Ouyang Xun also kept his word and gave all the books he collected at home and his own experiences to the Chinese Character Research Institute.
Chen Jingke immediately organized manpower to copy and proofread, and the next step was to make engravings for large-scale printing.
After the copying was completed, he was about to return the original copy to Ouyang Xun, but was told that it was no longer needed and had been given to the academy.
He felt that there was something unusual about this matter. These things were the heritage of a family. How could he not just say no to them?
I asked people to inquire and got a very helpless answer.
There is no successor.
Ouyang Xun has four sons, the three older ones have mediocre qualifications and can even be said to be a bit unworthy.
While he was still alive, there were people who dared to think of selling these books for money. You can only imagine what would happen when he died.
Ouyang Tong, the only one with talent, was too young to compete with his three brothers for the family property. He couldn't defend it even if he wanted to.
Donating the collection of books to the Institute of Chinese Characters can protect these books and accumulate some human capital for Ouyang Tong.
This was not the end yet. After donating the books, he called his four sons together to divide their families, and invited his close friends to bear witness.
All the family property was given to the three older sons, and the youngest son Ouyang Tong was left with a small courtyard and a shop in a remote corner of Chang'an City.
He also emphasized that from now on, the four brothers would go their separate ways and never have anything to do with each other.
Before the four sons said anything, their good friends were shocked and tried to persuade them.
As a father, even if you don't teach them about brothers, friends, and brotherly respect, why do you take the initiative to let them cut off contact with each other? How will they get along with each other as brothers in the future?
But Ouyang Xun was determined to do this, no one could persuade him, and the matter was finally settled.
The three brothers happily divided the family property and each lived the life they dreamed of.
Ouyang Tong and his mother Xu moved to live in a small courtyard. The shop was also run by Xu herself. She sold some needles and threads for people to sew and mend, so it was still manageable despite the tight life.
Ouyang Xun himself did not have to worry about having no one to support him. He was also the retired prince of the court baron. As long as he was alive, he was a treasure, and his three sons were all vying to support him.
But according to custom, he still lived in the eldest son's home, and the eldest son took care of him until he died.
After learning what happened, Chen Jingke was filled with emotion, this is the reality of the world.
Ouyang Xun is really decisive.
But if you think about his experience, you will know that this is normal.
His father rebelled because of the emperor's suspicion, was defeated and killed, and the entire family was wiped out.
He was only thirteen years old at the time. He hid alone and escaped the genocide with only his own body.
Then I relied on my ability to climb step by step to where I am today.
During this period, he commanded troops and fought in battles, and also served as a civil servant and a herdsman for the emperor. He was a man with all-round talents in both civil and military affairs.
Even though you are older, your brain is not confused at all, and you can make up your mind and make choices at critical moments.
Ouyang Tong seemed to have suffered a big loss when the family was separated, but he also jumped out of the shackles of the family and has since then prospered.
Cheng Huailiang was also very satisfied with Ouyang Tong, so he suggested: "Why don't we take over his mother and son directly? How can our academy still miss his salary?"
"In this way, his mother can be relieved of hard work, and he can study and learn with peace of mind."
Chen Jingke shook his head and said: "How can you get the fragrance of plum blossoms without going through a bone-chilling cold?"
"This is a kind of tempering and training for him. Today's poverty will become the most precious wealth in the future."
"Ouyang Shugeng has his own deep intention in arranging this. Your rash action will only break his plan."
Although Cheng Huailiang disagreed very much, we all grew up in a honeypot and have become talents.
However, seeing Chen Jingke's objection, he gave up the idea, but from then on he took more care of Ouyang Tong.
…
Let’s talk about the oracle bone inscriptions.
Lu Cai, Kong Yingda and Ouyang Xun are all big names in the academic world and know many people.
More than thirty masters of calligraphy, historians and epigraphy masters were invited at one go.
These people didn't really believe it at first. They had never heard of ancient Yin and Shang texts before. How could you be lying?
But I came anyway out of trust in the three of them.
After seeing the oracle bones with my own eyes and confirming that the marks on them were not forged, my attitude changed 180 degrees.
With the participation of more than thirty celebrities, the Oracle cracking work has finally begun.
As the initiator of the incident, Chen Jingke gave everyone a simple science popularization and put forward his own standards:
"Bronze inscriptions were unearthed during the pre-Han Dynasty and were named after they were inscribed on gold and bronze vessels. They are the most valuable information for studying ancient times."
