A Study On The Inscriptions Of The Spring And Autumn Period

The author of this paper, from a pure philology perspective, made a comprehensive investigation into the inscriptions of the Spring and Autumn period (春秋时期).According to the character materials we colleted, we made some tables coping the inscriptions of different stages and regions, and clerical transcription tables of the characters used in the Spring and Autumn period. On this foundation, we counted up the number of the characters, analyzed the structural categories of the characters, and investigated the ways of producing inscriptions.Among the inscriptions of the Spring and Autumn period, there were 1194 characters, of which 786 were transmissive characters, and 408 were neo-emerging characters. The total number of structure categories was 1236, among which Pictographs (象形) were 140, Deictographs ( 指 事) were 43, Syssemantographs (会意 ) were 230, Picto-phonetic characters (形声) were 769, etc. The proportion of each type mentioned above was 11.33%, 3.48%, 18.61%, and 62.33%. Compared with the inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the descending percentage of pictographs and Syssemantographs was respectively 1.47 and 0.39, and Deictographs increased with 0.18 percentages, so the total percentage of three semantic characters descended with 1.68, while Picto-phonetic characters increased with 2.33 percentages. These reflected totally thechanging and adjustment of structure categories distribution, and developing in characters' ways of producing inscriptions.During the Spring and Autumn period, the number of neo-emerging characters' structure categories was 409, among them, pictographs were 3, Deictographs were 7, Syssemantographs were 23, Picto-phonetic characters were 361, of which the proportion was respectively 0.73%, 1.71%, 5.62%, 88.26%. The number of ex-three semantic structures was 33, which proportion was only 8.06%. Compared with the Western Dynasty period, the Semantic characters descended with 5.84 percentages, while Picto-phonetic characters increased 5.96 percentages. These reflected that, during the Spring and Autumn period, the ability of Semantic categories to form inscriptions was on a further decline, meanwhile, such function of Picto-phonetic characters was further strengthened.In this paper, the author made an elementary survey of neo-emerging characters in the The Spring and Autumn period. The minority were differentiated graphs, and the majority were created directly, which displayed a certain characteristics of this period. Among them, 211 characters had developed into the system of seal characters.Also, the author described some main appearances of the inscriptions' development in the Spring and Autumn period, such as Simplification ( % , Complexity (if JO Substitution (#&) , and Corruption (ift￡) . "Simplification", was mainly displayed by lessening components and strokes of a character. "Complexity" was mainly expressed by adding semantographic symbols, phonetic components, distinctive marks, homographs and some other components to an inscription. "Substitution" was replacing a phonogram, a pictogram, and so on. "Corruption" was chiefly divided into two types lying in the narrow sense and general sense. Through the description and analysis of large number of characters, we bring to light the actual features of the inscriptions, and provided the foundation for analyzing structures of the characters.Further, we investigated the characteristics of the era and regions displayed by the characters. The characteristic of the era was mainly described by a few aspects, such as general exterior characteristic, strokes, graphic components, single-element characters, and Bird and Insect Script, and so on. The characteristic of the regions was described through comparing the characters among regions, and finding some typical inscriptions .In general, this paper could substantially reflect basic features and functions of the inscriptions of the Spring and Autumn period, by investigating and describing the number, structure, evolution, and neo-emerging characters, and so on. Based on the characters of the Western Zhou Dynasty period, the characters of the Spring and Autumn period developed slowly, and provided foundation for the characters ofWarring States period, so it was an important link in the history of the Chinese characters' development.It is hoped that this paper can provide abundant of materials for the study on Chinese character's development.