Yinchuan photographer Wang Jing

Ningxia was named after pacifying Xixia. In A.D. 1227, after the Yuan Dynasty destroyed Xixia, it was renamed "Ningxia", which meant to pacify Xixia, stabilize Xixia and make Xixia "peaceful".

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has a long history. Stone tools, bones and fire traces unearthed from Shuidonggou Paleolithic Cultural Site in lingwu city show that there were human activities in Ningxia as early as 30,000 years ago, and they created the Shuidonggou Culture in the late Paleolithic period. After liberation, many sites of "microlithic culture", "Majiayao culture" and "Qijia culture" were discovered in Ningxia. These sites show that from 67,000 to 34,000 years ago, the "residents" in the north and south of Ningxia had entered the patriarchal clan society from the matriarchal clan society and began to engage in animal husbandry and agricultural production, and had close ties with the Central Plains. There were nomadic tribes in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, called Hu (Northern Emperor) and Qiang (Xirong), and later called Ghost Rong (Xun Yu and Hunzhou). When I was in Zhou Xuanwang, I did a household survey in Taiyuan (now Guyuan area). The survey showed that Taiyuan not only has a large population, but also has an administrative system. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the southern part of Guyuan belonged to the Qin Dynasty, and the remaining areas were inhabited by Yi Qurong, Yan and other tribes.

In 22 1 year BC, after Qin annexed six countries, the central government was established, and Ningxia belonged to Beidi County.

At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, Helian Bobo, a Hun, established local political power in 407-43 1 year, with its capital in Tongcheng (now Jingbian County, Shaanxi Province), which governed Ningxia.

In the Tang Dynasty, the whole country was divided into ten roads, and Ningxia belonged to Guannei Road. In the Tang Dynasty, the Taishou Prefecture and the Shuofang Provincial Government were established in Lingzhou (now southwest of lingwu city). During the Anshi Rebellion, Tang Suzong ascended the throne in Lingwu in 756.

In A.D. 1038, Li Yuanhao, the leader of the Tangut, established the Daxia Kingdom with Ningxia as the center, and named it Daxia (known as Xixia in history because it was located in the west of the Song Dynasty). Xingqing House (now Yinchuan City) has its capital, with a territory of "Yellow River in the east, Yumen in the west, Xiaoguan in the south and desert in the north" and "more than 20,000 square miles", which forms a tripartite confrontation with the Song, Liao and Jin regimes.

After the Yuan Dynasty destroyed Xixia, it set up Ningxia Fu Road and began to move into Hui people.

In the Ming Dynasty, Ningxia Wei was established, and a large number of Hui people were placed in Lingzhou and Guyuan areas as "garrison households".

Jianning Xiafu in Qing Dynasty. During the Qianlong period, a major earthquake occurred in Yinchuan, and the original site was seriously damaged. Emperor Qianlong allocated huge sums of money to rebuild his homeland and built a new city in the suburbs, which was called the new city. After Qianlong, "Ningxia is more than 1000 miles away from Pingliang, and I know everything about returning to Zhuang", and it has become the largest Hui community in China. In the early years of the Republic of China, Shuofang Road was established, and 1929 was changed to Ningxia Province, which governs the existing cities and counties in Inner Mongolia except Guyuan, Alashan Zuo Qi, Alashan Right Banner, Ejina Banner and Dengkou County.

1September 23, 949, Ningxia was liberated, and the original name of Ningxia Province was still used. Its jurisdiction is the same as that of the Republic of China. 1954, Ningxia Province was abolished, Alashan Zuo Qi, Alashan Right Banner, Ejina Banner and Dengkou County were placed under the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the rest areas were merged into Gansu Province. 1958, 10 year 10 25th, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was established, which governs Yinchuan, Wuzhong Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xihaigu Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Jingyuan and Longde counties in Gansu Province. From 65438 to 0969, five communes in Alashan Zuo Qi and Alashan Right Banner of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region merged into Ningxia. 1979, these areas were transferred back to Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The name Huang Zhenhua is a strange name to most people, but it really conforms to Mr. Huang's life spirit of not asking for Wen Da. He became attached to language and writing all his life: in the heyday of the 1950s, he assisted Mr. Wu in Renmin University and made great contributions to the reform of Chinese characters; After that, he worked as a "Rightist" for more than 20 years, and made a living by multilingual translation under the care of Mr. Lv Shuxiang; In the late 1970s, he returned to his official post. Although he moved to several work units, he still made great achievements in interpreting ancient national characters in northern China, such as Qidan, Nuzhen and Xixia. After retiring from Dunhuang Information Center of Beijing Library in the early 1990s, I still insisted on writing, and finished one article after another in my room with novel ideas and full argumentation, especially the thought-provoking views on the traceability of Chinese characters and the construction of a common language between China and Tibet. Unfortunately, his weak body does not allow him to put these ideas into practice one by one, and academic experience is difficult to be known because there is no formal student inheritance.

