金文字体与铜器断代

PALEOGRAPHY AS A CRITERION OF DATING OF WESTERN ZHOU BRONZE VESSELS INSCRIPITIONS

A considerable progress has been made during recent years in the field of elaboration of reliable typological technique of dating of Western Zhou bronze vessels inscriptions.Nevertheless,some problems of methodological nature still exist,causing discrepancies in opinions by individual authors as regards quite a number of vessels.To provide just one example,in the early 30ies of the last century Guo Moruo considered a group of inscriptions(including those by Ling令)to be specimen of Cheng Wang’s time,while Tang Lan maintained the opinion that those belong to the reign of Zhao Wang.Strange enough,the discussion opened more than 70 years age is still going on.One of the obvious reasons of this situation is the fact that experts have paid little attention to the important criterion of paleography.As a result of thorough investigation of 500 selected incriptions of Western and Early Eastern Zhou,the present author established a sequence of chronological variants of 12 key graphs.This can be used as a basis for comparison with other typological criteria of dating bronze vessels.Examination of inscriptions from the point of view of paleographic regularities revealed fatal mistakes in the interpretation of calendar dates proposed in the brief report on the results of "The Xia Shang Zhou Chronology Project"(夏商周断代工程成果报告),which claimed the interpretation to be founded on typological grounds but completely ignored paleographic criterion and even tried to overcome difficulties by modifying original texts.

A considerable progress has been made during recent years in the tield ot elaboration oi reliable typological technique of dating of Western Zhou bronze vessels inscriptions. Nevertheless, some problems of methodological nature still exist, causing discrepancies in opinions by individual authors as regards quite a number of vessels. To provide just one example, in the early 30ies of the last century Guo Moruo considered a group of inscriptions （including those by Ling 令） to be specimen of Cheng Wang＇s time, while Tang Lan maintained the opinion that those belong to the reign of Zhao Wang. Strange enough, the discussion opened more than 70 years age is still going on. One of the obvious reasons of this situation is the fact that experts have paid little attention to the important criterion of paleography. As a result of thorough investigation of 500 selected incriptions of Western and Early Eastern Zhou, the present author established a sequence of chronological variants of 12 key graphs. This can be used as a basis for comparison with other typological criteria of dating bronze vessels. Examination of inscriptions from the point of view of paleographic regularities revealed fatal mistakes in the interpretation of calendar dates proposed in the brief report on the results of ＂The Xia Shang Zhou Chronology Project＂（夏商周断代工程成果报告）, which claimed the interpretation to be founded on typological grounds but completely ignored paleographic criterion and even tried to overcome difficulties by modifying original texts.