"In the past, we thought that the development of writing began with bronze script, then seal script, then official script, and even regular script, running script, and cursive script."
"But there is something that goes against common sense. Everything has a process of evolution. It is impossible for bronze inscriptions to be so perfect as soon as they are born."
“So what did writing look like before it?”
"None of us have studied this issue before, thinking that the writing was like bronze inscriptions as soon as it was born."
"Now this theory can be overturned, or needs to be revised. Oracle bone inscriptions are the origin of writing."
"At least until now, oracle bone inscriptions are the earliest writing we have come into contact with."
"If older writing is discovered in the future, this theory will have to be updated... Let's go back to oracle bone inscriptions."
"Writing pays attention to shape, sound, and meaning, and oracle bone inscriptions should also be the same, so the direction of our research is these three aspects."
"First determine its glyph. The oracle bones have been buried in the soil for thousands of years and will inevitably be destroyed. We must find a way to overcome all difficulties to determine the glyph."
"Then there is the meaning of the characters... The development of Chinese characters is sequential, from oracle bone inscriptions to bronze inscriptions, to seal scripts, to official scripts, and regular scripts."
"I want to find the evolution of that word and finally determine its meaning."
"The last thing is the pronunciation, which is the most difficult. Writing has undergone several major changes over thousands of years of development."
"Accents change even more. No one knows what the accents of ancient people thousands of years ago were like. We can only slowly figure out the rules..."
"A single text is the most difficult to decipher. It is best to find its original text, and the entire article is the best to decipher..."
Chen Jingke told everyone some of the methods and requirements for cracking oracle bones that he had seen in his previous life.
After reaching a consensus, the research work began.
Originally, these people were prepared to tackle the problem from scratch, but only when they started working did they realize that Chen Jingke had already provided a translation of dozens of words.
Everyone was very surprised. You have translated so much before you even started?
So Chen Jingke moved the family out again, saying that the elders in the Taoist family had already studied it, and he occasionally looked at it and remembered some of it.
Many people quickly asked where his family was and where the research materials had gone.
Chen Jingke all laughed and did not answer. Some people were unwilling to give in and wanted to continue asking questions.
However, someone who knew the inside story immediately told them not to ask any more questions. After these people learned about it, they did not dare to ask any more questions even if they were unwilling to do so.
With the translation of these dozens of words as a reference, the deciphering speed is much faster, at least skipping the initial stage of guessing without knowing anything.
Not long after the work started, another problem arose: there were too few samples.
Although Zixiaoguan has tried its best to collect the oracle bones that have been spread out, the number is not as large as expected, and only less than a hundred pieces have been collected so far.
Such a small amount could not meet the needs of research, and more samples were urgently needed, so excavation of the ruins was put on the agenda.
But the excavation of ruins is not that simple. Archeology is a very deep subject, and Chen Jingke has not done any research in this area.
Others in the institute have not done much research in this area. The only epigraphy expert who knows something about it only focuses on rubbings.
Naturally, a living person cannot be suffocated to death. As a time traveler, Chen Jingke, who has read many tomb robbing movies, TV series and novels, thought of a group.
Someone asked in confusion: "Mojin Xiaowei? What is Mojin Xiaowei? It sounds like a military position. Does the Tang Dynasty have such an army?"
Lu Cai explained on the side: "They are tomb robbers. In order to raise military pay, Cao Cao formed an army to rob ancient tombs...
"He named this army Captain Mojin. Later, the tomb robbers liked to call themselves by this name."
Everyone was enlightened, and then they all said: Tomb robbers are just tomb robbers, why are you touching Colonel Jin?
Lu Cai smiled in his heart and said to Chen Jingke: "There should be a lot of tomb robbers in the prison. With your identity, it should be easy to get a few of them."
Others also agreed that this matter was none other than Mr. Chen.
Now it was Chen Jingke's turn to be surprised: "Don't you think using tomb robbers is against ethics?"
Lu Cai said in surprise: "Who said that? Tomb robbers do deserve to die, but if they can use their craftsmanship to contribute to Chinese civilization, it is considered waste utilization. How can it violate ethics and morals?"
"Don't be as pedantic as others think. At least everyone here knows the truth. You can go find the tomb robbers without worries."
