2024.6.9
International Archives Day
【 Dream Modernization, Struggle Lantai People 】
Archives are true records of the development of human civilization, and they show the development and inheritance of history to future generations through their own records. June 9, 2024 is the 17th "International Archives Day", with the theme of "Building Dreams for Modernization and Striving for Lantai People".
When it comes to "archives", people may think that they are mysterious and distant, but in fact, we can access them in all aspects of our lives. On the occasion of International Archives Day, let's learn about "International Archives Day on June 9th"!
Origin of International Archives Day
From 9 to 11 June 1948, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris convened a meeting of experts with the participation of archivists from many countries around the world, and the decision was made to establish the International Council on Archives (ICA). The first charter of the ICA was adopted, which states that archivists from all over the world should work together to preserve, authenticate and make use of archives "for the benefit of all mankind"; Archives and documents are as identical as a heritage shared by the whole world as all of humanity.
In November 2007, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the ICA on 9 June 2008, all ICA members voted at its annual general meeting in Quebec, Canada, to designate 9 June as International Archives Day.
China's first International Archives Day
In 2013, the National Archives Administration of the People's Republic of China decided to make 9 June of each year, the "International Archives Day", a day for the publicity activities of the archives department.
What is Archive?
Archives are valuable documents that help us understand the past, discuss the present, and prepare for the future.
In primitive societies, people relied on language to express and communicate ideas and experiences. With the development of society, in order to adapt to the complex social production and life, people have created "knotted rope", "carved deed" and other memorization methods. The knotted rope and the engraved deed can be said to be the earliest origin of the archive.
The archives of the mainland have a long history, with different names in various dynasties. Archives were called "volumes" in the Shang Dynasty, "Zhong" in the Zhou Dynasty, "classics" in the Qin Dynasty, "documents" and "copywriting" after the Han and Wei dynasties, "documents" and "files" after the Tang and Song dynasties, and "archives" were used more after the Qing Dynasty, and are now uniformly called "archives".
The "Archives" as used in the Archives Law of the People's Republic of China refers to the historical records in various forms such as texts, charts, audio-visual and other forms that have preservation value for the state and society directly formed by past and present state institutions, social organizations and individuals engaged in political, military, economic, scientific, technological, cultural, religious and other activities. ”
What is archival work?
Archival work is a cause that records history, inherits civilization, serves the society and benefits the people.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Archives work is a very important work, experience can be summarized, laws can be recognized, history can be continued, and various undertakings can be developed without archives." "The principle of unified leadership and hierarchical management is implemented in archives work, and the integrity and security of archives are maintained, so as to facilitate the use of all aspects of society.
Why are archivists called "Lantai people"?
Lantai has been passed on to future generations, and the past has been seen for thousands of years.
The institutions of the central custody of archives in various dynasties on the mainland have different names: Zhou is Tianfu, Han is Lantai, Dongguan and Shiqu, Tang is the History Museum, Song is the Pavilion Library, Yuan is the Pavilion Library, Ming Dynasty is the Imperial History Palace, Houhu Yellow Book Library, Cabinet Library, Daben Tang Dynasty, Ancient and Modern Tongji Library, and Qing Dynasty is the Cabinet Library. It can be seen that Lantai is the place where the books are stored in the palace of the Han Dynasty, and it is the earliest official archives in the mainland, which is in charge of the imperial history Zhongcheng, and later dynasties called the imperial history platform Lantai, and Sima Qian is one of the diligent archivists.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Lantai ordered Shi Bangu to write history, so later generations also called the historian Lantai. After thousands of years of evolution, the word "Lantai" has become synonymous with archival institutions and archival work, and archivists are also called "Lantai people".
Development of archives
The oldest surviving archive on the mainland is the Oracle Bone Archive. The oracle bone inscription of the Yin Shang period unearthed in Yinxu in Anyang, Henan Province is more than 3,000 years ago. In the later period, there were also bronze inscription archives, silk archives, slip archives, stone carving archives, as well as the most seen paper archives and electronic archives today.
01
Oracle Bone Archives
The oracle bone is the earliest existing archive with written records in mainland China. It was mainly produced in the divination activities of the late Shang Dynasty, and most of them are the relics of the 273 years from the relocation of Pangeng to the death of the Emperor. The content covers a wide range of social classes, national conditions, agricultural production, ideology and culture at that time. This kind of archival carrier material is special, so it has been preserved for a long time.
02
Goldstone Archives
The Jinshi Archives are also known as Zhong Dingwen. Generally refers to the writing that is smelted and cast on bronze. By the Western Zhou Dynasty, the bronze technology of the mainland entered a prosperous period, and the bronze ware was solid and easy to preserve for a long time, so the ruler cast inscriptions whenever there were major events, and gradually replaced the oracle bones with bronze as the carrier.
03
Brief Archives
In ancient times, public and private documents in mainland China were written with bamboo and wood as the carrier, which were called simple archives. After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Qin and Han dynasties, especially from the Zhou Dynasty to the Han Dynasty for more than 1,000 years, bamboo and wooden boards were used to write documents and preserve archives, until the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (early 5th century) after the widespread use of paper was basically extinct.
04
Silk Archives
Silk as a writing carrier material first appeared in the Warring States Period, and in the Qin Dynasty, it was more widely used. Silk has the characteristics of tough and soft texture, and the archives with silk silk as the carrier have the advantages of easy carrying and keeping, but because of its very high price, ordinary people simply cannot afford to consume, and some important documents of the feudal court are written with silk silk.
05
Paper archives
The invention of paper and the improvement of papermaking technology have brought a great revolution to the evolution of archival carriers in China and even the world. The invention of paper made the use of words simple and easy, and in the third and fourth centuries, it basically replaced simple silk and became the main writing material of the country, and has been used until now, greatly promoting the spread and exchange of culture.
06
Audiovisual archives
Audio-visual archives, also known as audio-visual archives, can be divided into different forms such as visual, auditory, and audio-visual synthesis, including photographs, films, records, audio tapes, video tapes, etc. Audio-visual archives have the advantages of strong intuitiveness and easy copying, but because of their complex composition, fragile texture, and most of them cannot be read directly, they are different from paper archives in terms of storage conditions, management methods and management requirements.
07
Electronic Archives
Electronic file is a new term that appeared after the middle of the 20th century, and it is a new type of document that has emerged with the development of computer technology. Earlier, there were "machine-readable documents", "digital files" and other jiaofa, but in recent years they have gradually been replaced by "electronic documents". As a product of modern information technology, it has completely different characteristics from traditional paper documents.
The theme of the International Archives Day in mainland China
2013
The archives are all around you
2014
Step into the archives
2015
Archives – with you
2016
Archives and people's livelihood
2017
Archives – our common memory
2018
Archives have witnessed reform and opening up
2019
Memories of New China
2020
The archives witness the well-off road and focus on the decisive period of poverty alleviation
2021
Archives talk for a hundred years
2022
Welcome the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and celebrate the glory of the archives
2023
Forge ahead on a new journey, a new chapter of Lantaipu
Archival trivia in life
Source: China Archives Network