1936165438+10 month, he found the skulls of three Beijingers continuously in 1 1 day. This discovery once again caused a sensation at home and abroad. The golden halo shone on Jia Lanpo's head and ushered in his 28th birthday.
From 65438 to 0945, Jia Lanpo was promoted to technician (associate researcher). After the founding of New China, the Cenozoic Laboratory was placed under the China Academy of Sciences, and the vertebrate paleontology Institute of Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was established. He has served as an associate researcher, director of herbarium, deputy director of Cenozoic laboratory and stationmaster of Zhoukoudian workstation. Several archaeological training courses were held in Zhoukoudian. He personally wrote lectures and lectures, conducted field practice counseling, and trained a large number of archaeologists from all over the country. Later, these people became the backbone and experts of archaeological work. From 65438 to 0956, Jia Lanpo was promoted to researcher. He climbed from a small intern to a high-level research field. We have discovered the Shuhe culture earlier than Beijingers, 1.8 million years ago, 160- 1.7 million years ago, the teeth and stone tools of Yuanmou Man,110.
Jia Lanpo's work is more transferred to areas outside Zhoukoudian, covering the whole country. North China, in particular, has invested the most energy and gained the most. Firstly, it puts forward the inheritance relationship of primitive culture in China. He also personally visited Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Northeast China and other places, and put forward the argument that the microliths in China, Northeast Asia and North America may have originated from North China in China. His academic viewpoints have attracted the attention of colleagues at home and abroad, and American scholars also believe that these arguments are "instructive to North American archaeology".
1989, at the "Pacific prehistoric academic conference" held in Seattle, USA, he suggested that the last stage of the geological year "Cenozoic" be divided into two, and Pliocene to modern times be divided into "life generations"; Paleocene to Miocene is divided into Cenozoic.
The old man in Jia Lanpo, regardless of eye diseases, wears reading glasses and writes a popular science book "Where is Grandpa's Grandpa" for his children with a magnifying glass; After the age of 80, he published many popular science books such as "Where did Grandpa's Grandpa come from?". 1990, he published the article "the history of mankind is getting longer and longer" in the exploration of nature, and proposed that "according to the current discovery, the earliest human remains and tools will be found in the strata more than 4 million years ago in Pliocene, and the history of making tools has been more than 4 million years". Jia Lanpo, who is 90 years old, still works at his desk every day, silently dedicating his beloved science. At the end of 1994 and in the autumn of 1995, he published two more books: The Great Discovery of Ancient Humans in China (published by Hongkong Commercial Press) and Prehistoric Humans and Culture in China (published by Taiwan Province Young Lion Culture Company in cooperation with Du and Li Zuozhi). 1997 10, in the year when he ranked ninth, he wrote 1 10000 words of "Little Book" and "Long Years" written by great scientists, for young readers to sum up his life. In the book, he urgently hopes that more young people will grow up, love this science, be able to take over the career of their older generation, and use advanced technology, equipment and new academic ideas to get to the bottom of the problems such as the time and place of human origin. 1April 1995 went to the United States to attend the academician conference. At the welcome meeting held in San Francisco for him with more than 100 famous scientists, professors, writers, journalists and Chinese representatives from the Gulf region, he replied: "Although I am old, I still hope to make my own contribution to this science in my lifetime." 193 1 year, 23-year-old Jia Lanpo was admitted to the Geological Survey Institute of the Ministry of Industry at that time. In May this year, he came to Zhoukoudian Gulong and worked under the guidance of famous scholars at home and abroad. Longgushan has well-preserved Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments, and the strata are well exposed. The southeast here is the North China Plain, and the west and north are the western hills with overlapping mountains. At the foot of the mountain, the river gurgled. For hundreds of years, Gulong Mountain has been famous for producing keels, and many caves are ideal homes for primitive humans. Therefore, it has attracted the attention of geologists and paleoanthropologists at home and abroad.
At first, Jia Lanpo mainly did some chores, such as washing specimens, sorting out fossils, managing accounts and pasting drawing boards. He takes everything very seriously. He also knows that his knowledge of geology, paleontology, paleoanthropology and archaeology is almost zero. So, besides finishing his work every day, he is eager to find books to read. Once, a group of wolf fossils were unearthed in Gulong Mountain, but he didn't recognize them. In order to make up lessons, he met several young people to shoot a wild dog and made a beautiful specimen of the leftover bones. Then, he looked through the books, compared the specimens and memorized the names of each part of the bones. Wolves and dogs belong to the same species. When he got to know dogs, he got to know wolves.
