The fact that Chinese characters are commonly used by the Chinese nation is obviously gradually formed with the development of Chinese civilization. Therefore, the research on the origin of Chinese characters must not be simply understood as referring only to the research on the origin of Chinese characters. In other words, when discussing the origin of Chinese characters, we should not only pay attention to the origin of Chinese characters, but also the origin of non-Chinese characters used by ancient ancestors living in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins. With the accumulation of archaeological data, the multi-source characteristics of the origin of Chinese characters have become increasingly clear.
The first purpose of ancestors creating writing was to realize communication and communication between humans and gods or between humans. Therefore, writing is a symbol for recording language. Analyzing from the common characteristics of early human writing, The creation of words originated from pictograms, which is actually the basic condition for people to establish that humans and gods have the same understanding standards and cognitive connotations for the meaning of words. Therefore, before we have the ability to unambiguously identify a writing system, any independent symbols that do not have the meaning of written language will not be helpful in self-identifying whether they have the function of recording language; at the same time, those symbols that cannot fully reflect the structure Symbols with similar pictographic characteristics cannot prove that they are works consciously created to express certain relatively complex concepts. Obviously, these written documents are not sufficient to indicate that they must be written in nature. In this sense, the Chinese character system represented by the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin and Shang Dynasties is undoubtedly a very mature script. Not only does this writing system have a very considerable number of single characters (1), but it also generally adopts the method of creating characters using picophonetic characters. , thus indicating that it must have gone through a long process of formation and development. Therefore, tracing the origin of ancient Chinese characters before oracle bone inscriptions has always been a hot issue of academic concern.
The oracle bone inscriptions discovered in the Yin Ruins date from the late Shang Dynasty from the 13th century BC to the 11th century BC, but this is obviously not the time when this type of writing was used. According to the traditional periodization results of oracle bone inscriptions, although the Yin kings included in the first period included Pan Geng, Xiao Xin, Xiao Yi, and Wu Ding, the number of oracle bone inscriptions that can truly be determined to be before Wu Ding is very small. Although scholars have spared no effort This issue has been explored extensively (2), but with the few data provided, it is still difficult to obtain complete knowledge of its era. Of course, this does not mean that Wu Ding had no writing before. The unearthing of new information and the innovation of research methods may greatly change the old understanding.
Although the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, which are earlier than the Yin Xu period, have been found sporadically in Erligang and other sites in Zhengzhou since the 1950s (3), they belong to the bronze inscriptions and pottery before Wuding. The writing can basically be confirmed (4), but the Zhu script found on pottery from the mid-Shang Dynasty site of Xiaoshuangqiao in Zhengzhou, Henan is obviously more meaningful for tracing the origin of Chinese characters. These characters are either written with a single character, or with numbers coexisting. The identifiable characters include "Yin", "天", "?" and other characters (Figure 1). The era is about the 15th century BC (5). It clearly belongs to the same system, and its era is earlier than that of the Yin Ruins Oracle Bone Inscriptions.
It is certainly certain that the Zhu script in Xiaoshuangqiao is not the most original Chinese character. The two characters "文□" in Zhu script have been found on pottery back pots from the Taosi Culture of about the 21st century BC. The characters (Figure 2) (6) also belong to the same system of characters as oracle bone inscriptions. The meaning of "文□" seems to be related to Yu's name "Wen Ming" (7), which means that the Chinese character system represented by the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty was actually developed on the basis of inheriting the characters of the Xia Dynasty (8), these latest Handbags, this fact can be clearly traced through the relevant written materials from the Yin Ruins to Taosi culture.
Admittedly, the current archaeological data are not enough to provide a basis for us to find the origin of Xia Dynasty writing. Although the fact that Chinese characters originated from pictograms has led scholars to believe that the painted pottery images of the Yangshao Culture may reflect the original form of early Chinese characters. (9), but the method of creating characters based on pictograms is not unique to Chinese characters (10). Of course, this comparison still has positive value if analyzed from the perspective of cultural geography and archaeological cultural features as a cultural background for the formation of writing.
Another type of writing that coexists with the writings of the Xia Dynasty obviously does not belong to the Chinese character system. One of the important physical evidences is the pottery inscriptions belonging to the Longshan period discovered at the Dinggong site in Zouping, Shandong (11).
The pottery inscription was carved on the large flat-bottomed basin with a sharp tool, and there are still 11 characters left (Figure 3). The date is about the 21st century BC.