Mr. Huang studied at Harbin Foreign Studies University in the Republic of China and graduated from it. This school, which was later merged into the Russian Department of Heilongjiang University, created his excellent knowledge of Russian. The History of Exploration in Xinjiang and the Archaeology of Central Asia in the Soviet Union published by Xinjiang Museum in 1970s are accurate, informative and fluent, which are excellent translations of Mr. Wang in his prime. His article "A Review of Xixia Studies in the Soviet Union in Recent 30 Years" published in social science front (1978 No.2) is an overall evaluation of the work of Soviet scholars who were far ahead in Xixia Studies at that time. There is nothing tacky in this article that is blindly sought after by popular commentary articles at present. A great deal of space points out that although it was convenient for Soviet scholars to excavate the huge collection of Xixia stacks in Heishui City on the northwest border between kozlov and China in 1929, the weak foundation of Sinology and the influence of some ideologies led to the defects and omissions that could not be ignored in Xixia studies. These are mainly based on Mr. Huang's profound knowledge of Russian, which can be called the first study of Xixia in China in the new period. At the same time, this article also reflects Mr. Huang Zhenhua's consistent academic style-strict with himself, and can be seen everywhere between the lines. Even compared with the writing style of big and small newspapers that still had traces at that time, Huang Wen was neither arrogant nor impetuous. In the two articles "On the Etymological Study of the Synonyms in Xixia Language" and "On the Etymological Study of the Synonyms in Xixia Language" (see National Language No.5 in 2002 and No.5 in 2003, respectively), the old gentleman deeply repented of the mistakes in the book "Research on Wenhai" which he participated in writing, and pointed out mercilessly that he was eager to send it to the publishing house at that time. Now we naturally understand this reality, so we admire Mr. Wang very much.

This old gentleman is really a genius in learning languages. Needless to say, Russian is also proficient in the use of common foreign languages such as English, French, German and Japanese. In addition, he proofread the Chinese version of the Romanian language collection published by a Romanian politician in China. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Wang is also proficient in many strange ancient languages: for example, the Liao, Xia and Jin regimes, which enjoyed the country for more than a century in the Middle Ages and confronted the Song Dynasty in the Central Plains at that time, all created their own official languages, namely, the extinct Khitan, Xixia and Jurchen languages. This is the focus of Mr. Huang's efforts, and his understanding of these characters is extremely profound; Several other ancient Chinese characters that were once popular in Central Asia and West Shu, such as Sogdian, Yuhong, which recorded East Iranian, and Bolu, which recorded Northwest Indian dialect, have also been deeply studied. In the 1980s, several catalogues summarizing ancient Chinese characters in China and related periodical papers were published, such as Sogdian Language and Its Documents and Yuhong. It is said that when he was working in the Institute of History of China Academy of Social Sciences, he was always asked to identify unfamiliar languages, and he was never disappointed. Recalling this situation, the word "walking dictionary" suddenly appeared in front of Sri Lankans, which was particularly vivid. Today, it is said that only a few scholars in China know the language, and the "international language" Sogdian, which was popular among Hu merchants in Chang 'an in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, has almost become a blank behind Mr. Huang, and no one can know it!

In contemporary China, a foreign language (including national languages) researcher is most afraid of a deep understanding and superb mastery of his mother tongue. Mr. Huang is an exception in this respect, which is especially helpful for him to interpret the ancient characters of the northern nationalities in China, which are closely related to Chinese characters. For example, the collation of Guang Yun-style dictionary Wenhai compiled by Xixia people, and the construction of Xixia pronunciation on this basis, he completely adopted the traditional method of summarizing the phonetic symbols, rhymes and tones of medieval Chinese through the connection of upper and lower words of Guang Yun in Qieyunkao by Chen Li in Qing Dynasty, which was never tried by the predecessors of Xixia studies, but he used Chinese primary schools and Xixia people. This is a vivid manifestation of Mr. Huang's familiarity with China's traditional classics. 2/kloc-at the beginning of the 20th century, Mr. Wang published a series of papers (circulation and borrowing mode of Chinese characters, textual research on the origin of Naxi goba characters, and textual research on the origin of ancient Yi characters) in view of the common features of Qidan, Xixia, Jurchen and even Naxi goba, Yi, Korea and Japan, which shows that he is very familiar with Chinese folk literature. Imagine that our grasp of a certain aspect is not profound, but Mr. Huang keeps pace in many aspects and is not too superficial. We have to admire his persistence and steadfastness as a study partner for decades!

