Ｅｘｈｉｂｉｔｉｏｎ ｏｆ Ｏｒｉｇｉｎ ｏｆ Ａｎｃｉｅｎｔ Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ Ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｓ Ｈｅｌｄ ｉｎ Ｊａｐａｎ

It was rainy season in Kanazawa， the seat of the government of Ishikawa Prefecture， Japan in the latter half of June. The flowers on both sides of the street were blossoming brightly in the drizzling rain. The exhibition “Origin of Ancient Chinese Characters” was mounted in the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art in downtown Kanazawa on June 25.

The exhibition was jointly sponsored by the CPAFFC， the Japan Hokushi Tennkai and the Ishikawa Japan-China Friendship Association. The inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells representing the origin and formation of the Chinese characters were chosen as the main content. On display were rubbings and replicas of inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells， photos of excavation sites as well as calligraphic and seal works by Chinese and Japanese calligraphers and scholars of paleography. The exhibition， from the perspective of calligraphy and seal cutting， introduced beautiful Chinese characters that have a long and splendid history and publicized the earliest Chinese written language and the Shang Dynasty ruins in Anyang， home of these oracle bones.

Ishikawa， a prefecture with rich culture， has preserved many kinds of Japanese traditional handicraft arts. For instance， the Kutaniyaki porcelain， the Majiwanuri lacquer ware， the Kagayuzen woven material， etc. are well known throughout Japan. There are also many people here who love ancient Chinese characters and Chinese traditional culture. The exhibition of the earliest Chinese characters drew large crowds of visitors. Several thousand people visited the exhibition from June 25 to 30. Hiroshi Kanahara， president of the Ishikawa Japan-China Friendship Association and others attended the opening ceremony and cut the ribbon for the exhibition. Major media including the Hokkoku Shimbun that have great influence in Northern Japan gave extensive coverage and published a series of articles on the early Chinese written language and the culture of the Shang Dynasty before the exhibition. Nanen Kitamuro， president of the Japan Hokushi Tennkai who was chief sponsor and organizer of the exhibition on the Japanese side， said in an interview: “We hope to learn from the characters inscribed on bones and shells displayed in this exhibition the thoughts and life of the people in ancient times so that we can recover much of the valuable spiritual culture we modern people have lost.”

After the opening ceremony， Professor Li Xueshan of Anyang Teachers’ College gave a lecture entitled “The World of Inscriptions on Bones and Shells” at the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art. Many people came specially from other cities and prefectures to attend the lecture to learn about these inscriptions and other related knowledge. The lecture hall with 200 seats was filled to its full capacity. Professor Li said at the lecture， in the Shang Dynasty more than 3，000 years ago people attached great importance to “rite” and “war”. Through these inscriptions we can learn the social conditions of the time. These inscriptions are rich in content， covering not only politics， economy， military affairs and culture， but also astronomy， calendar， medicine and other scientific subjects. They can be called the earliest “archives” of ancient China. The lecture hall was permeated with an atmosphere of warmth and the audiences fired questions one after another. The Chinese and Japanese sides communicated adequately.

During the exhibition tour， the members of the delegation often discussed with the zealous Japanese friends the relations between the Chinese culture and the Japanese culture， tracing to the time when Chinese characters were introduced to Japan and viewing the long history of cultural exchanges between China and Japan from the perspective of evolution of these characters. When they got into the mood， the Japanese calligraphers and Chinese scholars would write with brushes in various styles of Chinese calligraphy， which showed the rich and colourful calligraphic art of the Chinese characters. Many Japanese friends said， they experienced the profound Chinese culture through this exhibition and were very excited to learn that the Chinese characters that existed 3，300 years ago can still be used today. They expressed the hope that they would have the opportunity to come to China， the home of the characters and ancient civilization， to experience the splendid Chinese civilization.