Because the glyph structure of Ding Gong pottery inscriptions is obviously different from the Chinese character system represented by oracle bone inscriptions, and is almost the same as ancient Yi scripts, it belongs to ancient Yi scripts (12). We have discussed the interpretation of its text in detail (13). The 11 words from top to bottom, from right to left, are translated into Chinese as: "Charming divination, praying for Apudu, reporting. Good luck, a hundred chickens crutching their claws..." The nature of the divination is to attract the protection of ancestors, drive away evil spirits and seek good luck. Among them, "enchantment divination" means divination of evil spirits (14), and "enchantment" is the object of divination, which means divination for evil ghosts and other evils. "Apuduqi" means praying for Apdu, and "Apudu" is the ancestor of the Yi people after the flood. "Gao" is the name of the sacrifice. "Ji Chang" means long good luck, just like "Yin Ji" mentioned in Yin Bu Ci. "Hundred chickens and claws" means divination using chicken bones, which is a traditional divination form of the Yi people. The pottery inscription reflects the ritual of Baijie Sacrifice of the Yi people to cure diseases and eliminate evil spirits.
The Yi people call themselves ni, which is an ancient name and translated into Chinese as "Yi". The word has the same origin as the ancient Yi character "人", with "人" as the original character and "Yi" as the subsequent character. Moreover, the ancient Yi character "人" was originally the name of the ancestor of the Yi people, so the clan name of the Yi people actually comes from the name of the ancestor, that is, the Yi people use the name of the ancestor as their clan name (15). Comparing this fact with the historical facts of the Yin-Yi victory reflected in oracle bone inscriptions will obviously help us sort out the origins of Yi history. The Yin people called Fang Bo "Renfang" after Fang Bo who lived in the Haidai area at that time, which coincided with the Yi people's clan name and location. These facts not only confirm that the Ding Gong pottery inscriptions belong to the ancient Yi writing system, but also directly involve the understanding of the ancestors who were distributed or partially distributed in the Haidai area during the Neolithic Age and even the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
We once discussed the Xiaoheyan Culture and Dawenkou Culture distributed from eastern Inner Mongolia to Shandong, Jiangsu, Hunan and Jiangxi through the study of a special octagonal figure created by the ancestors of the Neolithic Age. , Majiabang Culture, Songze Culture, Liangzhu Culture and Daxi Culture (16), this vast area that runs through the northeast and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River was once called by scholars the "half-moon cultural spread in the border areas" "With" (17), its cultural appearance indeed shows a great difference from the primitive culture represented by the Yangshao culture in the west. These cultures are the cultural matrix that gave birth to the Yi script that is independent of the Xia script (18).
When we use the Taihang Mountains as a boundary to compare the archaeological cultures distributed in the east and west regions, I believe that the macro differences between them will be recognized by everyone. This kind of culture The differences are obviously more meaningful if considered in connection with different ethnic groups, and the formation of different cultures should have laid the fertile ground for the creation and production of two different characters, Yi and Xia. Obviously, if we have no reason to trace the origins of Yi and Xia cultures back earlier, then at least to the late Neolithic Age, it would be prudent to reconstruct the history of this period based on the ancient history of Yi and Xia. and objective approach (19). At the same time, this concept is inevitably related to our thinking on the interpretation method of texts unearthed from relevant archaeological cultures. Of course, for the elucidation of such an important issue, the discovery of new ancient Yi materials and the accumulation of text interpretation results are crucial.
The Neolithic remains of Jiahu in Wuyang, Henan are a primitive culture dating from 9000 to 7800 years ago. Although the characteristics of its pottery are very close to those of the Peiligang culture, the custom of using turtles and tusks for divination in burials is different from Dawenkou Culture is similar to Xuejiagang Culture. As for its rice farming, it is more consistent with the Neolithic culture in the Yangtze-Huaihe River Basin, but it is not found in the Yellow River Basin, which shows its close connection with Dongfang Yi culture. It is worth noting that three inscriptions were found on the three tortoise shells unearthed from the Jiahu site. One of the complete tortoise shells (M344?18) had the inscriptions in the shape of “ ” (Figure 4) (20) , similar to the word "mu" in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin and Shang Dynasties. This glyph not only has a complete pictographic structure, but also appeared on the Liangzhu cultural relics thousands of years later. This symbol that exists in different times and places but has an unchanged structure has shown its transcendental and spatial characteristics. The characteristics of the stereotyped writing of the supra-dialect should be distinguishable from simple note-taking symbols. But the problem is, if we use oracle bone inscriptions as the standard to interpret this character as "mu", although there is not much problem with the glyph shape, why did the ancients only use the word "mu" to inscribe on the tortoise shells for divination? What is its purpose? But it seems difficult to explain. Moreover, similar characters can also be found on jade bis from the Liangzhu Culture (Fig. 5) (21). As a jade bi as a gift to heaven, it is even more difficult to understand why the word "mu" is engraved on the jade bis.