I have been to the old gentleman's house twice, and the only impression I get when I step into the door seems to be the indomitable bookshelves in all directions and the full books sandwiched between them. Unlike ordinary people's collections, which are mainly China ancient books or domestic publications, the collections here are mainly foreign materials, covering relatively common Russian, English, French, German, Japanese, Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic, as well as materials in Sogdian, Khotan and Samoyed (languages similar to Finnish and Hungarian) that most people are unfamiliar with, which is impossible for many domestic materials. Therefore, Mr. Ji Xianlin deeply values two contemporary scholars, one is Mr. Lao Huang (the other is Mr. Xu Wenkan of Shanghai Chinese Dictionary Publishing House, who specializes in Iranian, Gongyin and other Oriental Indo-European languages); As we all know, Mr. Ji's major is Sanskrit, Northeast Chinese and so on. The so-called Indo-European family, and his mutual appreciation is probably related to the ignorance that both Huang and Xu have acquired in Indo-European family.

The great leap in modern linguistics depends on the fact that European scholars established a systematic and rigorous Indo-European language family theory in the19th century by comparing the forms of Germanic language, Romance language, Poloslavic language and Indo-Iranian language in the East. Although this methodology has been continuously introduced by the sages of China linguistics since Ma Shiwentong, it is hard to find the hard work of mastering several Indo-European languages and absorbing the elements of this complete theory in time in China in today's completely different language atmosphere. For example, in the middle of the 20th century, Albanian and Armenian in the East were finally classified as Indo-European languages by western researchers, and we seldom know the details. The confusion between Albanian and Balkan languages and the long-term infiltration of Iranian into Armenian languages can be compared with the mutual integration of Tibetan-Burmese and Austronesian languages in East Asia and the influence of Chinese on the quality of Zhuang, Dong, Miao and Yao languages in the south. When we lament that the successful experience of foreign countries is often difficult to promote the breakthrough in the corresponding research field in China in time and effectively, Mr. Lao Huang's in-depth study of Indo-European linguistics, a "hub school", is particularly remarkable-his efforts were not fully exerted in the end, which was the result of his own efforts!

Mr. Wang doesn't meet guests easily-I was lucky enough to get in through one of his close friends, but he was quite enthusiastic about his later studies. When I learned that I was interested in studying Semitic languages, he gave me a portable Hebrew-English Old Testament that was hard to find in China. When telling me some questions that need examples, he often climbs up and down to find a manuscript to guide me to read, regardless of his serious heart disease. I can't stand it, but I can't stop it. I still have to watch him grab the oxygen bag and suck it hard after a busy meal. Although my husband and I only met twice, those two passionate afternoons left me with lingering aftertaste. I remember that what Mr. Wang said most at that time was the breakthrough in the etymology of Chinese and Tibetan. Grasping the context of specific words in a language is essentially to lay the foundation for the establishment and perfection of language families, which may lead to the birth of more universal subject methodology, which is the track of the establishment of Indo-European language families and the birth of historical comparative linguistics. Today, the Sino-Tibetan language hypothesis has made slow progress or even stagnated on the road of verification. Why don't we calm down and actually study the improvement process of Indo-European language family? Mr. Huang has some original ideas in this respect, because he has personally experienced learning many Indo-European languages. He believes that the multiple expressions of a semantic element scattered in the voluminous ancient books of China actually reflect the ancient forms of many national languages hidden under the shell of Chinese characters that don't express sounds, and the function of "writing the same text" of Chinese characters is far less late and conscious than that of Qin Shihuang's order; Later, the appearance of imitation Chinese official characters in Liao, Xia and Jin Dynasties was actually only temporarily and deliberately highlighted based on political reasons and national consciousness-Xixia characters closely matched with Tangut language were used in Hexi Corridor until the middle of Ming Dynasty after the demise of Xia Dynasty, which is the opposite explanation of the super-linguistic function of Chinese characters. Mr. Wang's research on the common language of Sino-Tibetan language family benefits from such a key that every lock must be opened, while his research on Naxi Goba language and ancient Yi language has just begun. Unfortunately, the sky is not fake! Just like our other "national treasure", Mr. Luo Niansheng, who devoted his whole life to translating Greek literature, "I hope God will give me another half year to finish translating the Iliad in poetic style"-however, due to the premature interruption of the heating in his residence, Mr. Luo, who had just left the clutches of cancer, only died at 1990 with two-thirds of his unfinished business.