One day, his mentor Yang held a box of animal fossils in his hand and said to Jia Lanpo, "Take it for identification and classify it." He took it and saw that it was the teeth of some animals. He recognized the teeth of cattle, sheep, pigs, deer and horses by consulting the chart. Unexpectedly, when he told Professor Yang these conclusions, Professor Yang shook his head and asked him to identify these fossils to a unit below the genus-species, and write down the labels one by one. Jia Lanpo gave it to Professor Yang for the second time after sorting it out according to the requirements of the tutor, but it was returned. Professor Yang said, "You have to separate the upper and lower teeth of these animals and mark which tooth it is." After Jia Lanpo's efforts, Professor Yang was very satisfied. As the saying goes, "A strict teacher makes a good apprentice." A box of fossils, identified three times, made Jia Lanpo unforgettable. Many of his archaeological knowledge was "forced" to learn in this way, which also cultivated his meticulous style. The sound of guns at the head of Lugou Bridge interrupted the ongoing excavation of Zhoukoudian site. For the sake of safety, all the fossils excavated from Zhoukoudian site are kept in the safe of Anatomy Department in Building B of Union Medical College Hospital. At that time, the United States was in a neutral state, and the Union Medical College Hospital was still safe.
194 1 With the tension between Japan and the United States, the safe of Union Medical College Hospital is no longer "insured". In order to protect these precious cultural relics, Weng Wenhao and Hu Hengde have discussed several times and there are three ways to go: "Beijingers" will stay in Beijing and keep them properly; Shipped to the capital Chongqing; Shipped to the United States and then shipped back to Beijing after the war. After many trade-offs, the third scheme was finally chosen. So, the staff first wrapped the fossils in white cotton paper, then wrapped them in sanitary napkins and gauze, then wrapped them in white paper and put them in small wooden cases, which were also padded with corrugated paper, and finally packed them in two white stubble wooden cases. In order to avoid attracting attention, the name was not specially written, and only the words A and B were marked on the box. After the fossils were boxed, the US Marine Corps transported them to Qinhuangdao by train, ready to take the ship "President Harrison" to the United States. However, on the third day after the fossil was loaded, the Pacific War broke out and the train loaded with fossils was intercepted by the Japanese army. The skull fossils of "Beijingers" mysteriously disappeared. Sixty years later, there is still no news.
Jia Lanpo was dumbfounded at the news that his skull was lost. You don't say! Didn't you already arrange it? Since then, the whereabouts of "Peking man" skull fossils have become Jia Lanpo's eternal concern.
Before his death, he said that what he was most worried about in this life was the fossils of "Beijingers". Before Jia Lanpo's death, there was a big folder in his study, which specially stored all the information about his pursuit of Beijingers in the past 60 years: photos of Japanese military officers who occupied Union Medical College Hospital in those years, information about Japan's search for fossil commissioners in China, letters from Chinese and foreign clue providers, and all kinds of true and false clues collected from all directions. Even the most absurd rumors were collected by Jia Lanpo. Jia Lao once said: These Peking man specimens and fossils are like my children, and my feelings for them are beyond ordinary people's understanding. Over the years, I have been tortured by the missing skull of Beijingers. My greatest wish in my life is to get them back. In the following years, all Jia Lanpo's efforts failed. 1999, he and 14 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly appealed that it is more and more urgent to solve the mystery of the skull of "Beijingers" because most of the insiders and parties have died or are old. If time goes on, it will probably become an eternal mystery. Jia Lanpo and others wrote in the proposal: "Even if it has been destroyed by the war, we should try our best to find an exact whereabouts. Otherwise, how will we face future generations? "
Instead, however, Jia Lanpo left with eternal regret. The whereabouts of "Peking man's skull" became his lifelong wish. The excavation of Zhoukoudian is the most brilliant moment in Jia Lanpo's life and the starting point of his scientific road-"Without Zhoukoudian, there would be no Jia Lanpo". Since Zhoukoudian, he has focused on the study of human origin. After the founding of New China, Jia Lanpo continued to be responsible for the excavation work in Zhoukoudian area. This scholar without a formal university diploma, 1980 was elected as an academician of the China Academy of Sciences, 1994 as an academician of the American Academy of Sciences (abroad), and 1996 as an academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences. For decades, Jia Lanpo has traveled all over the country, and his figure frequently appeared in Ding Cun site, Xihoudu cultural site, Zhiyu cultural site, Xu Jiayao people site, Lantian people site and other places, and he wrote all his life. His research has epoch-making significance and contribution to the construction of prehistoric culture in China, and also established his position as a master in paleoanthropology and paleolithic archaeology. He summed up the study of ancient anthropology as: "Where did people come from? God created man or labor created man. This is not only a question of natural science, but also a question of philosophy. "
Before the age of 70, Jia Lanpo basically did investigations and excavations in the wild. At the age of 88, he was elected as a member of the American World Adventure Center. Jia Lao said that I am too old to be on the bench. How can we be called an explorer with astronauts? Americans say that you have drilled more than 300 holes in your life, and no one can compare with you. Jia Lanpo is over 90 years old and still a first-line graduate student. He often joked that "it is more difficult to accept a student than to raise a son". From careful guidance in study to constant concern for students' safety in field work, we are strict and considerate to students. Jia Lanpo's growth is inseparable from the cultivation of Pei Wenzhong and other predecessors. He knows what good teachers and seniors can bring to young people. He said, I want to lift the sedan chair for young people, and I want to give them a hand. Jia Lao once wrote: Fortunately, there are such a group of "fools" in the world who are willing to fight for the truth all their lives. In the face of truth, they will smile every time they get something, and they will be sad if they don't get something. We believe that a person can't get rid of this bittersweet state if he wants to do something beneficial to mankind. But they never lose heart ... so did our ancestors, so did we, and so did generations.
