A Study Of Vessels' Phenomenon Of Dimidiate And Lie Vessels In Xia,Shang And Zhou Dynasties

According to records,the rituals in the pre-Qin days is very cumbersome and complicated.Through archaeological discoveries,some ritual vessels have been made out,they have diverse combinations.We should seek a right angle to comprehensive study rituals in the pre-Qin days.This paper will take the dimidiate and lie vessels as the main line to connect some vessel combinations.This paper will ponder over system of the use of ding(?)and gui(?),and make out this key combination adopted forms of dimidiate and lie vessels(??).By this study,we can forward tracing,and discover some other key combinations adopted same forms in Xia and Shang dynasties:dimidiate and lie vessels.If we comprehensively study these key combinations in the three dynasties,we will find the forms of dimidiate and lie vessels conform to the law of the development of things,developed from nothing and step toward maturity from simple.In different times,the forms of dimidiate and lie vessels apply to different ritual vessels,and these application forms step by step toward maturity.So,in the author's opinion,the forms of dimidiate and lie vessels are important in the rituals in the pre-Qin days,these two forms are often unseparable,we can summarize it as phenomenon of dimidiate and lie vessels.In Xia,Shang and Zhou dynasties,this phenomenon have four development Stages:preliminary stage(from Xia dynasty to early period of Shang dynasty),exploration stage(from late period of Shang dynasty to mid period of western Zhou dynasty),finalizing stage(from mid period of western Zhou dynasty to early Warring States period),decline stage(from early Warring States period to Qin dynasty).The first three stages corresponding to periods of Xia zhi(??),Shang zhi(??)and Zhou zhi(??)about rituals.At preliminary stage,this phenomenon is found in the combination of yazhang(??),but this combination is simple and rare.At exploration stage,some different application forms appeared,such as system of the use of gu(?)and jue(?),system of the use of zun(?)and you(?)(or yi?and you,or zun and yi),system of the use of teqing(??)and biannao(??),these application forms had outdistanced primitiveness,but different from each other,they reflect irregular and explorative institution and people's consciousness.At finalizing stage,two major systems(system of the use of ding and gui,and system of the use of zhong?and qing?)had been steady down,they absorbed all the forms'essence before,to become top-notch,complicated and tight systems.At decline stage,along with decline of rituals in Zhou dynasty and disappear of system of the use of ding and gui,this phenomenon towards decline.By studying this evolution course,we can find two remarkable features.First,the course is in accordance with the law of the occurrence,development,and extinction of things.Second,these stages are In line with the rituals' stages.So,we can say this phenomenon is' t coincidental but a conscious behavior.This paper based on archaeological discoveries,to study the phenomenon of dimidiate and lie vessels.The dimidiate phenomenon is embodied in material qualities(bronze and stone products),vessel kinds(such as gu and jue),vessel groups(such as bozhong??and niuzhong??groups,4+4 of yongzhong??),vessel individualities(such as big yazhang and small yazhang,big you and small you).The lie vessels is embodied in a group vessels have same size(such as gu,jue and gui)or decreasing size(such as yazhang,you,ding,nao,zhong and qing).Of course,there are some other dimidiate phenomenons in Xia,Shang and Zhou dynasties,such as the dimidiate of yin(?)and yang(?),the dimidiate in geographical,etc,they also represent the dimidiate of people's ritual consciousness.