Méline's Epigraphy Field Research 

A Female Figure Dedicated to the Study of the Millennium Epigraphy

Edited by: Misko  Pictures provided by: Meiling Liu

Méline's Web3.0 Ethnographic Field Research and her meta-universe Action Community for Entrepreneurship have recently attracted the attention of nearly 300 industrialists in Dali, London, Shanghai and Beijing. In an interview with M, for the first time, Méline spoke to the public about her wonderful experience in the field of epigraphy.

Q: As a woman who has been practicing fashion and art in Paris and London, why did you choose to conduct filed research in epigraphy?

Méline: This started more than half a year ago when I was studying Tomb Tile Pictures of Ancient China. I came into contact with the story of a Canadian missionary named William Charles White and a big tomb in Luoyang. As told in the story, William Charles White bought more than 50 hollow bricks of Han Dynasty and shipped them to Toronto Museum, after which he suddenly became the first person to study ancient tomb bricks in China.

As a Westerner, William Charles White could go deep into the field of traditional Chinese history and culture and made great achievements, which sounds very international and gave us a feeling of meta-universe. The meta-universe a hundred years ago aroused my great interest.

Q: So, you went to Luoyang for field research?

In November 2021, I came to Luoyang, Henan Province from London, aiming to open the door of epigraphy in this ancient city heavy with history. I conducted a Malinovsky-style participatory field research in Luoyang. Like the master of anthropology Malinovsky who ran into an indigenous village of exotic civilization, I also came to a faraway village called Mapo, visited the tomb of Li Yazi, the inventor of Luoyang shovel, as well as came into contact with a large quantity of people related to epigraphy. Soon I found the hollow Tomb-bricks referred to in William Charles White's book in a dazzling antique market.

Q: What you did indeed makes me a feeling of Malinovsky's Voyage in the Western Pacific. So, did you find something unusual?

Méline: Epigraphy refers to the study of non-paper writings and use the materials to study other academic problems. Non-paper writings include all types of bronze and iron articles, stone carvings, jade articles, bamboo slips, oracle-bones, ceramics, tiles, clay seals and other text images. The targeted researched matters in terms of the materials are mainly gold and stone and thus it was called epigraphy.

Using gold and stone materials to examine the history of scriptures arose from Han Dynasty, but It was Yangxiu OU and Mingcheng ZHAO in the Northern Song Dynasty who conducted formal systematic research and special writings. And from then on, there were more than 100 kinds of writings in Song Dynasty related to epigraphy. Epigraphy is a manifestation of ancient intellectuals, which lasted until the dynasty of Qianlong and Jiaqing, reaching its climax and gradually declined in the early  period  of the Republic of China.

As a woman, I suddenly noticed from a female perspective that there were no women in the study of the glamorous science of epigraphy, which had brought the best men to their knees for more than a thousand years.

Using gold and stone materials to examine the history of scriptures arose from Han Dynasty, but It was Yangxiu OU and Mingcheng ZHAO in the Northern Song Dynasty who conducted formal systematic research and special writings. And from then on, there were more than 100 kinds of writings in Song Dynasty related to epigraphy. Epigraphy is a manifestation of ancient intellectuals, which lasted until the dynasty of Qianlong and Jiaqing, reaching its climax and gradually declined in the early  period  of the Republic of China.

As a woman, I suddenly noticed from a female perspective that there were no women in the study of the glamorous science of epigraphy, which had brought the best men to their knees for more than a thousand years.

Q: No women in such a cultured field for thousands of years?

Méline: After in-depth research, digging out Qingzhao LI, the most important epigraphist hidden behind her husband Mingcheng ZHAO, from the writing paradigm under the history of patriarchy, I found that Qingzhao LI, an epigraphist who wrote the ancient famous text "Jinshilu Follow-up", is more brilliant than her status as a great poet. 

Q: Is this the only woman?

Méline: As my research progressed, the wonderful women in epigraphy research were dug out of the old pile of paper one by one by me, where I had a surprise discovery that Zhaoyu ZENG, the first female archeologist in China, is also an epigraphist. And amazingly, the training place where Zhaoyu ZENG was trained for knowledge of modern archology and museum are unexpectedly right in front of my London house.

Zhaoyu ZENG returned to China from London after finishing her academic study, stayed in Dali for three years and wrote a three-year diary. The ruins where she carried out her field investigation were throughout Cang Mount and Er Sea. Zhaoyu ZENG often made rubbings under the low-light lamp at night to decrypt history.

In my research, I also discovered that Zhaoyu ZENG and her classmate Nai XIA’s field research had reached beyond Epigraphy. Petrie, a famous Egyptian archeologist, once lived in their alma mater, the University of London. Nai XIA's doctoral thesis research materials were from Petrie and she received personal guidance from him.

I found that behind Zhaoyu ZENG's search for knowledge, there was a more wonderful woman.

Q: Oh, why’s she wonderful?

Méline: About ten minutes away from my house, there is a Petrie Museum, where there is also a female master who is hidden like Qingzhao LI in a male dominant society. 

In 1873, Victorian novelist and travelling writer Amelia Edwards accidentally changed her itinerary and traveled along the Nile, and from then on, she embarked on a journey that will change the world of Egyptology forever. Edwards' Travel journal in 1877: A Thousand Miles up the Nile was published, the travel notes of which suddenly influenced Europeans' imagination of Egypt. Since then, Egypt had become the most romantic travelling destination among Europeans. Edwards founded the Egyptian Exploration Association in 1882, and she also established the Exploration Fund to support the young man with dreams and talents but frustrated like Petry. She also donated an Edwards Chair professorship at the University of London, thus enable Petrie a professor and do teaching and researching without distraction. It can be said that it was Edwards' good deeds that gave Zhaoyu ZENG and Nai XIA a destination for study.

Q: That is to say, they had influenced each other a hundred years ago, like today's global village?

Méline: Yes, I came to Dali at the end of December 2021with Zhaoyu ZENG's diary, following her footsteps to make field research. I collected a lot of tiles and tile specimens from prehistoric period and Nanzhao Kingdom. Following Zhaoyu ZENG’s example, I also spread them one by one at night for later research. It was under the inspiration of Zhaoyu ZENG that I actually expanded my research field to Sanskrit history, earthquake history, Nanzhao script and other fields, which was unexpected in the past.

After learning the story of Amelia Edwards, I suddenly realized that my field research trip also let my life change - Gender archeology suddenly broke into my life and studying the hidden women and their achievement in the history of epigraphy and archeology became clear and meaningful. 

Q: Is this your hand-made rubbing?

Méline: Yes, when I was conducting field research in Luoyang, I met a local rubbing master and learned rubbing skills. This rubbing as you saw is the same kind as the hollow tomb bricks of the Han Dynasty collected by William Charles White in those years.

You know, in those years, William Charles White had sent rubbings of the same theme to the famous sinologists James Mellon Menzies and John Calvin Ferguson.This is my first hand made rubbing of Han Tomb brick in my life.

Q: Let's talk about your imagination about Epigraphy!

Through field research, I found that Chinese archeology and museum science can be connected with an outstanding Victorian woman, which is really a meta-universe. This is full of enlightenment for my meta-universe entrepreneurship in London.

I often think about my current business in London, just like Amelia Edwards' initiative. I followed Web3.0 travel on the Nile. Who will I meet? Who would I influence?