The Names In The Yin Ruins Oracle And Its Significance For Dating

There are abundant materials concerning person'name in Yin Ruins'Oracle-Bone Inscriptions. Insufficient statistically, we find that the persons'names in Yin Ruins'Oracle-Bone Inscriptions are more than 1,000. In this article certain primary coordination and research on these persons'names excluding those names only appearing in the BinZu(賓組) of Divinatory Symbols are under way.In the introduction, we discuss the meaning of the research, summarize others'study, and analyze the issues of surname, first name and private name.ChapterⅠdefines the so-called person's name in narrow sense as that name apart from appellation system, sacrifice objects and Zhenren, and sets three criterions for defining person's name: grammar, contrasting with similar Divinatory Symbols examples and referring to Inscriptions on Bronze.ChapterⅡanalyzes the structure of person's name in Yin Ruins'Oracle-Bone Inscriptions. We respectively analyze man's name and woman's name considering the special meaning of woman's name research to the study on the Name system. The features of person's name structure in Oracle-Bone Inscriptions are concluded: single-structure form of person's name accounting for majority, the rank of nobility, the official title, identification, names of nation, country or place,seniority among brothers and sisters combining with surname or first name to complex structure form of person's name, one possessing many different names, and the same name representing different persons.ChapterⅢexpounds the way, the meaning and adverting items of time research by applying person's name. The way of time research by applying person's name should first ensure the name applying is the same one, then provide the reference for time of the another group of Divinatory Symbols with the same name and issue according to known and ensured groups of Divinatory Symbols. The meaning of time research by applying person's name is providing a reference for time of certain group of Divinatory Symbols. During the process of time research by applying person's name, we should pay attention to different person sharing the same name and dynastic history research by applying person's name only provide a rough time frame.