唐纳德·贝克教授(加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚大学东亚研究系教授、
2015年世界史学大会第五专题组“史前叙事”召集人)来信





Dear Professor Liu:

Thank you for your interest in the Historical Sciences conference in Jinan in 2015. We weren't planning on including China in the "narratives of pre-history" panel but I may change my mind, since we haven't gotten many applications from people working on other countries. I will be sure to let the general secretary know that you have applied to join our conference.

Are you aware that the purpose of this panel is to debate the reliability of archaeological and textual evidence? You may find some members of the panel or the audience challenging your assertion that this ancient writing system proves that China has the world's oldest civilization. They may say that other archaeological evidence doesn't support that strong a claim but instead suggests that China was still in the stone age at the time you claim it was a civilization. Or they may claim that the bronze-age Mohenjo civilization of South Asia, which also had a writing system, is at least as old as the civilization you describe.

The purpose of this conference is to stimulate discussion I believe your paper will definitely do that.

Once we have established who will be on this panel, I will be back in touch with you.

By the way, do you know the work of my retired colleague Ken'ichi Takashima? He was the one of the few paleographers of China in North America until he retired a few years ago.

Happy New Year.

Don Baker

Donald Baker

Department of Asian Studies

University of British Columbia

Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 Canada

ubcdbaker@me.com

don.baker@ubc.ca

 

亲爱的刘教授:

感谢您对2015年在济南召开的历史科学大会感兴趣。在“史前历史叙事”讨论小组,我们没有计划安排关于中国的讨论,但我可能要改变我的考虑。因为我们没有收到其他国家历史学家的类似申请。我会告知秘书长,您申请参加我们的大会。

您是否在意这个小组的主要讨论目的是考古及文字证据是否可靠?您可能会发现,在这个小组中的部分与会专家或者听众会挑战您的观点,因为这一古老的文字系统证明了中国拥有世界上最古老的文明。他们会说其它考古证据不能强有力地支持这一雄辩的结论,并且在您主张已经是文明社会的时期,中国仍不过处于石器时代。或者他们会说位于南亚的、青铜时代的摩亨佐文明,他们同样有了文字系统,至少与您所描述的文明一样古老。

我们大会的宗旨就是激发不同观点的讨论,因此我相信您的论文非常符合这一要求。

一旦我们确定谁将参与这一小组的讨论,我们就会与您联系。

另外,您了解我的一位已经退休的同事高嶋谦一(Ken'ichi Takashima)的研究吗?在他几年前退休之前,他是北美少数几位研究中国古文字的专家。

新年愉快。

唐纳德·贝克

东亚研究系

不列颠哥伦比亚大学

温哥华 BC V6T 1Z2 Canada