周原庙祭甲骨与“文王受命”公案

The Debate on the Oracle Bone Inscriptions at Zhouyuan and King Wens Mandate of Heaven

周原庙祭甲骨属性及其与商末政局变化的关系,是先秦史学界的一桩公案。诸多因素表明,周原庙祭甲骨应属周文王时期刻辞。文王在周原地区建立殷先王宗庙,并对商先王进行祭告,是"商室少卑,周实继之"背景下,周人力图证明天命转移的一种形式。为寻找"代商"的天命依据,周人不仅"扬梦以说众",而且通过卜筮等形式祈告上天和殷先王,以便获得"天命转移"的合法性。周原庙祭甲骨刻辞,是文王为验证天命问卜而"受殷王嗣位之命"的重要物证。

The nature of the oracle bones unearthed at Zhouyuan and their relationship to the political changes of the later years of the Shang dynasty remains an unsettled issue among pre-Qin historians.Many factors indicate that the oracle bone inscriptions were made at the time of King Wen of Zhou.The king built an Ancestral Temple to the Yin (Shang)in the Zhouyuan area , sacrificing to the former kings and reporting to them.These acts were one of the forms the Zhou used to demonstrate that the mandate of Heaven had been transferred to them , becausethe Shang were degenerate so they were succeeded by the Zhou'.To find evidence for this view , the Zhou not onlyconvinced the people through oneiromancy , ' but also made sacrifices and reported to Heaven and the ancestral kings of the Shang dynasty through divination , shamanism and other means , in order to legitimate the notion ofthe transfer of the mandate of Heaven'. The oracle bone inscriptions from Zhouyuan are important material evidence for King Wens use of divination to prove he had the mandate of Heaven toreplace the king of Yin'.