However, when we use ancient Yi script as the standard of interpretation to interpret this text, the question can be easily solved. Because the ancient Yi character "吉" is completely consistent with the shape of the eye glyph on the Jiahu tortoise shell, the word is pronounced as v, which is very close to the ancient pronunciation of the Chinese character "目", proving that the original meaning of the ancient Yi character "吉" is The hieroglyphs of eyes are used to indicate good or bad luck, and the word "吉" is inscribed on tortoise shells used for divination and jade bis used for worshiping heaven, which is very reasonable. Therefore, according to the ancient Yi language, the inscriptions on the Jiahu tortoise shell and the Liangzhu culture jade are interpreted as "吉", which has a clear meaning.
There are four symbols (22) engraved on the outside of the pottery pots unearthed from the Liangzhu Cultural Site in Qingdun, Hai'an, Jiangsu. Among them, the special octagonal image on the left is a symbol of the Bagua and the Nine Palaces. The Yi language refers to the Bagua as octagonal. This issue has been discussed in detail (23). There are three characters on the right side of the octagonal image (Figure 6). The first character is shaped like an ax and axe. This character was first seen in Tao Zun of the Dawenkou Culture (Figure 7) (24), and later in the Warring States Bashu Culture bronze inscriptions. The basin (25) has the same glyph structure. The characters with the same glyph are read as ndzo in ancient Yi language, which means leader. This of course provides us with an opportunity to discuss the original meaning of the word creation, because the word "王" in the oracle bone inscriptions comes from the image of the ax and ceremonial guard as a symbol of royal power (26), and the ancient Yi words expressing leaders or chiefs also happen to reproduce This characteristic. This character is found in pottery statues of the Dawenkou Culture, and it seems to have the same meaning as the character "Yin" written alone on the Xiaoshuangqiao pottery in Zhengzhou, because the meaning of the character "Yin" in oracle bone inscriptions can sometimes be understood as "Jun" (27). There is no doubt that the identical origins of the shapes of the two characters for king in Yi and Xia not only reflect the different understandings of the symbol of power by different ethnic groups, but also reflect the close connection between the two cultures. In fact, if the ancient Yi leader or leader can have the same meaning as the Chinese character "王", then it will help us think about the history of the political transformation from "emperor" to "king" in early Chinese civilization.
Using ancient Yi script to interpret the above written materials can not only provide a satisfactory explanation of the text itself, but also provide a reasonable explanation of the relationship between the text and its carrier. This fully proves that the Yi script system represented by Ding Gong Tao script is an ancient script that coexists with Xia script (28).
While the Yi characters in the East and the Xia characters in the West were popular, a simple symbol for recording events was common in the Yi-Xia region. These symbols are basically engraved on pottery, and a piece of pottery often has only one symbol engraved on it. The number of pottery symbols is much richer than the early written materials we have the opportunity to discuss, and thus it has become the basic material for scholars to explore the origin of Chinese writing, or to be precise, the origin of Chinese characters for a long time. They believe that these engraved symbols are the stage of the origin of writing. The resulting simple characters may be relics of original Chinese characters (29), and even put forward the "dual" argument that Chinese characters are derived from referring to things and pictograms (30). In fact, this type of pottery symbols are both structurally similar to The Xia script is also different from the Yi script. In terms of popularity, it started from the Neolithic Age and continued to the Warring States Period when Chinese characters were widely used. The phenomenon of the coexistence of pottery symbols and Chinese characters is enough to show that this kind of pottery symbols, which have long been suspected by scholars as writing, are actually strictly different from Chinese characters. As for their relationship with ancient Yi characters, they have yet to be studied. Scholars may distinguish such early pottery symbols from pottery inscriptions and point out that they are not Chinese characters (31), which is a profound insight.
Just as archaeological research must first distinguish between different archaeological cultures, research on the origin of Chinese characters cannot separate characters from the culture to which they belong. Different archaeological cultures may reflect the diversity of ancient ethnic groups, which actually determines the multi-source origin of writing. Archaeological evidence shows that China’s unified political structure had not yet formed during the Three Dynasties and before. This means that people’s long-term habit of using Yin and Shang oracle bone inscriptions as the only means of interpreting early texts needs to be re-examined, because this is tantamount to admitting that oracle bone inscriptions are the The writing system represented was the only writing system popular in early society. Obviously, the discovery of pottery inscriptions from the Dinggong Longshan period in Shandong has made us realize that the issue of the origin of writing cannot be so simple. Whether the study of the origin of Chinese writing can break away from the shackles of the concept of "grand unification" is a question that we must think carefully about. . In fact, only by breaking away from the traditional stereotype of the unification of Chinese characters and discussing the original historical materials that can be used to study the origin of characters in the context of different archaeological cultures can we obtain objective conclusions.