Mr. Huang's great research on language is not limited to isolating and conquering individual languages. As early as when he was working in the Institute of Linguistics of Renmin University, he compiled mimeographed lectures on comparative philology and an introduction to the structure of western languages to teach students. Mr. Wang's mature translation A History of Linguistics Before the End of the 9th Century (Science Press, 1960) is fluent and concise, which reflects the translator's in-depth understanding of the original theory and skillful use of the original language, and has been highly praised by Mr. Wang, which has become the only threshold for many people to enter the linguistic hall. The Chinese Department of Tsinghua University has included this book in the required reading list for students, and is ready to reprint it. However, Mr. Huang Can doesn't-it seems unnecessary-revise it again and see if it comes out again!

When I visited Mr. Wang last winter, Mr. Wang instructed me to pay attention to the comparability of words in the times and the historical consistency of national cultural integration when dealing with specific vocabulary comparisons, and to remember the only way to "simplify rather than simplify" in the evolution of historical pronunciation. Pelliot, a French sinologist, seems to be the only completely convinced person in Mr. Wang's life. He once said to me personally, "Ten Huang Zhenhua tied together can't beat one pelliot." -This is reminiscent of the anti-rightist movement when someone suggested that all the people in the country should have an "anecdote" of historical materials, thus surpassing Mr. Chen Yinque's extraordinary familiarity with China's historical records. According to my shallow experience, Master Bo studied under Shajiao, a famous French sinologist, and is familiar with many languages in the East and West. He is good at understanding accurately in subtle textual research. This understanding-not limited to the complete accuracy of trivial materials, but also connected with the spiritual core of oriental philosophy-is based on the great master himself, Manabu Nakanishi, but it is hard to be lucky behind him. Looking at home, the situation is particularly difficult-maybe.

Mr. Huang's greatest contribution to the study of Sino-Tibetan language system is to establish a set of effective methods in the field of etymology, which is extremely weak so far, and to make a preliminary application of them. Many of his unpublished manuscripts profoundly reflect this idea and are not known to more people at present. At that time, I also accepted a task, that is, sorting out a manuscript of Mr. Wang's "Xixia Word Structure Analysis". This manuscript is bound with writing paper, and more than 6,000 Xixia characters are copied with thick brush marks. Between the lines, there are word-for-word anatomical demonstrations and other corresponding notes of exquisite handwriting. The simplicity of this chapter cannot hide the clear and thought-provoking content. When I think about it today, this move is both prophetic and "entrusted to orphans". As a latecomer, I don't have much knowledge. I will try my best to live up to the old gentleman's entrustment, and don't let this thought be lost, and I will be really silent from now on.

First draft on July 20, 2003

Revised on June 24th, 2003 +065438+

Appendix: A brief catalogue of Mr. Huang Zhenhua's main works.

1. Comment on Wang Jingru's works on Xixia Studies in recent years: Archaeology 1974 No.6.

2. Review of Xixia Studies in the Soviet Union in the Past 30 Years: Social Science Frontiers 1978 No.2..

3. Discovery (cooperation) of Jurchen Guo Xin brand; Social science front 1979, issue 2.

4. Textual research on "Shan" and "Shan" in the Khitan language —— A new probe into the structure of the Khitan characters: Frontier of Social Sciences 198 1, No.2 (Note: the single quotation mark in the upper right corner of the second word "Shan" here indicates that it is similar to the Khitan character, not a clerical error).

5. Yu Yuwen and his research; The third period of China historical research trends 198 1.

6. Sogdians and their literature; China Historical Research Trends, No.9, 198 1.

7. Yu Yiwen; China Ancient National Characters, Beijing: China Ancient National Characters Research Association 1982.

8. Jurchen language (cooperation); China Ancient National Characters, Beijing: China Ancient National Characters Research Association 1982.

9. A new interpretation of "Yongning Temple Monument" by Nuzhen's daughter in Ming Dynasty: China Local Records, No.2, 1983.

10. A preliminary interpretation of the Nuzhen word Ou Tun Liang Bi Shi (cooperation): National Language, No.2, 1983.

1 1. wenhai (cooperative) research; Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1983.

12. Xixia Dictionary, Wenhai Miscellaneous Categories and Their Research —— A Survey of Xixia Society from Xixia Literature: Journal of Central Asia, Volume I (Urumqi: Xinjiang People's Publishing House 1983).

