A Study On The Vocabulary Of Inscription On The Ancient Bronze Objects Of Shang Period

The topic of this thesis is A Study on the Vocabulary of Inscription on the Ancient Bronze Objects of Shang Period.Scholars have different opinions on the time when Inscription was invented.It can date back to the early Shang period because I think the symbol that is very pictographic is also character.There are 4508 rubbing on bronze vessels from early Shang period to late period.Although the linguistic material is abundant,systematic research has hardly been carried on except some individual study because the formation of the Inscription is extremely simple and pictographic.The vacancy of study on Inscription of Shang period will not only prevent us mastering the language of Shang period accurately but also bring negative effect to the study on Inscription of West Zhou immediately inherited from the Inscription of Shang period.The research of Inscription Vocabulary of Shang period not only has close relation with ancient Chinese vocabulary and its system and its development history but also is the base of exploring social situations of Shang period.The thesis is constructed by two main parts.One is the vocabulary part as thesis content,the other is the graphemic part as appendix.According to whether there is verb or not,4508 rubbing on bronze vessels can be divided into "non-passage Inscription" (4246 pieces,94%)and "passage Inscription"(262 pieces,6%).So the vocabulary part of the thesis can be sub-divided into non-passage Inscription vocabulary and passage Inscription vocabulary.The former is analyzed from the second to the fourth chapters and the latter is studied from the fifth to the seventh chapters.Instructed by modern linguistic theories,this dissertation not only absorbs in the research results of traditional exegesis but also employs the viewpoints and methods of modern linguistic theories.In the thesis,I adopt various methods ranging from Synchronic to Diachronic,Quantitative to Qualitative,formal description to cognitive explanation and take the shape of bronze vessels into consideration as well. Generally speaking,this thesis studies the Inscription of Shang period in the following aspects:Ⅰ.The topic of this paper is Inscription Vocabulary on the Ancient Bronze Objects of Shang Period.Ⅱ.Based on the former research and with reference of the materials in《Jinwenziliaoku:金文资料库》and《Yinzhoujinwenjicheng:殷周金文集成》,I study the 4508 rubbings of Yin and Shang Period.By means of comparing the characters on every rubbing with the characters in《Jinwenziliaoku》(金文资料库),《Yinzhoujinwenjichengyinde》(殷周金文集成引得),《Jinwengulinfulu》(金文诂林附录),《Guwenzigulin》(古文字诂林),this paper eventually nails down 1261 characters.Ⅲ.Demonstrate whether the Inscription of Clan is characters,the implication of Inscription and its valuating criteria and types.Ⅳ.The non-passage inscription is proper nouns such as the names of people and places.Therefore,in this article,I will explain them in details.Ⅴ.By contrasting the Inscription with Oracle Bones Inscription Dictionary,this paper calculates the total number of characters in Shang period,and then surveys the characters that appear only in the Inscription of Shang period.Ⅵ.Study the types and characteristics of tone words in the Inscription of Shang period.Ⅶ.Study the types and characteristics of the polysyllabic structures(words or phrases).Ⅷ.Study the types and meanings of verbs of the Inscription and explore the characteristics.Ⅸ.Describe and explain the types and characteristics of the synonyms and antonyms that appear in the Inscription.The following is a brief introduction of the whole thesis.This article is divided into eight chapters:Chapter One:Introduction.In this partⅠfirstly introduce the time when Inscription appears,the current research conditions and the study results,and then put forward the necessity of the present study.Especially on the scale of study,this paper with reference to the division of times and opinions of Inscription Material and collection of Inscription of Shang period has selected 4508 rubbing as the range of study.In order to make scientific and systematic analysis,I adopt the relatively appropriate shape.Chapter Two:The Characteristics and the prerequisite of Inscription of Shang period.Up to now,many scholars that study Inscription concentrate on the Inscription of East and West Zhou,which has something with the characteristics of Inscription of Shang period.Now,I will briefly describe the characteristics of Inscription of Shang period.(the characteristics and the content of Inscription with one character,with two characters,with three characters and with four characters;the relationship between Inscription with one character and Inscription with three characters,the relationship between Inscription with one character and Inscription with three characters, relationship between Inscription with two character and Inscription with four characters and relationship between Inscription with one character and Inscription with four characters).In addition,I make analysis on the part that is frequently used and argued by scholars,i.e.Celestial stems,Ya(亚)character(shape),Ce(册)character,Ning(宁) character.Chapter Three:The Study to Inscription of Clan in Shang Period.The most obvious characteristics is that it is quite pictographic.I call Inscription that is quite pictographic "clan Inscription" and study it.Many scholars have different opinions on whether "clan Inscription" is characters and connotation of it,I have concluded the research results after citing many scholars' viewpoints.Moreover,because "clan Inscription" is divided into "single clan Inscription" and "compound clan Inscription",I describe the judging standard and characters that each kind contains.Chapter Four:The Study to Proper Nouns of Inscription of Shang Period.Clan Inscription can stand for such proper nouns as name of people,countries and places. The present thesis briefly demonstrates the theories whether proper nouns have connotations or not and the characteristics of proper nouns in clan Inscription of Shang period and then makes specific study on names of officers and names of people.Besides, through contrasting proper nouns of the clan Inscription and oracle bone inscriptions, we can master the relevant content.Chapter Five:The Formation of Vocabulary of Inscription of Shang Period.This chapter focuses on the Monosyllabic words and Polysyllabic structure of Inscription of Shang Period after brief explanation of relationship between character and words. Because of diversity of form of Monosyllabic words,there is not a definite standard to make classification.Then I make classification from angles of the appearing form,word class and content.From the angle of content,I sub-divide the content that is reflected by vocabulary of Inscription into bronze vessels culture,national system,social life and ideology and sub-divide social life into economy life(agriculture,stockbreeding, fishing),cultural life(houses,transportation,musical instrument,bodies and beds)and then sub-divides ideology into calendar,sacrifice.As there is no accurate standard to make classification except proper nouns of language of Shang Dynasty,this dissertation study the so-called Polysyllabic structure of Inscription rather than make classifications between Polysyllabic words and phrases. Judged by form standard and meaning standard,there are 258 Polysyllabic structures, among which 68 are analyzed from grammar and semantic structure and I conclude the characteristics of Polysyllabic structures.Chapter Six:The Study to the Verb of Inscription of Shang Period.In order to accurately analyze and understand the passage Inscription,a critical step is to define and analyze the verbs.There are 70 verbs in Inscription of Shang Period according to grammatical function of Inscription.According to the semantic meanings,these verbs can be divided into five classes(behavior,life,production,army and sacrifice).This paper summarizes the characteristics of Inscription verbs by analyzing their original meanings and connotative meanings.Chapter Seven:The Study of the Synonyms and Antonyms.As for the study of synonyms,I present a brief introduction of the synonyms of the Inscription of Shang Period and its meaning after briefly describing the definition,the reason and the identification of synonym.In the study to antonym,I analyze 13 groups of antonyms according to Complementary,Converseness and Antonym and then conclude the characteristics of antonyms of Inscription of Shang Period.Chapter Eight:Conclusion.This part gives a summary of the previous seven chapters,on the base of which,we can better know the vocabulary situation of Shang Period.By the comprehensive investigation of the vocabulary of Inscription of Shan Period,the thesis describes the characteristics and disciplines of vocabulary of Shang Period.