Pei Wenzhong

Pei Wenzhong the Chinese palaeontologist and archaeologist (1904-1982) who discovered the first fossil skull of Peking Man at Zhoukoudian in 1929, a find that established the existence of an early human form in East Asia. His careful excavation of the cave site and his subsequent studies of the stone tools and bones found there made him one of the founders of Chinese palaeoanthropology.

Early Life and Education

Pei Wenzhong was born on 19 January 1904 in Fengnan, Hebei Province, into a family of modest means. He studied at the Peking School of Agriculture and then at the Geology Department of Peking University, where he was drawn to palaeontology and to the new science of human origins that was then exciting scholars around the world.

After graduating he joined the Cenozoic Research Laboratory of the Geological Survey of China, the body that organised the search for early human remains at the cave site of Zhoukoudian, some fifty kilometres southwest of Beijing. The site had already yielded fossil teeth and was regarded as one of the most promising localities in Asia.

He learned excavation technique from the foreign and Chinese scientists working at the site and quickly showed an exceptional eye for the recognition of bone fragments, a skill that would make his fortune. His training combined geology, comparative anatomy and field craft, and he brought to the work an unusual patience.

In the 1920s the search for human origins was an international enterprise, and scholars debated whether early humans had arisen in Asia or in Africa. The discovery of fossil teeth at Zhoukoudian gave the Asian hypothesis its strongest support, and the young Pei found himself at the centre of one of the most exciting scientific questions of the day.

The Discovery at Zhoukoudian

In the winter of 1929, working in the deep fills of the cave at Locality 1, Pei Wenzhong uncovered a nearly complete fossil skull of an early human. The specimen was found in a narrow shaft and had to be hardened with plaster before it could be lifted, and he spent hours in the cold to secure it. The find was announced to great international interest and confirmed that a distinct early human form, which became known as Peking Man, had lived in northern China.

Peking Man, later classified as a variety of Homo erectus, proved to be of great importance for the study of human evolution. The Zhoukoudian cave also yielded stone tools, hearths with ash and charred bone, and many animal fossils, evidence from which scholars reconstructed a way of life based on hunting, gathering and the controlled use of fire.

The work at Zhoukoudian placed Chinese prehistory on the scientific map and gave the country its own place in the story of human origins. Pei Wenzhong's careful recording of the stratigraphy of the cave allowed later workers to understand the sequence of deposits and the antiquity of the remains.

Research and Later Career

During the 1930s Pei Wenzhong continued to excavate at Zhoukoudian and to publish reports on the stone industry and the fauna of the site. He also studied other fossil localities in China and took part in the search for early human remains in the north and west of the country, adding to the evidence for a long human occupation of East Asia.

The original fossils of Peking Man were lost during the Second World War, a circumstance that gave added value to the casts and records made earlier, and to the study material that survived. Pei Wenzhong spent much of his later career reassembling the evidence from photographs, casts and notes, and he worked to preserve what could be saved.

After 1949 he held posts in the institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences concerned with vertebrate palaeontology and palaeoanthropology, and he helped to train a new generation of specialists. He also took part in the study of sites in the Yellow River region and in the examination of fossil material sent to him from across the country.

Contributions and Ideas

Pei Wenzhong was among the first Chinese scientists to master the comparative anatomy of fossil hominins and to interpret their remains within an evolutionary framework. He argued for the great antiquity of the Chinese material and for its place in a broadly conceived human lineage, and his reports set out the anatomical details on which later classifications were based.

He also advanced the study of the stone tools of Zhoukoudian, describing their forms and their manufacture and using them to argue for the technological capacity of Peking Man. Together with the evidence of fire, these finds supported a picture of an early human community capable of adaptation to a temperate environment.

Beyond his own research he worked to build institutions and to secure the collections that are the foundation of palaeoanthropological study in China. His concern for documentation, in an age when field records were often lost, preserved evidence that would otherwise have vanished.

Influence and Legacy

The discovery of Peking Man transformed the study of human evolution in East Asia and gave Chinese palaeontology an international standing. Zhoukoudian became one of the most important fossil localities in the world and a training ground for several generations of scholars, and the site continues to be studied with the methods that Pei Wenzhong helped to introduce.

His example encouraged Chinese scientists to pursue their own research in human origins rather than to rely on foreign expeditions, and the finds at Zhoukoudian remain central to debates about the peopling of the continent. The questions he raised about the relationship between the early human populations of East Asia and those of other regions are still discussed today.

Pei Wenzhong died on 18 September 1982 in Beijing. He is remembered as the man who, with a single winter's discovery, opened a new chapter in the study of the Chinese past. His reputation rests on the combination of luck, skill and perseverance that brought the skull to light, and on the years of quiet work that made the find intelligible.

See also

• Peking Man
• Zhoukoudian
• Homo erectus
• Palaeoanthropology