带钩概论

A GENERAL SURVEY OF ANCIENT CHINESE BELT HOOKS

一、序言关于带钩的研究,大概从东汉和魏晋时代就已经开始了。如王逸注《楚辞》之"鲜卑"、鱼豢和张勃解"钩络带",还有高诱注《淮南子·主术训》之"鵕(寿鸟)"等。

The belt hooks of ancient China unearthed in excavations are very much varied in form,but they can roughly be divided into eight types,the chief ones among which are in the formsof water birds,animal heads,spades,curved bars and pipa that have been unearthed in largenumber.Each type of these belt looks had its definite age and definite region of distribu.tion.The number of belt hooks unearthed in the middle reaches of the Huanghe River is thegreateat,with those unearth in Hunan,Hubei,Guangdong,Guangxi and southwestern Chinacoming next.Only a small number of them have been unearthed in northern and easternChina.The history of ancient Chinese belt hooks also underwent the cycle of the four periods:beginning (from the middle Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States period),boom (during the middle and late Warring States Period),popularization (during the Qinand Han Dynasties) and decline (during the Wei and Jin Dynasties.).They were in voguefor about six centuries.From the last days of the Eastern Han Dynasty onward they weregradually replaced by buckles.The belt hooks originated in the middle reaches of the Huanghe River as early as theearly period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and was not introduced from the northern nomadictribes in the middle stage of the Warring States period as generally believed.Chinese an-cient belt hooks are different from Skythian ones and the two have no relationship whatsoeverin their origins.Two primitive types of the belt hook have been unearthed in China proper and its typical for was basically standardized in the middle stage of the Spring and Autumnperiod at the latest.The belt hook spread gradually from the central Shaaxi Plain and theCentral Plains outwards in all directions.It reached the Sichuan Basin in middle stage of theWarring Sates perior,the Guangdong and Guangxi regions in the late stage of this period,theYunnan-Guizhou Plateau in the Western Han Dynasty and beyond the Yumen Pass in theEastern Han Dynasty.Its scope of distribution became greatly reduced after the Wei andJin Dynasties.Belt hooks were once called 'xianbei' (Sienpi——name of ancient nationality of NorthChina) or 'xibi' (a varied form of xianbei) and the belt to which they are attached as afasterner were called 'xianbei guoluo belt'.But in fact 'guoluo belt' means 'hook-fasten-ed belt' and 'xianbei' means belt buckle ('hinge joint'),Both in extant document and inthe slips unearthed so far belt hooks are referred to as 'gou' (hook) or 'dai gou' (belthook) and they must not be confused with the terms 'xianbei','xibi' and 'shibi'.In addition to its use for tying belts,the hook was also used for wearing implementsand ornaments.Of course its size varied,to a certain extent with the change of its use.Alarge hook was used with a tying belt and a small one for wearing ornaments or small im-plements.