The unearthing of the Dinggong pottery inscriptions provides an important opportunity for the study of the origin of Chinese characters. This is not only because the pottery inscriptions appear in groups, thus clearly demonstrating their function of recording language. This is of course in conjunction with the large number of independently inscribed inscriptions on the pottery. Symbols form an essential difference. At the same time, more importantly, the shape of pottery inscriptions is completely different from the Chinese character system represented by oracle bone inscriptions. This means that if we can correctly interpret this kind of writing, then we may have an understanding of early China. Gain new understanding of the development of writing, and then establish standards for research and judgment on the origin of writing that are similar or different from the known oracle bone inscription system, and find correct research methods.
We have pointed out that the Zhu script of the Taosi Culture clearly shows that it belongs to the same system of writing as the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, so it should undoubtedly be the direct ancestor of the Chinese characters represented by the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty. The fact that Shanxi Taosi cultural characters coexist with Shandong Dinggong Longshan Period characters has clearly proved that the origin of Chinese characters has at least two independent systems (Bashu characters may belong to another new system), namely, Shandong Dinggong The Eastern Yi (Yi) writing system is represented by the writings of the Longshan period, and the Western Xia writing system is represented by the writings of the Taosi culture of Shanxi. Later, the Yin Dynasty inherited the Xia system, and the Zhou Dynasty inherited the Yin system. With the strong political power of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Xia script gradually became the orthodox script of the Chinese nation and developed strongly. As for the Yi culture, as the Shang and Zhou peoples continued to attack Dongyi, Huaiyi, Nanhuaiyi, and Nanyi, they either merged or migrated south, and their characters eventually became the characters used by the Yi people who stayed in a corner and spread. . These facts clearly show that in the process of realizing the ideals of political expansion and royal unification, writing served as the most important tool for civil enlightenment.
Notes:
(1) According to the latest statistics from scholars, the number of single characters in oracle bone inscriptions is nearly 4,100, and including variant characters, there are more than 6,000. See Shen Jianhua and Cao Jinyan: "New General List of Oracle Bone Inscriptions", Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2001.
(2) Hu Houxuan: "The Preface to the Survival of Oracle Bones", Qunlian Publishing House, 1955; Liu Yiman, Guo Zhenlu, Wen Mingrong: "Archaeological Excavation and Dating of Oracle Inscriptions", "Archaeology" 1986, Vol. Issue 6; Peng Yushang: "Dating the Oracle Bones of the Yin Ruins", China Social Sciences Press, 1994; Cao Dingyun: "Field Excavations of the Yin Ruins and Dating the Oracle Bones", "Archaeology Collection" Volume 15, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2004; China Anyang Working Team of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences: "Report on the Excavation of the Huayuanzhuang East Area of ??Huanbei Mall, Anyang from 1998 to 1999", Volume 15 of "Archaeology Collection", Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2004.
(3) Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau Cultural Relics Working Team: "Erligang, Zhengzhou", page 38, Illustrated Supplement, 6, Science Press, 1959; Pei Mingxiang: "A Brief Talk about the Shang Dynasty in Zhengzhou "Early Bone Inscriptions", "Proceedings of the National Academic Symposium on Business History", Supplement to the Yindu Academic Journal, 1985; "New Discovery and Research on the Archeology of Zhengzhou Mall", Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House, 1993.
(4) Cao Shuqin: "A Preliminary Study on Inscribed Bronze Wares in the Middle Shang Dynasty", "Archaeology" Issue 3, 1988; Liu Yiman: "Research on the Pottery Inscriptions of the Yin Ruins", "Celebrating the 55th Anniversary of Su Bingqi's Archeology" "Proceedings of the Year", mans briefcase, Cultural Relics Press, 1989; Institute of Archeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: "Discovery and Research of Yin Ruins", Science Press, 1994.
(5) Song Guoding: "Inscriptions on pottery unearthed from the Xiaoshuangqiao site in Zhengzhou", "Cultural Relics" Issue 5, 2003.
(6) "It is too early to determine whether the Taosi building foundation is a city site", "Guangming Daily", page A3, June 14, 2000; Liang Xingpeng: "Rammed earth remains found at the Taosi site", "Chinese Cultural Relics" Daily News, July 16, 2000, page 1.
