Report: International Conference on Shang and Early Chinese Civilization at Rutgers University
报告: International Conference on Shang and Early Chinese Civilization at Rutgers University
Kuang Yu Chen 陈光宇

Abstract 摘要
An International Conference on Shang and Early Chinese Civilization was held on November 11-12, 2011 at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. The organizing committee members are Professors Kuang Yu Chen, Ching-I Tu, Dietrich Tschanz (Rutgers University), Feng Li (Columbia University), and Ki-Cheung Chu (Tunghai University). The focus of the conference is on Shang - the second recorded dynasty in Chinese history and the first one that yielded written documents in the form of oracle bone inscriptions (OBI) and bronze inscriptions (BI). Hundreds of thousands of them have been unearthed in Anyang, Henan and other places in China since the beginning of last century. OBI establishes Shang as the first Chinese and thus the first Asian civilization whose existence is supported by both textual and archeological evidence. Standing side by side with Egyptian, Mayan, and Sumerian, OBI represents one of the four original writing systems ever invented independently in human history. The Shang scholarship not only plays a pivotal role in bridging the archeological China and the textual China, it is also of great import to the comparative study of early world civilization. Nonetheless, Shang scholarship has not enjoyed the attention in the western world as compared to other original civilizations such as Egyptian and Mayan. For example, very few universities in western countries offer courses on OBI, or for that matter, early China.