Study On The Document "Guo Yu" And The History Of Xi Zhou

"Guo Yu" is for a long time known as a famous document of pre-Qin days, with very important significance in studying the history of Xi Zhou. Up to now, however, it seems that peoplehave not paid enough attention to the historical data value of such a document. In this thesis, we try to supply the deficiency mantioned above, i.e., to make its book's value in studying Xi Zhou history more sufficient and reasonable through sorting out the data of "Guo Yu" and analysing them.The thesis consists mainly of the following two parts:The First Part: General Description of the Historical Data on Xi Zhou Recorded in "Guo Yu". In this part, we describe the nature of "Guo Yu" and reveal the characters of the historical data about Xi Zhou that is recorded in "Guo Yu" through comparing them with other documents about the history of Xi Zhou.The Second Part: Historical Events and Institutions of Xi Zhou Recorded in "Guo Yu". There are a plenty of historical data in "GuoYu" related to Xi Zhou. Limited by the space, however, in this thesis we focus on sorting out and studying the historical events and institutions of Xi Zhou. These two catagories of data are considered as the most important ones among all data recorded in "Guo Yu". Our work is to regulate the originally disorganized data into systematic ones which are convenient for using them, then to compare them with other materials. In such a way it is easy to observe the characters and value of these data. In this second part two chapters are presented:Chapter One: Historical Events. At first the historical events are arranged in time order. Then the records in "Guo Yu" are compared with other historical materials, especially, the ancient texts of pre-Qin days and Han Dynasty. Finally, we try to ascertain whether or not they can be believed.Chapter Two: Institutions. Generally, the administrative times of these institutions are hard known clearly from "Guo Yu", so I study all the possible institutions. In our study, we divide these institutions into six kinds, namely, Ji, Jia, Bin, Xiong, Political kind and Surplus at first. Secondly, we compare these institutions with other historical materials. Finally, we try to distinguish what institutions belong to Xi Zhou and what do not.The results of our work show that the records in "Guo Yu" of historical events on Xi Zhou are indeed of high degree of credibility. In fact, not only we can find direct and indirect supports to the most records in "Guo Yu", but also the major records have been adopted in "Shi Ji".Most of the institutions that may be put into practice in Xi Zhou are consisitent with other documents of pre-Qin days, in particular, the books recording institutions specially. Therefore, "Guo Yu" is an indispensable historical dada to study the institutions of Xi Zhou. However, these records were obviously rewritten by people lived after Xi Zhou. Therefore, when an institution record in "Guo Yu" is used it should be carefully discerned in adcance.