(7) Feng Shi: "Xia Shekao", paper of the International Symposium on Chinese Archeology and World Archeology in the 21st Century, August 2000, Beijing; included in "Chinese Archeology and the World in the 21st Century" Archeology", China Social Sciences Press, 2002.
(8) Feng Shi: "The Origin of Writing and the East and West of Yixia", "Newsletter of the Ancient Civilization Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences" Issue 3, 2002.
(9) Guo Moruo: "The Dialectical Development of Ancient Writing", "Acta Archeology", Issue 1, 1972; Li Xiaoding: "The Origin and Evolution of Chinese Writing" (Parts 1 and 2), "Central "Journal of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica" No. 45, 2nd and 3rd points, 1974; "Revisiting the Origin of Prehistoric Pottery Inscriptions and Chinese Characters", "Journal of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica", No. 50, 3rd point , 1979.
(10) Ancient Yi and Naxi scripts are also derived from pictograms.
(11) Archeology Major of the History Department of Shandong University: "Brief Report on the Fourth and Fifth Excavations of the Dinggong Site in Zouping, Shandong", "Archaeology" Issue 4, 1993.
(12) Feng Shi: "Pottery Inscriptions and Ancient Yi Inscriptions of the Longshan Period", "Cultural Relics and Archaeology" of "Guangming Daily" on June 6, 1993.
(13) Feng Shi: "Interpretation of Texts from the Longshan Period of Dinggong, Shandong", "Archaeology" Issue 1, 1994.
(14) Yi language grammar has only one form in which the object is placed before the verb. The same below.
(15) The traditional literature of the Yi people always refers to themselves as "Yi". After the founding of the People's Republic of China, they misunderstood that "Yi" had a discriminatory meaning and changed it to "Yi". However, the Yi people still have objections to this change of ethnic name.
(16) Feng Shi: "Prehistoric Octagonal Patterns and Ancient Celestial Numbers", "Archaeological Knowledge Collection", China Social Sciences Press, 1997; "Chinese Astronomy and Archaeology" Chapter 8, Section 2 , Social Sciences Literature Press, 2001.
(17) Tong Enzheng: "On the half-moon cultural transmission belt in my country's border areas from the northeast to the southwest", "Collection of Cultural Relics and Archeology", Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1987.
(18) Feng Shi: "The Origin of Writing and the East and West of the Yixia", "Newsletter of the Ancient Literature Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences" Issue 3, 2002.
(19) Fu Sinian: "Yi Xia Theory of East and West", Volume 2 of "Collected Essays in Celebration of Mr. Cai Yuanpei's Sixty-five Years Old", edited by the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 1935.
(20) Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology: "Wuyang Jiahu" Volume 1, Science Press, 1999.
(21) Deng Shuping: "Mysterious Symbols on Chinese Neolithic Jade Artifacts", "Forbidden City Academic Quarterly", Volume 10, Issue 3, 1993.
(22) Zhang Minghua, Wang Huiju: "Pottery Inscriptions from the Neolithic Age in Taihu Area", "Archaeology" Issue 10, 1990.
(23) Feng Shi: "Prehistoric Octagonal Patterns and Ancient Celestial Numbers", "Archaeological Knowledge Collection", China Social Sciences Press, 1997; "Chinese Astronomy and Archeology" Chapter 8, Section 2 , Social Sciences Literature Press, 2001.
(24) Gao Ming: "Ancient Pottery Inscriptions", Zhonghua Book Company, 2004.
(25) Sichuan Provincial Cultural Administration Commission, Ya'an District Cultural Administration Office, and Baoxing County Cultural Administration Office: "Excavation Report of the Stone Tombs in the Warring States Pit in Hanta Mountain, Baoxing, Sichuan", "Acta Archeology" 1999 Issue 3 of the year.
(26) Lin?: "Speaking of "King"", "Archaeology" Issue 6, 1965.
(27) Li Xueqin: "Shi Duojun and Duozi", "Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the History of Yin and Shang Dynasties", Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1983.
(28) The collection and research of ancient Yi materials will be discussed in another article.
(29) Guo Moruo: "The Dialectical Development of Ancient Writings", "Acta Archeology", Issue 1, 1972; Yu Shengwu: "Some Issues Concerning the Study of Ancient Writings", "Archaeology", Issue 2, 1973 Expect.
(30) Yang Jianfang: "The Dual Theory of the Origin of Chinese Characters", "Chinese Language Studies" third series, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1981.
(31) Gao Ming: "On Tao Fu and the Origin of Chinese Characters", "Journal of Peking University", Issue 6, 1984.