Thedisciplines concerningcultural inheritance, such as oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, arenot in popular demand but with great cultural value. In recent years, owingto the promotion and support of the country, the study of ancient characters has ushered in a brilliant prospect.
Bronzeinscriptionsare characterscarvedor written on bronze ware. We have the study of oracle boneinscriptions, the study of bamboo slips or silkinscriptions, and we also have the study ofbronze inscriptions which is essentially one of the two branches of the study of bronze ware (the other branch is to studythe shapes, ornaments and crafts of bronze ware). The study of bronze inscriptions intersects with archaeology, the study of ancient charactersand history. But due to the particularity of bronze inscriptions, the studycan be independent from the study of bronze wareand become a separate discipline. The first level of the studyis to interpret the inscriptions themselves, and the second level is to explore the history and culture behind theseinscriptions.
With anincreasing abundance of materials about bronze inscriptions, the academic circle should make more effortson the classification ofcharacter stylesand tryto use it as an important standard to judge the relative age of bronze. In addition, theverification and explanations of bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, as well asthe analysis of character patterns, are becoming moreand morerefined. Researchers should havethe basic understanding that "the same patterndoes not necessarily indicatethe same character, but different patterns may be the same character", work harder in the study of the evolution of character patterns, establish the genealogical table of changes in Chinese character components, and analyze and clarify more unknown inscriptions.
In bronze inscriptionsoftheShang and Zhou Dynasties, there isabundant informationof variants with richconnotations, and some of themcan reflect the social attitudesof that time. Thisis worth our further study. In bronze inscriptions, we also find many disappeared clan namesof ancient states behind which there must beplenty ofunknown stories.These bronze clan inscriptions have been a hot spot for study all the time. In the studyof bronze clan inscriptions, the “theory of composition of composite clans” is the key point and also adifficult point.At present, a consensusof the academic circleneeds to be reached on two points in the studyof bronze clan inscriptions so thatthe study can further advance.One is whether women at that time had the status and the ability tocast bronze ware before theygot married, and the other is whether they could mark the clan name of their father on bronze ware after they got married (the ultimate and deeper question is whether ordinary merchants could offer sacrifices to people who were not of the sameclan.). In addition, special attention should be paid to archaeological excavation in the study ofbronze clan inscriptions. A more reasonable conclusion can often be reached by combining the study of handed-down bronze clan inscriptions with the study of unearthed bronze clan inscriptions.
Xie Mingwen, associate researcher at the Research Center for Unearthed Documents and Ancient Writings, Fudan University
Published on July 28, 2022