The author is he yunao, a professor of History College of Nanjing University.
Today, we all live in the background of industrialization. Whenever we walk through those supermarkets with a variety of commodities, I think that this is the landscape that industrialization brings us. However, there is also a misunderstanding that only after the 18th century British Industrial Revolution brought about a great impact on human industrial culture, and before the "agricultural civilization" era, industry had no place. I am an archeologist and like to speak with material objects. In fact, industry has always been a fundamental force supporting the development of human culture and civilization.
First of all, we have to understand what is called "industry". The classic explanation is "all kinds of undertakings of making objects with natural materials". Based on this, we can say that the core contents of "archaeological culture" defined by those archaeologists, such as stone tools of tens of thousands of years ago, pottery of thousands of years ago, architectural forms, costumes, etc., are actually the remains of industrial activities. If we regard many "cultural relics" as the achievements of ancient industrial culture, then when we discuss their nature, we will transform from a single cognition of artifacts into industrial culture cognition, such as stone industry, jade industry, ceramic industry, construction industry, metallurgy industry, textile industry, paper industry, printing industry, lacquer wood industry, etc. in that way, we can see them in museums What archaeologists found and provided for the public to visit is not a piece of artifacts, but a variety of industrial culture, which contains the rich connotation of ancient industrial culture such as material form, technological form, institutional form and spiritual form.
If we are allowed to observe from the perspective of global historical archaeology, we can find that many industrial archaeological practices so far can at least prove the following facts.
Human productivity is mainly represented by industry. Archaeology, marked by tools of production, reveals that human beings have so far experienced the stone age, bronze age, iron age, machine age, etc.; the initial culture of human beings started from industry, which is characterized by the Paleolithic age and Paleolithic culture represented by stone making; the national civilization that emerged more than 5000 years ago was supported by industry, which promoted the division of labor It is an important prerequisite for the emergence of human civilization. The bronze age is accompanied by bronze civilization. The iron age gave birth to the iron civilization, while the machine age created the modern western civilization. The development of agricultural land is also inseparable from the support of industry. All kinds of agricultural implements are actually products of industrial manufacture. The conquest between countries also depends on industry, such as the production of various weapons, chariots, ships, ships, etc The production of bows and arrows, guns and military equipment is inseparable from industry; industry can meet people's needs for food, clothing, housing and transportation, and create a wealth of material culture, including land development, food processing, textile, construction, city, transportation and other industrial activities; people's cultural, artistic, educational and other spiritual and cultural creation is inseparable from industry, such as paper and other literary and artistic creation supplies Production, book printing industry, production of literary and artistic creation equipment, etc. It can be said that industry is the main force that leads human beings to climb the higher ladder of civilization. Behind its development is the collaborative participation of resources, social mechanism, science and technology and technology.
It is industry that has such an important position. In Europe, "industrial archaeology" began to rise after the middle of the last century, but their industrial archaeology is mostly limited to the archaeological research of industrial heritage since the industrial revolution in Britain. Sometimes I am thinking that if we really want to solve the problems of industrial cultural movement process, power and development law since the birth of industry, we should bring all industrial activities and cultural creation since the birth of mankind into the cognitive scope of industrial archaeology, that is to say, industrial archaeology involves the field excavation and research, experimental archaeology, scientific and technological archaeology of industrial cultural relics of all times Traditional skills in intangible cultural heritage, industrial heritage protection and exhibition, etc.
Furthermore, the "industrial culture" in the perspective of industrial archaeology is a large system, involving a series of issues such as raw material mining and processing, product design and production, technology and art, corresponding production organization system, industrial chain supporting combination, transportation and consumption. Industry promotes the depth and breadth of human's understanding of the availability of natural resources, leading to the deepening of the relationship between man and land; industry improves tools and develops civilization; industry promotes the understanding of "no man, no man, no man, no man", so as to promote the exchange behavior of different human groups and the occurrence and prosperity of business; industry promotes division of labor and cooperation; industry provides continuous improvement for human beings The conditions of quality of life; industry promotes the design, decoration and technology, so that people's aesthetic mind can be continuously explored and enriched, and improve people's living art level and aesthetic ability. Therefore, it is impossible for agriculture to progress and realize modernization only by relying on people's hands.
These are the ideas of our modern people. If you go back to ancient times, that's not the case. Ancient Chinese industry has made great achievements, but it's a pity that how many literati and calligraphers left their names in history, and how many craftsmen created countless industrial and material civilization? How many people know? The ancient ceramic industry product "Yuan blue and white" is easily worth hundreds of millions of yuan in today's cultural relics auction, but who knows the producer of that year? The precious collections and exhibits in those museums are now called "cultural relics" and are worth hundreds of times. However, how much knowledge do people have about the "industry" that makes them? In terms of making up for the historical regret, carrying out industrial archaeology and industrial culture research in China is also a scientific cause to change the traditional thought of belittling industry and industrial workers, create a fair society and advocate glorious labor. In other words, emphasizing culture and light industry is the chronic disease of ancient traditional society. Under the background of science, innovation and industry, we should cultivate a fair and sound industrial culture through industrial archaeology. However, up to now, there is no special industrial archaeological institution in China.
We can imagine that "industrial archaeology" should start from the perspectives of industry and culture, industry and civilization, industry and people's livelihood, explore the production of various industries, products and industrial chain, industrial status, development mechanism, industrial design and creation, industrial technology and other issues, and explore the law of the occurrence and development of industrial culture itself. We should also discuss the role of industry in the development of other cultures and in the birth, development and support of civilizations, the relationship between different industrial cultures and resources and their regionalization, and the relationship between industry, agriculture and commerce. We can also divide industry into prehistoric industry (primitive industry), ancient industry, modern industry and modern industry to study the process of various industrial cultural movements. Put industry into a broader world of human beings, culture, civilization, mutual construction and mutual existence of human beings and nature, and the world of interaction and interconnection of different cultures of human beings to observe, analyze and think.
Can we still advocate that we should build more museums and industrial heritage parks that reflect the achievements of industrial culture of previous dynasties through the academic achievements of industrial archaeology and industrial culture, so as to spread industrial knowledge, praise industrial behavior, eulogize industrial craftsmen, appreciate the beauty of industry and promote industrial spirit!
(the author is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference and a professor of the school of history, Nanjing University)