Rong Hui: Telling Thousand-Year Oracle Bone Stories at Youth Home – China Military Network

▲Rong Hui, deputy secretary of the Youth League Committee of the Museum of Chinese Characters, shared her experience of reading “The Story of Oracle Bone Inscriptions” at the Anyang Branch Venue of the 2024 Theme Reading Season Launching Ceremony of “Standing Responsible for Chinese-style Modernization – Young People Read Well”.Photo provided by the organizer

Rong Hui: Telling the Thousand-Year Oracle Bone Story at Youth Home

■China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily trainee reporter Wang Shanshan reporter Chen Fengli

This is Rong Hui’s 18th year working at the Museum of Chinese Characters. In 2006, after graduating from university, Rong Hui returned to her hometown of Anyang City, Henan Province, and participated in the preparations for the construction of the Chinese Characters Museum, starting her story with Oracle Bone Inscriptions.

On April 19, at the launch ceremony of the 2024 themed reading season “Standing up for Chinese modernization – Youth is good at reading”, Rong Hui shared her experience of reading the book “The Story of Oracle Bone Inscriptions”.

“The Museum of Chinese Characters is a young museum, a home of characters and a home of youth.” Rong Hui specifically mentioned that among the museum’s nearly 200 staff, 183 are young people. “When young venues, young faces and The encounter of ancient words, isn’t this a kind of Chinese romance?”

Among the many reference books, “The Story of Oracle Bone Inscriptions” co-authored by oracle bone expert Dong Zuobin and his son Dong Min is the most read book by Rong Hui. In the book, she follows the strokes of text lines to start a journey of exploring the roots of Chinese characters, and understands the wisdom of ancient ancestors in creating characters behind the obscure oracle bone inscriptions.

As the earliest mature writing system discovered in China so far, the historical significance brought by oracle bone inscriptions demonstrates the long history and inheritance of Chinese civilization.

Rong Hui said that because the oracle bone inscriptions are old and difficult to interpret, they were called unique skills from the beginning. It is through the unremitting efforts and arduous exploration of generations of scholars that the obscure historical materials and scholar’s works have been transformed into easy-to-understand language, and the genetic code contained in oracle bone inscriptions has been unlocked, making it accessible to readers like her. You can feel the pulse of history, get a glimpse of the production, life and social style of ancient ancestors, and understand the profound and long-lasting cultural spirit contained in it.

Rong Hui told young friends two stories about General Secretary Xi Jinping and Oracle.

In 2014, when General Secretary Xi Jinping participated in the Young Pioneers activity at the National Primary School in Haidian District, Beijing, he said, “Chinese characters are the symbol of Chinese cultural inheritance. The oracle bone inscriptions in the Yin Ruins are more than 3,000 years old. Over the past 3,000 years, the structure of Chinese characters has not changed. This inheritance is truly of Chinese genes.”

On October 28, 2022, less than a week after the conclusion of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Anyang and emphasized that China’s Chinese characters are very remarkable. The formation and development of the Chinese nation are inseparable from the maintenance of Chinese characters, and for the first time proposed “building “The modern civilization of the Chinese nation”.

“The deeper you go, the more you will discover the beauty of Chinese characters.” Rong Hui told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that as deputy secretary of the Youth League Committee of the Chinese Character Museum, she has always been thinking about how to let more young people write contemporary stories about oracle bone inscriptions.

In 2014, the museum created a social education platform “Oracle Bone Academy”, which combines oracle bone inscriptions with traditional skills, and organizes young employees to continue to carry out public welfare themed education and research activities based on holidays, traditional culture, Chinese character culture and other contents, and deepen the popularization of written culture among young people. educate. Relying on this platform, the “Youth House” of the Chinese Character Museum was built, attracting groups of young people to visit and study.

When reporters walked inside the museum, they saw many young people coming together to discuss and exchange ideas in low voices in front of the oracle bone inscription panels and exhibits. More than 10 calligraphy students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts took note of key points while listening to the explanation. A primary school student also generously showed reporters the Oracle broadcast gymnastics she had learned.

Since September last year, various primary and secondary school campuses in Anyang City, as well as some schools in Beijing, Shandong, Hunan and other places, have promoted Oracle Radio Gymnastics, which is cultural, interesting and training. The static ancient characters on the oracle bone tablets became alive through the children’s interpretation. While strengthening their bodies, they also learned about the oracle bone inscriptions.

Not long ago, a video “challenging the most unpopular major on the Internet” became popular. Blogger Li Youxi used storytelling to make the “cold” Oracle intersect with current daily study life and become a “hot word” on the Internet, video comments The district has even turned into a classroom for learning oracle bones, with many netizens saying “the writing is so interesting.”

Rong Hui also came across this video and studied it carefully. She said that it was “extremely difficult” to have the patience to “gnaw” through the obscure oracle bone inscriptions, then deeply understand the origin story behind each word, and convert it into a language expression familiar to today’s young people.

“This has also given us some inspiration. In the future, we will continue to explore more ways to suit young people’s reading habits, so that more young people can become the inheritors and promoters of Chinese characters and take responsibility for Chinese modernization,” Rong Hui said.