Li Xueqin (1933–2019) was born in Beijing in 1933. He enrolled in the Department of Philosophy at Tsinghua University in 1951. From 1952 to 1953, he participated in compiling Collation of Yinxu Inscriptions at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 1954 to July 2003, he worked at the Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Sciences (now the Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), progressing from Research Assistant to Assistant Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow. He served as Deputy Director from 1985 to 1988 and Director from 1991 to 1998. After the establishment of the Academic Committee of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, he was a member of its first and second sessions. He was a member of the 9th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and a member of the 2nd to 4th Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council.

In 2003, he returned to Tsinghua University as a full-time faculty member, holding key positions including Director of the International Institute of Chinese Studies, Director of the Institute of Ideas and Culture, Director of the Research and Conservation Center for Unearthed Texts, and Director of the Collaborative Innovation Center for Excavated Documents and Ancient Chinese Civilization. He also served as Chairman and Honorary Chairman of the Chinese Society for Pre-Qin History, Chairman and Honorary Chairman of the Chu Culture Research Association, and Chief Scientist and Head of the Expert Panel for the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project. He was elected as an Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 1997 and appointed as one of Tsinghua University’s inaugural Distinguished Professors of Humanities in 2018. Professor Li passed away in Beijing on February 24, 2019, at the age of 86.

He received the national title of “Outstanding Mid-Career Expert” in 1984, the State Council’s “Special Government Allowance” in 1991, the “Key Contributor to the Ninth Five-Year National Science and Technology Program” in 2001, the “National Outstanding Professional Talent” in 2002, the inaugural “Lifetime Achievement Award in Chinese Humanities Scholarship” and “Confucius Culture Award” in 2013, the inaugural “Global Chinese Lifetime Achievement Award in Chinese Classics” (Guoxue Awards) in 2014, the Fourth Wu Yuzhang Lifetime Achievement Award in Humanities and Social Sciences in 2015, and the Third Huilin Cultural Achievement Award in 2017.

Professor Li Xueqin was a preeminent historian, archaeologist, paleographer, philologist, and educator in contemporary China, revered as an “encyclopedic scholar” with unparalleled academic prestige. His pioneering work in multidisciplinary studies profoundly advanced research on ancient Chinese civilization, particularly in the fields of early Chinese history, archaeology, and paleography. In the field of oracle bone studies, he established the “Two-Lineage Theory” for dating Yinxu oracle bones, pioneered research on “Non-Royal Divination Texts”, and identified the earliest known Western Zhou oracle inscriptions. Regarding bronze studies, he conducted comprehensive analyses integrating form, decoration, inscriptions, calligraphy, function, assemblage, and casting techniques, with his studies on newly excavated bronzes significantly advancing Shang-Zhou chronology and historical research. In Warring States script research, he proposed the groundbreaking “Five-Regional System” theory, catalyzing the formation of Warring States paleography as a distinct discipline. In bamboo and silk manuscript studies, he led or contributed to the collation of the Mawangdui silk texts, Dingxian Han slips, Zhangjiashan Han slips, Shuihudi Qin slips, and Wuyi Square Eastern Han slips, with his most notable achievements including overseeing the preservation, collation, and research of Tsinghua University’s Warring States bamboo manuscripts. He advocated paradigm-shifting concepts such as “Re-evaluating Ancient Chinese Civilization” and “Moving Beyond the Age of Historical Skepticism”, championing comparative archaeology, cross-civilization studies, international Sinology, and the rewriting of the history of the field, which left an enduring global impact. From the 1950s onward, he authored over 40 seminal works, including A Concise Study of Yin Dynasty Geography, Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations, Studies on Newly Discovered Bronzes, Essays on Comparative Archaeology, Breaking Free from Historical Skepticism, Lost Texts on Bamboo and Silk and Intellectual History, Studies on Ancient Documents, Tracing the Origins of the Zhouyi, Ancient Civilizations Revealed Through Artifacts, Pathways to Civilization, Studies on Three Dynasties’ Civilizations, Research on Xia-Shang-Zhou Civilizations, and Tsinghua Bamboo Manuscripts and Ancient Civilizations. His scholarship constitutes an invaluable intellectual legacy for Chinese academia.