Huang Wenbi

Huang Wenbi (Chinese: 黄文弼; Wade–Giles: Huang Wen-pi; April 23, 1893 – December 18, 1966) was a Chinese archaeologist specializing in Xinjiang.

Huang was born in Hanchuan, Hubei Province. After graduating from Peking University in 1918, he became a faculty member of the university. From 1927 to 1930, he participated in the Sino-Swedish Expedition to Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang with Sven Hedin and Xu Xusheng. He was also a research fellow on the Sino-Swedish Expedition of 1934-37.

In 1928 and 1930, he worked in Turfan with other members of Hedin’s expedition, while also studying Gaochang and the cave monasteries, Bezeklik in particular.[1] In 1930, he excavated in Yarqoto, before returning to Gaochang and then moving on to the burial grounds of Astana. A new cycle of work was undertaken in 1933 and then resumed in 1943.

As a member of the Central Committee for the Preservation of Antiquities, he was stationed in Xi'an to be a director to research the Stele Forest from 1935. In 1947, he returned to Beijing, where he worked in the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the People’s Republic of China. He conducted a number of further archeological research trips to the western regions from 1950, in particular exploring the historic city of Gaochang. His last expedition to Chinese Turkestan took place in 1958.

He died in 1966.[2]