Shang Oracle Is A Comparative Study With The Original Mesopotamian Cuneiform Created Characters Mechanism

Inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty and proto-cuneiform of ancient Mesopotamia, which respectively belong to ancient Chinese writing system and ancient cuneiform system, are two earliest and more systematic written materials. They are self-derived writing, and respectively have an initial periods of writing development. The comparative study of character-form mechanism between the two scripts can not only promote their research, but also find out some common rules and individual features of writing's creation and development in the early stage. In addition, it contributes to inspire the study of script genetics. Moreover, it is of value in theory and practice to enrich and develop comparative written languages and general written languages.Guided by the theories of comparative written languages and general written languages, the thesis takes inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty and proto-cuneiform of ancient Mesopotamia as the research object. On the basis of previous studies, we compare their character-form mechanisms. The characters of whole writing-system are regarded as a big character repertoire, in which every character's creation has its'rationales and layers. The characters can be classified into original graphs and new graphs, and then their character-form mechanisms and compare them are respectively explored.The paper is composed of five chapters:The first chapter introduces several relevant concepts, and further defines and amends some concepts on the basis of previous definitions. It also presents the general situation of the two writings and the comparison study; stating the research object, the research value, the research method and the research material. The second chapter, the third chapter and the fourth chapter are the major part of the paper. In the second chapter, we compare the original graphs from imitating mechanism and absorbing mechanism, and then draw out some similarities and differences. In the third chapter, a comparison of the new graphs from transformation mechanism is presented. The fourth chapter gives an analysis of the impacts of different character-form mechanisms on the character form of original graphs and new graphs. The fifth chapter summarizes some common rules and different features by comparing the character-form mechanisms of the two scripts.