BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- For decades, Chinese scholar Chen Nianfu worked to turn ancient inscriptions carved on bones and turtle shells more than 3,000 years ago into searchable digital texts. Now, a younger generation is helping carry his work forward.
Known as oracle bone inscriptions, these ancient characters offer a glimpse into life during China's Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC). Their study is among China's rare and endangered academic disciplines, which face challenges including a shortage of specialists and difficulties in transmitting knowledge to younger generations.
China has established its first university school dedicated to rare and endangered academic disciplines at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS) in Beijing. It has also launched a national alliance of more than 80 institutions, as the country seeks to preserve specialized fields of study at risk of losing their scholars.
The newly established national alliance aims to promote resource sharing, collaborative research and joint talent development among universities, research institutes and cultural heritage institutions.
Chen, a veteran scholar formerly with Zhejiang Normal University in east China, began his meticulous work in 1998. He created thousands of digital character forms, transcribed historical texts, and built a searchable database of oracle bone inscriptions.
One of his former students, Li Ying, has brought the study of oracle bone inscriptions to a wider audience through short videos explaining ancient Chinese characters and their connections to modern writing. Her account on Douyin, a Chinese short-video platform, has attracted over one million followers.
"Every single character matters," Chen said.
Yet much of the ancient writing remains a mystery. Of the approximately 4,000 distinct oracle bone characters identified, fewer than half have been successfully deciphered.
In China, such disciplines are known as "lengmen juexue." According to the National Social Science Fund, the term encompasses traditional humanities disciplines that attract limited academic attention, pose difficulties in producing research findings, and have small research communities. It also covers highly specialized fields of unique cultural value that require exceptional expertise and face the risk of disappearing due to a shortage of qualified scholars.
Inaugurated on Friday, the new school focuses on more than 10 ancient writing systems and integrates research into oracle bone inscriptions, ancient bamboo and silk manuscripts, and classical studies. It establishes dedicated teaching and research divisions covering ancient writing systems used by ethnic groups in northern and southwestern China, as well as Chinese and Western classical civilizations.
The school has also established a digital research laboratory, launched an academic journal, and introduced a specialized undergraduate program as part of an integrated training system spanning undergraduate, master's and doctoral education.
Xu Jincheng, Party secretary of UCASS, said fragmented research resources and a shortage of qualified scholars have made it increasingly difficult for individual institutions to sustain these fields independently.
To address such challenges, the school has assembled a teaching and research team of more than 140 scholars, including eight members of the academic divisions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and over 30 distinguished professors and nationally recognized academic specialists.
It will also introduce a dual-supervisor system pairing a principal academic mentor with a secondary supervisor from another discipline, allowing students to draw on expertise across different research fields.
Huang Dekuan, director of the Research and Conservation Center for Excavated Texts at Tsinghua University, noted that research into oracle bone inscriptions, ancient writing systems and the history of China's border regions is important for preserving the country's cultural heritage and understanding its historical development.
China has stepped up efforts to protect and develop such disciplines in recent years. In 2018, the National Social Science Fund of China introduced a special funding program covering rare and endangered studies and other specialized research fields.
In 2024, UCASS established a collaborative innovation institute that drew on the academy's research resources to cultivate younger scholars in fields such as Manchu and Turkic studies.
Beyond institutional support, the future of these disciplines also depends on scholars transmitting their knowledge to younger generations.
In 2024, after completing the first digital draft of his oracle bone dictionary, Chen sent Li updated versions and other research materials, helping her share ancient Chinese writing with a wider audience.
Li is now exploring animated characters based on oracle bone inscriptions. She also draws on popular films and contemporary topics to make ancient writing more accessible. In her videos, she has pointed out inaccuracies in divination scenes from the Chinese fantasy film "Creation of the Gods" and explained why the Shang Dynasty had no equivalent of Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve and why its calendar sometimes had 13 months.
From inscriptions carved on bones and turtle shells over 3,000 years ago to stories shared on smartphone screens, these ancient characters are now finding their way into everyday life. ■
