Liú È shì zuì zǎo shōucáng hé yánjiū jiǎgǔwén de rén zhīyī.
Liu E was one of the first people to collect and study oracle bone inscriptions.
Tips
history
A man of many trades, he worked on taming the Yellow River, pushed for railways and mines, and studied mathematics and medicine. In 1903 he published 《铁云藏龟》, the first book of rubbings of oracle bones, many of them from the collection of 王懿荣; 铁云 was his courtesy name. In 1900, when foreign troops held Beijing, he bought grain from the imperial granaries from them and sold it cheaply to the hungry; on a charge over this he was exiled to Xinjiang in 1908 and died there the next year.
culture
The best-loved pages of 《老残游记》 describe 济南, a city of 家家泉水，户户垂杨, 'a spring in every house, a willow at every door', and a storyteller whose singing holds a whole hall spellbound.
