The exploration of Jia-ci in inscribed bronzes of the Eastern Zhou dynasty.

详细信息   

• 作者：Tang ; Pui Ling.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2006
• 导师：Cheung, Kwong Yue
• 毕业院校：Chinese University of Hong Kong
• 专业：Language, Ancient.;Anthropology, Cultural.;History, Ancient.
• CBH：3254510
• Country：China
• 语种：English
• FileSize：32243652
• Pages：558

文摘

In ancient times, words of praying were often inscribed on the bottom of newly made bronzewares. Such words are now named "Jia-ci". Jia-ci originated in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, with much enrichent and diversification in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Most of the Jia-ci used in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty inscribed bronzes cannot be found in literature today. The scope of their contents is wide, contributing to their being complete reflections of ancient lives and culture. Not only is the notion of providence and spirits in primitive religious beliefs included, but the ancients' quests for immortality, good fortune, peacefulness and power are also revealed. In addition, Jia-ci can be seen as an important criterion for distinguishing the age and origin of bronzewares, due to the strong sense of time and place shown by their use. Variances can often been seen in the forms and use of words differing in the period. Using inscribed bronzes found on the Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronzewares as the focus, alongside their comparison with ancient books found, this study aims to provide a clear picture of Jia-ci in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty with proper cataloguing.;This study contains nine chapters. The first chapter would mainly elaborate the definition and origin of Jia-ci, together with a literature review on inscribed bronzes. Motive and methodology of present studies would also be mentioned. Moreover, Jia-ci are the ancients' words of praying with targets of such praying being gods and ghosts. As a result, the second chapter would provide a completely new research on the notion of providence and spirits in the early Qin Dynasty, assisted by the reference to ancient books and related materials from excavations. The third to eighth chapter would have an in-depth study of more commonly found phrases in Jia-ci according to their content types. In turn, the properties of Jia-ci in terms of forms and wordings, together with the reflected beliefs and religious ideas, would be looked into. The contents of Jia-ci in the Eastern Zhou inscribed bronzes can be primarily divided into four types, namely "the quest for health and longevity", "good fortune", "power of nation" and "peacefulness". Those belonging to "the quest for health and longevity" are chiefly "mei-shou", "wan-nian", "yong-shou", "da-shou", "wan-shou", and so on. The quest for "good fortune" includes "dou-fu", "wan-fu", "da-fu", "duo-xi", "fan-xi", and soon. Concerning "power of nation" are "jun-hui-zai-wei", "jun-ling-zai-wei", "bao-yi-X-guo", "X-bang-shi-bao", "pu-you-s i-fang". The quest for "peacefulness" involves such phrases as "kang-he", "kang-xie", "he-hao", "kang-le", "kang-shu". In these chapters, their time of emergence, rules of use, and evolutions of meanings would be respectively looked into. The ninth chapter would be a conclusion on providing a insight into such aspects as the forms, formulation of maxims, relationships with literature handed down to generations, characteristics of those in specific times, properties of those in specific regions, and cultural contents.