Jia Lanpo once said, "Zhoukoudian is my home". He told his unit and family that he hoped to bury his ashes in Zhoukoudian if possible. Mr. Pei Wenzhong, who found the first Peking man skull, and Mr. Yang, a paleoanthropologist, were both buried in Zhoukoudian Mountain. In his early years, Jia Lao said that he would keep company with his two predecessors and stay where he struggled.
One hundred years after Jia Lanpo, the motherland and people realized his wish before his death. Although the old man has traveled by crane to the west, his spirit and belief will stay in Gulong forever, and he is looking forward to the early return of the "Beijingers" who are fascinated by him. 1in the autumn of 998, famous China scientists headed by Jia Lanpo jointly issued such an appeal in Guangming Daily:
Jia Lanpo and other academicians' appeal letter:
For our scientists in China, one thing can never be forgotten: in the early 1920s, China and several outstanding scientists in the world searched hard day after day for many years in Gulong Mountain, Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, China, based on some clues that few people believed at that time, and finally a great discovery, Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site, was born, which made people's understanding of themselves change dramatically. Before the discovery of Peking ape-man site in Zhoukoudian, the fact that "man evolved from apes" was just a specious theory. Darwin's theory of evolution and the discovery of Javanese ape-man were once dismissed as bizarre. However, when "Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site" is presented to the world with its unprecedented rich and complete remains of primitive life, everything becomes clear and irrefutable. Perhaps it can be said that from the moment when the first Peking man's skull was unearthed on February 2, 1929+65438, human beings really began to re-recognize their past. Sadly, however, the most precious part of this great discovery-Peking man skull fossils and other important primate fossils found in China-was lost in the war of World War II.
For decades, I don't know how many people have been saddened by this, and I don't know how many people have tried their best to find clues about the loss of fossils. With the approach of the end of the century, with the death of most of the parties and insiders or the age of old, our hope of finding the lost Peking man skull fossils is becoming more and more urgent. We are thinking: such a treasure of human science was discovered at the beginning of this century, but it was lost in the war of aggression against China launched by Japan in the middle of this century. Today, when mankind is about to bid farewell to this century, it is still impossible to see them again. Even if they have been destroyed by the war, we should try to find an exact whereabouts. Otherwise, how will we face future generations?
The disappearance of Peking man fossils in those years involved parties from many countries in the war. As time goes on, many important clues may be lost to the people. China and many people around the world who care about this matter have been looking for relevant clues. But their strength is limited after all, and we need all of us to do our best to provide clues we know and all other useful support to help us find them together. Therefore, we appeal to all people in the world who love science and progress: before the end of this century, we should join hands and seek the unity of all mankind.
Perhaps this search still has no ending, but in any case, it will leave precious clues and historical materials for future generations. This will be a process of self-education and self-cognition, because we are not only looking for these fossils themselves, but more importantly, looking for human conscience and our belief in science, progress and peace for all mankind.
Let's take action, continue to look for "Beijingers" and make our own contribution to the coming new century.
Academician and Senior Academician of China Academy of Sciences:
Jia Lanpo Liu Miman Qin Xinling Ye Danian
Chen Qingxuan, Li Tingdong and Song Rukang
Good Wang Yichun Yang Hongzhen Zunyi Hou Renzhi