The Exegesis Research Of 《The Collection Of Bronze Inscriptions Of East And West Zhou Periods》

Guo Moruo is a famous philologist on ancient Chinese characters. He is accomplished in Oracle, inscriptions on bronze and stone items and other ancient written texts and is known as one of the four most outstanding experts in this area along with Luo Zhenyu, Wang Guowei and Tung Tso-pin. His most significant work is "The Collection of bronze inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods". Jiangshu Hui, a scholar from Taiwan regards Guo the father of bronze inscription studies."The Collection of bronze inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods" not only researches on sacrificial vessels but also achieves great success in annotations and explanations. Some arguments are quoted in "The Dictionary of Chinese Characters" and other influential books. Various methods in explanations are applied to this work and therefore he provides a good example for scholars to come in the area of exegesis. Guo's research is based on his deep understanding of Shuo Wen Jie Zi and the works of his predecessors. In this article, we make a comprehensive study on the annotations of The Collection of bronze inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods", referring to recent research results in Phonology and Critical Interpretation of Ancient Texts, we study some of the terms and methods in annotations in"The Collection of bronze inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods".This article contains there parts, the introduction, the text and the conclusion.In chapter one, the introduction, there is a brief description on Guo's life, the meaning of researching on Guo's work,"The Collection of bronze inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods" and how we carry our research on. As a very much complicated figure, there is a lot of controversies on Guo's life. But we only focus on the source and course of Guo's achievements in bronze explanations. First published in Japan,"The Collection of Bronze Inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods" has various versions. After Guo came back to China from Japan, he did some further research and published to books titled Liang Zhou Jinwenci Daxi Tulu and Liangzhou Jinwenci Daxi Kaoshi. In 1957, divided into three parts, pictures, records and annotations, these two titles were combined and reprinted as Liangzhou JInwenci Daxi Tulu Kaoshi. The first part focuses mainly on the vessel figures, the second part on the pictures of the bronze inscriptions, therefore we target the bronze inscriptions. For convenience, in this article, we some times address this work as"The Collection of Bronze Inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods", some times as Daxi. In this article, we mainly categorize, compare the materials and also adopt some statistics measures.Chapter II describes the methods of annotations of"The Collection of Bronze Inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods". As an often used method in Phonology and Critical Interpretation of Ancient Texts, we focus on the forms of the characters, their pronunciations and meanings. We not only take some sample sentences from the book, but also refers to as much others scholars'arguments as possible, moreover, we also add our own corresponding views. Guo's annotations follow no set form, often draws unique conclusions. Therefore, we put them in the specific category, pending further study. In summary, in"The Collection of Bronze Inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods", Guo's often used methods are: firstly, he studies the shapes of the characters by comparing and analyzing. In comparing, he refers to the annotations in Shuowen, oracles, bronze inscriptions, seals, sealing clay, ancient coins etc. Secondly, he studies the characters'pronunciations by analyzing the Tongjia characters and other inscriptions. Thirdly, he studies the characters'meanings according to old documents, the context, and the inscriptions'explanations as well as their grammatical interpretations.Chapter III focus on the preferred terms in"The Collection of Bronze Inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods". We pay attention to the Chuwen, Fanwen, Shengwen and Yiwen, also known as the four common terms that reflects the course of the development of the characters. Guo's arguments on Chuowen show his earlier understanding of the old Chinese characters and the importance of identify them in the area of exegesis and philology. Fanwen is contradictory to and also against the the development of the simplified Chinese characters. Sheng Wen was created by Guo in order to read the inscriptions, it also reflects Guo's then phonological conditions. With the decrease and increase of the strokes, ideograms, phonetic elements, and different forms of the same character, Yiwen is the most complex part and shows the development of the Chinese characters. In Chapter IV,"The Collection of Bronze Inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods" also shows its own attitudes towards the previous researching results, sometimes Guo agrees with them, other times, against. In other cases he puts them into comparison, moreover, he even purposely neglects them."The Collection of Bronze Inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods" manifests Guo's how cautiously Guo pursues his studies."The Collection of Bronze Inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods" refers to others'research results, but is not confined by their results. Guo mainly uses them to confirm his own results. According to our statistics on the quotes of"The Collection of Bronze Inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods", we found that most of the results are based on Guo's own research. Therefore,"The Collection of Bronze Inscriptions of East and West Zhou Periods" can be regarded as Guo's most significant achievement in bronze inscription studies.In the last part, we draw a conclusion based on our own exertion and also compare it to the most influential arguments of other scholars in the same field.