Scholars › Historian
Liang Siyong
Archaeologist who read the stratified sequence of Yangshao, Longshan and Shang remains at Hougang in Anyang and directed the excavation of the great Shang tombs at Xibeigang, Houjiazhuang.
Mural of the event “Excavating Yinxu”, which this person took part in.
At the end of the Qing, inscribed bones from around Xiaotun in Anyang were recognised as Shang writing, and many were then dug up privately and scattered through the antiques trade. In 1928 the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica set out to excavate Yinxu by scientific method, and on 13 October Dong Zuobin opened the first trial excavation at Xiaotun. Li Ji then took charge, and by 1937 there had been fifteen seasons: the foundations of Shang palaces and temples at Xiaotun, Shang royal tombs at Xibeigang, and in 1936 pit YH127, which yielded more than 17,000 inscribed oracle-bone pieces.
Also known as Liang Ssu-yung (Wade-Giles)
- Roles
- Historian
Liang Siyong, from Xinhui in Guangdong and the second son of Liang Qichao, was born in 1904. After study in the United States he took a master's degree in archaeology and anthropology at Harvard in 1930 and joined the archaeology section of the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica, excavating the Ang'angxi site in Heilongjiang that year. In 1931 he worked at Xiaotun and Hougang in Anyang and at Chengziya in Shandong; at Hougang he recognised that Yangshao, Longshan and Shang deposits lay one above another, fixing their relative order. In 1934–35 he directed the excavation of the Shang royal cemetery at Xibeigang, Houjiazhuang. He died in Beijing in 1954.
Life and times
Dates 1904 CE–1954 CE
- 1928Excavating YinxuTook partage 24
- c. 1934Liang Siyong Excavates Xibeigang Royal Tombsage 30