晋侯穌钟与西周历法

THE JIN MARQUIS SU BELLS AND THE WESTERN ZHOU CALENDAR

一、晋侯稣钟纪年研究山西北赵晋侯墓地出土的晋侯稣钟两堵十六件,十四件曾流失海外,已由上海博物馆抢救入藏,并于近期公布。编钟十六件连铭,其中多处涉及纪年,对研究编钟时代及西周历法颇具价值。兹将钟铭释写于下:

In the present paper,the author makes a study into the dating style in the inscriptions of the Jin Marquis Su bells in the light of customary dating in bronze inscriptions.He be- lieves that the events recorded in the bell inscriptions did not happen in the same year and that the demarcating point of time recording was put between two'second months.'Accord- ing to the two time-recording principles reflected in the bell inscriptions themselves,the events recorded as happening in and before the first'second month'must be assigned to the 33rd year of a certain king's reign,Western Zhou,while those in and after the second'se- cond month,'to the 35th year of the same reign. By comparing the dated inscriptions on the Su bells with the calendric chronologies of Western Zhou Kings Liwang and Xuanwang's reigns(the chronology of Liwang's reign is taken from the Historical Records:Basic Annals of the Zhou)which the bell inscriptions may exclusively belong to,the author discovers that the bell inscriptions can contain two time- recording styles for the Zhou calendar,the one that corresponds to the chronology of Liwang's reign is the theory quadrisecting the lunar month,and the other one corresponding to the chronology of Xuanwan's reign is a sort of principle combining points and periods of time. A correlation of the inscriptions on the bronzes definitely-datable to Western Zhou Kings Liwang and Xuanwang's reigns with the calendric chronologies of the two reigns is made on the basis of the theory quadrisecting the lunar month.The results show that not on- ly the bronze inscriptions of Liwang's reign do not correspond to those of the Su bells,but even those of Xuanwang's reign are commonly contradictory to the theory quadrisecting the lunar month.It seggests that this theory was not the real contents of the Western Zhou ca- lendar.In other words,only the principle combining points and periods of time was the real time-recording style of the Su bell inscriptions. The above results provide a precise proof for dating the Jin Marquis Su bells to the Western Zhou Xuanwang's reign.Moreover,this conception is strengthened by analysing the internal evidence contained in the bell inscriptions themselves and related information de- rived from the Jin State ruler's genealogy. Finally,the author reconstructs two time-recording systems prevailing in the Western Zhou in the light of the Su bells and related dated bronzes,i.e.the system of auspicious days and that of lunar phases.The former had nothing to do with the calendar.For exam- ple,chuji(初吉)was not a term concerning the lunar phase,but meant an auspicious day people selected for certain business;it could occur in any position of a month.The latter was the basic contents of the Western Zhou calendar and had a series of time-recording terms, which,as known through the author's study of documentary records,bore specific meanings of their own:jisipo(既死霸)meant the day shuo(朔),the first day of a lunar month; pangsipo(旁死霸),the second day of a 30-day lunar month;Zaishengpo(哉死霸),the day fei(朏),the first day when the crescent began to be seen(generally the second day of a 29- day lunar month or the third day of a 30-day lunar month);jishengpo(既生霸)covered the first half of a lunar month from the day next to fei to the day wang(望),the 15th day of a lunar month;and jiwang(既望),the second half of a lunar month from the day next to wang to the day hui(晦),the last day of a lunar month.Thus the system combined three days as calendric points and two periods and can be called time-recording principle with points and periods.