“殷”名号起源考

Study on the Origin of the Name "Yin

甲骨文中用作地名或国名的“衣”字，本为东夷族称的转化字，商代末年周人称商为“衣”，实际是指商人为夷人。入周以后，周人仍多称商为“衣”，又或称为“殷”，“衣”、“殷”名异而实同。“殷”名号的通行大约始于周康王时。旧说商又称殷起于“盘庚迁殷”是没有根据的，以商都为“殷”亦出于周人的习称。

In inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells,the character Yi (clothes),which is often found in the names of places or states, originally, is a changed form from the character which indicates Dongyi people. In the latter period of shang Dynasty,people of Zhou State called Shang Dynasty as Yi,thus came the indication of people of shang Dynasty as Dongyi people. Then in Zhou Dynasty, the former Shang Dynasty was still called as Yi, or sometimes as Yin,Yi and Yin are two different characters but of the same literal meaning. Under the reign of monarch Kang of Zhou Dynesty, Yin became more popular,so it was people's customary calling the capital of shang Dynasty as Yin And there is no basis for the statement that Shang Dynasty was called as Yin came from the story 'That Monarch Pangeng moved the capital city of Shang Dynasty to Yin city'.