The Correction And Complement Of The Zenghou Yi Bamboo Slips Text And The Research Of The Chariot System

The 215 pieces of bamboo slips unearthed from the Zenghou Yi Tomb is the earliest bamboo slip so far discovered in China. It belongs to the funeral bamboo slips, and the number of bamboo slips is the most of its kinds. The Zenghou Yi bamboo slips was mainly used for registering the chariots, horses, weapons and armors, which were displayed in the funeral ceremony for Marquis Yi. The bamboo slips registered all sorts of the name of chariots and horses, wagoner and his official title, component and fittings of the chariots, harness, the matching of chariot and horse, the species and the number of giving chariots and horses, weapons , armors and tomb figure, and contains some information of chariots horses managing, and lineup of chariots. This document is of great value in studying the chariot system, official system and burial rules of the Eastern Zhou dynasty.Based on fully absorbing the related achievements of research, the dissertation inquired into the explanation of the characters written on the bamboo slips and the chariot system reflected in the bamboo slip text. The dissertation consists of two parts.The first half part, entitled Correction and Complement of the Text, include as follows:(1) Summarizing about the bamboo slips: introduce unearthed situation, character of bamboo slips, describe format and content of bamboo slip text, and publicize the particular measurement of bamboo slips seriatim.(2) The readjustment of order of the partial bamboo slips: research 38 damaged pieces of bamboo slips from 77th to 114th which arrange in its place temporarily, try to discover their unite or link connection each other. Especially, the readjustment of order such as the unite of No. 185 and No.77 bamboo slips, the link of No.31, No. 106 and No. 107 bamboo slips, the link of No.51, No. 105 and No. 108 bamboo slips, the link of No.210 and No.52 bamboo slips, the link of No.53, No.78 and No.79 bamboo slips, count best of all.(3) The complement of explanation of characters: this chapters is mainly named "complement and correct", but complement compose the main body chiefly. First ,we publish the readjustment and the complement of explanation of the partial damaged characters or difficult characters, which takes advantage of the infrared photo of bamboo slip. In this part, a new interpretation of the Zenghou Yi bamboo slip text was given, taking in both the research results of author and the other views on Zenghou Yi bamboo slip text.The latter half part was entitled Chariot System Reflected in the Text. With the support of enduring documents, other unearthed documents and the materials from the tomb, This part discussed the chariot system, viewing from the four aspects, that is, the classification and correspondence of the chariots, horses, weapons and armors, the name of chariots and horses, the chariot-and-horse objects and the matching of chariot and horse.(1) The classification and correspondence of the chariots, horses, weapons and armors: base on the comprehensive review about bamboo slip text, we research the classification and correspondence, the sum total and subtotal of the chariots, horses, weapons and armors, and of tomb figure, then we try to ravel the correspondence between the chariot and chariot, the matching of chariot and horse in funeral ceremony, and try to post the immanent consecution by reviewing the order of chariots and theirs appendages.(2) The textual research of the name of chariots and horses: include 39 name of chariots and 33 name of horses. Part of the textual research of the name of chariots remain with new opinion, such as argumentation about "the Yi chariots" being equal to "Luan chariots", that intitle of "Be Li chariots" come of its using "Be Li canopy". The textual research and explain of the name of chariots and horses redound to our comprehending about status of using and bestowing chariots of the king, the leuds, ministers of Chu, about horses managing in the period of Pre-Qin Dynasty, so we try to research the chariot system and proprieties system of the Zeng state and Chu state.(3) The research with terms of chariots name and horses name corresponding to facts: research the name and function of chariot component and horses component, analyze the configuration of archaian chariot, ravel the function of the chariot-and-horse objects. Based on these, we try to summarize some rules such as that military chariot configure red wheels commonly, that a vehicle can be regarded as a chariot by equipping with dagger-axe and shield (No.8 bamboo slips) ,and a swift chariot can be regarded as a hunt chariot by dismantling the weapons and armors (No.63 bamboo slips) .etc..(4) The matching of chariot and horse: confirm the location of Can-horse and Fei-horse by scrutinize and analyze the matching with two horse, four horse, three horse, six horse, and correct the error opinion that chariot cannot match with three horse in ancient times. In the meanwhile, reveal the relation in the degree of chariot owner and the number of match horse, in the degree of chariot owner and thorough-bred horse.In terms of the readjustment of order of bamboo slips, the complement of explanation of the partial damaged characters or difficult characters, and the study of the correspondence of the chariots, horses, weapons and armors and the name of chariots and horses, some progress were made in the dissertation. What needs point out especially is that the research takes advantage of the infrared photo of bamboo slip. With the aid of this advanced technology, we recognized more than 30 characters from the 54 characters that can't be interpreted before, such as the variant characters literacy of "Ta "which compose of "Shu" and "La" and appear in No.4, No.46 and No.49 bamboo slips, "Xi" character in No.66 bamboo slips, "Cheng" character in No.77 bamboo slips, "Li" character in No.78 bamboo slips, "nong"and "xin" character in No.95 bamboo slips,are all meritorious. In addition, we have an important discovery, that is, we find the third slender pointed pieces of bamboo, write in it with five characters of "Yi Xuan Zhi Ma Jia". This pieces may be regarded as a non-character bamboo slips and be ignored.