"Zuo Zhuan" Character Title Research

Appellation is the address or name which was given because of relatives and the other aspects of the social relationship between people.It marks people’s specific identity and position in society.It is not only a linguistic phenomenon,but also social and cultural phenomenon.As the first Chinese ancient books which recorded a large number of figure appellations,Zuo Zhuan not only recorded the different appellations of important historical figures from Spring and Autumn Period to Xia-Shang-Zhou kingdoms,but also provided the system of social life,ancient laws and regulations,etiquette and other important documents in the pre-Qin period.The characters of appellations expressed intricately in Zuo Zhuan.In addition to the surname,family name,first name,another name,posthumous title and other customary appellation,it also included appellations that marked the identity,status,official position,relationship,and town-settlement.In the face of different communicative objects,people use different appellations.A same appellation represented different meanings when it was used in different occasions.So it’s necessary to put the Zuo Zhuan’s appellation in specific communication occasions and studied them systematically.This can not only help the readers understand the character’s relationships in Zuo Zhuan,but also help to reveal the communication principle and social culture in it.This thesis takes the characters of appellations appearing in Zuo Zhuan as the researchful object,and divide into three chapters.The first two chapters are classified study of Zuo Zhuan character pellation.According to the application and function of the appellation,this paper divide Zuo Zhuan character appellation into two types: kinship terms and social appellation.Kinship terms came into being accompanied by the generation of human society.It includs consanguinity as well as relatives in-laws and reflects the kinship and family form within the clan.Social appellation generates in social activities and interpersonal relationship which beyond the relatives.According to each other’s social status,identity and junior as well as the relationship with themselves,people use respectful honorific or inferior self-abasing terms as polite phrases.Sometimes they call people’s name as habitual appellation which has less emotion.This article trys to dig out the theoretical basis and constitutive formation of each appellation.And it analyzes appellation’s usage detailedly combined with actual cases in Zuo Zhuan.The third chapter discusses the Zuo Zhuan character appellation and early social systems.Zhou Dynasty was a mature period in customs.People in the Zhou Dynasty lay down a series of ceremony and music systems,and got the country on the right track.In terms of the marriage system,it manifested as firm form of marriage and normative institution of marriage.In their contact or fight with nature and community,people realized that inbreeding of the same surname is bad for generations.So they established a principle that men and women couldn’t marry if they share the same surname.In order to increase the mating resources and strengthen the unity with other nationalities which have different first name at the same time,cousin marriage and wife’ slave girl marriage became popular.On the other hand,Zhou Dynasty was not far from the primitive society,so it still remained some vestiges of group marriage in the matriarchal society.Such as succeed marriage,snatch marriage and other original form of marriage.In terms of surname system,it formed the unique system of “giving surname and family name”.Kings of Zhou established patriarchal clan and gave land to dukes or princes through giving surname,as well as identified the blood relationship.After the Zhou regime has established,the vassal kings grant family name to sons and brothers or ministers with the aim of dominating the country more easily.This is so-called “vassal state”.In addition,Zhou Gong formulated posthumous title system,making it a social norm which was accepted by all of the society.Regulations for posthumous title system perfected in the Spring and Autumn Period.It carried on effective constraint and standard to the behavior of the ruling class,and maintained the feudal hierarchy and social etiquette well.