Chen Jingke then went into the palace to find Li Shimin, explained the plan, and asked for two orders. One was to extract the tomb robbers from the prison, and the other was to dispatch a battalion of government soldiers to accompany the inspection team.
After that, he went to Dali Temple, where various serious criminals were imprisoned.
Sun Fujia had a very good relationship with him and came to receive him personally.
Hearing that he was looking for a tomb robber, a master among masters, he immediately pulled out the files and found dozens of masters for him to choose from.
Of course, Chen Jingke is not wanted by everyone, and there are different levels of tomb robbers.
Some tomb robbers are really vicious and will do anything without any scruples.
Some tomb robbers do not want to hurt anyone just for money.
Some are even very superstitious and believe that robbing tombs is detrimental to moral integrity, so they will use some of it to do good deeds.
There is some room for forgiveness for the latter two, but the former cannot be tolerated.
Just like this, I found ten master tomb robbers.
The penalties for tomb robbing in the Tang Dynasty were very severe. To tamper with the tomb was to be exiled, to dig up the tomb would be to exceed three years, and to tamper with the coffin was to be punished by death.
If you dare to touch the graves of famous and powerful families, you will definitely be punished by death.
These ten tomb robbers are all sentenced to death and are waiting to be executed.
When I suddenly got a chance to survive, I naturally grabbed it as if it were a life-saving straw.
Chen Jingke made dozens of very demanding requirements for them, and they all agreed without hesitation and were grateful.
The next step is to select archaeological manpower. In addition to some celebrities from the Institute of Writing, many ordinary staff are also needed.
Then Chen Jingke faked a ruins site and asked them to conduct simulation experiments.
Although tomb robbing and archeology have certain similarities in exploration and excavation, they are actually two completely different things with different requirements.
The purpose of tomb robbing is to seek money, and there is a saying that the most valuable things are ignored, which will cause huge damage to the ruins.
The so-called explorers in the West in previous lives were actually tomb robbers.
Archeology is to restore a period of ancient history. No detail can be spared, and the ruins must be protected from damage as much as possible.
So anyone who equates the two is either stupid or bad.
Directly allowing tomb robbers to enter the ancient ruins of the Yin and Shang Dynasties would be a disaster, and necessary training is very necessary.
It is not only the tomb robbers who receive training, but also the experts and scholars. They are the real main force of archeology, and the tomb robbers are just tool men.
The entire training took more than a month to finally complete, and the effect was very obvious.
Not only did it let them know what archeology is about, but they also invented many useful tools for different situations.
When everything was ready, the archaeological team set out for Anyang, Xiangzhou, Henan Province, under the protection of the Forbidden Army, to conduct the first real archeology in history.
After sending the archaeological team away, Chen Jingke turned around and devoted himself to research.
Although the research on oracle bones has stalled due to insufficient oracle bone samples, there is still other research work that can be done.
For example, the evolution process from bronze script to seal script to official script... Understanding these will help to deduce the meaning of oracle bone script.
And don’t forget that this is the Tang Dynasty now, not the modern society more than 1,300 years later.
The oracle bone inscriptions were discovered too late in the previous life, and too many things were lost in the long river of history, including various ancient languages and folklore.
For example, the often mentioned method of "yin" in reciting poems and writing poems has been lost, and later generations can only speculate based on some records.
Discovering oracle bones 1,300 years in advance was a huge help.
Today, many primitive tribes still survive in the primitive jungles in and around Datang.
They speak the oldest language and circulate the oldest legends... which may contain clues from the Yin Shang Dynasty thousands of years ago.
Although the technological level of the Tang Dynasty lags far behind that of previous generations, it really has an advantage over the 21st century when it comes to studying oracle bone inscriptions.
In general, the study of oracle bones is not just the study of oracle bones, but a systematic work involving many aspects.
Naturally, a lot of manpower is needed. It simply cannot be completed by just 20 or 30 people in the institute. More people will be recruited in the future.
But at the moment, Chen Jingke is not planning to expand his team, at least until he gets more samples and makes some staged progress in Oracle, he is not planning to make any big announcements.
There are too many people taking advantage of it. Once this matter is publicized, I am afraid that tomb robbers will swarm in and cause irreparable damage to the ancient ruins of the Yin and Shang Dynasties.
Just when the oracle bone inscriptions research work was in full swing, a piece of bad news came: Ouyang Xun finally did not survive the winter.
One night just a few days into winter, I passed away silently, and was only found out the next morning.