A Chronological Region-Based Study On Inscriptions On Weapons Of The Warring States Period

The inscriptions on weapons account for a large portion, and are typical examples, of the Warring States scripts. Due to bitter territorial divisions and radical social changes, the Warring States period witnessed a significant development of the complexity and variety of the content and style of inscriptions on weapons. Therefore, a systematic investigation, compilation and interpretation of the inscriptions on weapons of this period will help to shed light on the evolution of the Warring States scripts as well as their special characteristics, explore the evolution of ancient Chinese diachronically, and contribute richer and more credible linguistic material than currently available for geographical, historical and cultural research on pre-Qin period.Earlier research on this topic suffers substantial deficits. For instance, the collection and the compilation of the inscriptions are incomplete, the interpretations of the inscriptions are usually inexact enough, the exploration of the historical and cultural phenomena and institutional issues reflected by the inscriptions is insufficient, the method of regional division and chronology lacks sufficient academic rigor, and the regions and periods of many inscriptions require careful reconsiderations.This paper collects and compiles all the available inscriptions on the weapons of the period from the late Spring and Autumn to the Warring States, and conducts a systematic, in-depth investigation of the inscriptions that have not been accurately or completely interpreted. The process is as follows:This paper begins by classifying the inscriptions according to five regions (Chu. Jin, Qin, Qi and Yan). Then, the author reckons the manufacture date and conjectures the usage of each weapon in order to rank inscriptions chronologically. These two steps give foundation to an investigation of the typical words, grammatical phenomena, person names, place names, official titles and organization names to fully understand the texts. Finally, this paper collates all the texts to contribute more credible comprehensive linguistic material for more advanced research.In conclusion, this study aims to promote the research on inscriptions on weapons, to complete the discipline system of Warring States scripts, and to attract more attention to this field.