13. Archaeology of Usun, Soviet Union (cooperation); Collection of historical materials of Wusun in Urumqi: Xinjiang People's Publishing House 1983.

14. Textual research on Xixia land sales documents: Bai Bin [Editor. Essays on Xixia History, Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House 1984.

15. Construction of Xixia Phonetic System: Bai Bin [Editor. Essays on Xixia History, Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House 1984.

16. Archaeological and Historical Studies in the Western Regions of Japan: Archaeological Reference 1984 The third and fourth issues were published together.

17. a new interpretation of Lang Jun qidan travel notes: collected works of song, Liao and Jin dynasties, Beijing: Zhonghua book company 1985.

18. Textual research on "The Name of Qidanwen Tiangan": Archaeology and Cultural Relics, No.4, 1985.

19. Study on Dunhuang Studies in the Soviet Union: Journal of Dunhuang and Turpan Society in China, No.4, 1985.

20. Brief introduction of French Dunhuang studies: Journal of China Dunhuang Turpan Society, No.5, 1985.

2 1. The Influence of Tubo Culture on Xixia Culture: Proceedings of the Seminar on Tibetan History, Lhasa: people in Xizang Publishing House 1985.

22. Version and collation of Xixia Dictionary (cooperation); Including "National Ancient Books" 1986. 1.

23. Textual research on the branch names of Khitan language: National Ancient Books, No.2, 1986.

24. A Preliminary Study on the Similarity of New Xixia Characters in Heicheng Heart; It contains cultural relics, No.7, 1987.

25. Textual research on Xixia forest unearthed in Heishui: Journal of Minzu University of China, No.2, 1988.

26. Notes on Fan Han and Zhang Shizhong (cooperative arrangement); Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House, 1989.

27. Inscription on reprinting and translating Xixia Scriptures in the Ming Dynasty: Selected Works of Tibetan Studies, Lhasa: people in Xizang Publishing House 1989.

28. Interpreting the translation of Xixia Forest: Journal of Guyuan Teachers College, No.2, 1990.

29. New Sanskrit Tantric Objects in Ningxia; Cultural Relics Phase II 1990.

30. Xixia characters; Huang bufan [ed]. [English extensive reading material "Tibetan-Burmese vocabulary", Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.

3 1. On Hexi Translation in Ming Dynasty: Journal of Guyuan Teachers College No.4 199 1.

32. Three Notes on Sun Tzu's Art of War in Xixia; Li (ed. ) Xixia Literature History Series (I), Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House 1992.

33. Textual research on the preface and postscript of Xixia Phonology (cooperation); Li (ed. ) Xixia Literature History Series (I), Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House 1992.

34. Textual research on the legal form of the law (cooperation) of the Xixia Emperor Wen Tian Sheng: Li (ed. ) Xixia Literature History Series (I), Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House 1992.

35. Research on similar forests (cooperation); Yinchuan: Ningxia People's Publishing House, 1993.

36. "Wang Ming Kao as seen by Shanshan Lu Wenshu"; China's Frontier History and Geography Phase II 1993.

37. "Xixia vocabulary" part; Phonetics and vocabulary of Tibetan and Burmese, Beijing: Minzu University of China Press 1993.

38. A Textual Research on Yu Wenxian's Robbery of Thousand Buddhas' Names: China Ancient National Characters, Beijing: China Ancient National Characters Research Society 1993.

39. A New Interpretation of the Khitan Characters: The Thirty-seventh Series of Literature and History (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company 1993).

40. Research on Lu Wengui's Frost King; Investigation and Research on the Western Regions, Urumqi: Xinjiang People's Publishing House 1994.

4 1. Re-interpretation of "Hexi Translation" in Qing Dynasty: The Fourth Series of "Study on Ancient National Characters in China" (Beijing: China Ancient National Characters Research Association 1996).

42. "White Wolf" A new interpretation of Wang Yuanyi's "Song of Music": Journal of Ningxia University (Social Science Edition) No.2, 1998.

43. "nominal examination of yin and yang teachers" (cooperation); Yanjing Journal, No.6, 1999.

44. The spread of Chinese characters and their borrowing methods; Zhao Liming and Huang Guoying. The Application and Dissemination of Chinese Characters, Beijing: Chinese Teaching Press, 2000.

45. Textual research on the origin of Naxi goba characters: Yanjing Journal, No.9, 2000.

46. Etymological study of synonyms in Xixia language: National Language, No.5, 2002.

47. Textual research on the origin of ancient Yi language: published in "Jin Wen Xue",No. 1 in 2003.

48. Re-discussion on the etymological study of synonyms in Xixia language: National Language, No.5, 2003.