我国西南地区青铜剑的研究

THE BRONZE DAGGERS OF SOUTHWESTERN CHINA

我国西南地区古代各民族使用青铜剑的时代,就现有资料而言,大约是从春秋以至西汉中期。由于它延续的时期较长,富于地方特点,类型复杂,形制多变,长期以来,引起了人们的注意。解放以前,西南地区的青铜剑虽有少量出土,但大多被封建文人深藏密室。

The bronze dagger was used by the various nationalites of Southwestern China from about the Spring and Autumn period to the middle of the Western Han Dynasty. Its shape often varied from one region to another, with many local characteristics and a great diversity in form and decoration. A comprehensive study of all the bronze daggers unearthed in Southwestern China since liberation in the light of historical data gleaned from literary sources will throw much new light on the migration of various nationalities in this part of China in ancient times, as well as on their class relations and cultural contacts with other peoples of the time. On the basis of their shapes, the bronze daggers of Southwestern China may be divided into two groups whose dates and distribution correspounded roughly to the Pa and Shu peoples and the Hsi Nan Yi (Southwestern Tribes) of literary sources. For this reason they are discussed in this paper under the headings of Pa-Shu Group and Hsi Nan Yi Group respectively. The bronze daggers of the Pa-Shu Group (Type A) were mostly unearthed in Szechuan and derived largely from the flat-hilt sword of the Central Plain with little change in shape. This was probably due to the fact that as early as the Yin and Chou dynasties the Pa and Shu peoples had already come into close contact with the Central Plain. The bronze daggers of the Hsi Nan Yi Group can be further divided into two subgroups: Type B and Type C. The former was mostly found in the vicinity of the Tien-ch'ih Lake, extending to central Kweichow in the east and Hsi-ch'ang and Liangshan regions in the north. It was roughly within this crescent-shaped area that the Yeh-lang, Tien and Ch'iung-tu Tribes were known to have been active during the Western Han. The fact that the bronze daggers unearthed within this area belong mostly to Type B also attests to their cultural affinity with one another. Type C was centred around the Erh Hai Lake region, spreading into Kan-tzǔ and Apa in the north and the Lake Tien Ch'ih area in the east. Prior to middle Western Han, the vicinity of the Erh Hai Lake was mostly inhabited by the nomadic Shui and Kunming Tribes. Judging by the geographical distribution and date of Type C daggers as well as by the fact of their bearing some characteristic feactures of the bronze daggers of the inhabitants of the northern steppes, they probably belonged to the Shui and Kunming Tribes.