after this happened. They may think that they have achieved a purely Westernized position, but slowly, even Greece, the cradle of Western civilization, disagrees.

You see, this material calling for the retrieval of the Barthenon artifacts also quotes the words of a late Greek chief:

I hope that the Barthenon artifacts will return to Greece before I die, and if I come back after my death, I will surely be resurrected.

This sour sound contains the last dignity of an ancient civilization. This *** chief is a lady named Meli

a Me

cou

i）。 The organization that sent the information included this passage in an open letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.