The "Beijing Man" who disappeared in the war tells us the value of peace

Beijing is a city with a history of more than 3,000 years. It is located at the junction of the North China Plain and the Yanshan and Taihang Mountains. It was once the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties and is now the political and cultural center of my country. It has a profound cultural heritage, rich historical sites, and a unique geographical location that also allows Beijing to have a rich variety of wild animals such as birds, freshwater fish, and insects. I am a native of Beijing and I love this city. Today, our species calendar is about Beijingers, so I will tell you my story. I am a child who loves animals since childhood... Does something seem wrong?

Peking Man (author) vs Peking Man (reconstructed model) | Gary Todd / Wikimedia Commons

This Peking Man is not that Peking Man. What we are going to talk about today is not a Peking Man like me, but an ancient human being who lived about 300,000 to 500,000 years ago: "Peking Man", also known as Peking Man.

Discovered a century ago

The story began in 1929. Pei Wenzhong, who had just graduated from Peking University, led a team of researchers to excavate at Dragon Bone Hill in Zhoukoudian, 40 kilometers outside Beijing.

The site where the first Peking Man skull was discovered | Siyuwj / Wikimedia Commons

The name of Longgu Mountain comes from the Chinese medicinal herb "dragon bone" produced here. This medicinal herb, which is believed by traditional medicine to have multiple functions, is actually the skeletal fossil of an ancient large mammal. By the way, the earliest oracle bone inscription was also found in this medicinal herb.

Of course, Mr. Pei Wenzhong came here not to dig medicinal herbs, but to dig up the skeletal remains of ancient animals for scientific research. After a period of hard work, the excavation team found a fossil suspected to be a human skull. In the subsequent excavation, five relatively complete skulls and some teeth and other bones were found, as well as stone tools, bone tools and suspected traces of fire.

Peking Man skull model | Yan li / Wikimedia Commons

Today, the Peking Man fossils may not be the most outstanding ancient human fossils, but they are the result of nearly a hundred years of excavation by paleoanthropologists who have continuously discovered ancient human fossils around the world and conducted in-depth research on them. In the early 20th century, the discovery of Peking Man caused a sensation around the world, because the Zhoukoudian site not only found fossils, but also contained a relatively complete set of paleoanthropological information. Through the study of these tools and traces, we can infer and restore the behavior and activities of ancient humans hundreds of thousands of years ago, and show the original appearance of Peking Man's life in a rich and complete way. It was considered by the academic community at the time to be a milestone in the history of paleoanthropology and research.

Painting of Peking Man’s life scenes, stored in Zhoukoudian Site Museum | xiquinhosilva / Wikimedia Commons

I remember that the name "Peking Man" was used in my school textbooks. At that time, people believed that it was the "intermediate transition link" from "ape to man", and some scholars at that time believed that Peking Man was the ancestor of modern East Asians based on the sagittal protuberance in the center of the skull, the rounded occipital of the mandible, and the shovel-shaped incisors. In particular, the shovel-shaped incisors, that is, the two edges of the incisors are rolled into edges, and the middle is concave, which looks like a shovel. This feature is very common in East Asians, but rare in Europeans and Africans.

Stone tools used by Peking Man | Editoratlarge / Wikimedia Commons

In recent years, the application of molecular biology technology in taxonomy has allowed scientists to propose more updated theoretical systems. Peking Man is not a transitional link, but a kind of human, belonging to a different species from our Homo sapiens. (Of course, there are still different opinions in the academic community about the relationship between Peking Man and modern humans, and this article does not discuss this.)

Reconstruction of the Peking Man's face | Cicero Moraes / Wikimedia Commons

Missing fossils

The Peking Man skull fossil is China's top national treasure. However, these fossils disappeared mysteriously not long after, and have become a mystery that has not been solved to this day. In the early 1940s, during the Japanese invasion of China, the Japanese invaders had already occupied the city of Peking. According to some documents at the time, the Peking Man skull and many other cultural relics were prepared to be transferred from Peking to Qinhuangdao by special train, and for the sake of safety, they were even prepared to be specially escorted by the US Marine Corps. However, the fossils arrived in Qinhuangdao on the morning of December 8, 1941... On this day, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and declared war on the United States. The Japanese invaders began to attack the US military, and cultural relics including the Peking Man skull were lost in the war.

Zhoukoudian Site Museum | Wikimedia Commons

After an arduous war of resistance against Japanese aggression, the Japanese invaders surrendered in August 1945, but the Peking Man skull disappeared. Later, scholars from China, the United States and other countries and some non-governmental organizations began to search for the Peking Man skull, but there has been no news so far.

Some scholars have compiled the process of finding the Peking Man skull fossil into a book titled "The Mystery of the Peking Man Skull". Many TV stations have also filmed documentaries about the discovery, disappearance and search of the Peking Man skull. In 1998, 14 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, including Mr. Jia Lanpo, a famous paleoanthropologist and one of the discoverers of the Peking Man skull, jointly called on people from all walks of life to take action together to find the lost Peking Man skull fossil, but so far, there has been no substantial progress.

Zhoukoudian Site | Wikimedia Commons

Whether it is life, work, archaeology, scientific research or anything else, a peaceful and stable society is necessary. I hope that in the future, the Peking Man skull fossil can return to the museum. Today is the 76th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. I also hope that the world will be peaceful in the future and love will fill the world.