释“帝”

Explanations of the Meaning of the Chinese Character “帝” (the Supreme Being)

历代学者对古籍中的“帝”以及与之相关的“王”、“后”等字解释或模糊不清 ,或有明显失误 ,对古史的研究造成了很大影响。文章以殷墟甲骨文及相关文献为据 ,论证了“帝”的意义的演变过程 :殷商及其先的神本文化条件下 ,“帝”皆指神 ;其与人王以及作为人王称谓的“后”不应混为一谈。“帝”指上帝。

The explanations of the meaning of the characters “帝” (the supreme being),“王”(king),“后”(queen),etc. in the ancient books by the scholars of different times are either vague or wrong. This phenomenon creates great difficulties for the studies of Chinese earlier history. This paper, on the basis of the documents of the oracle inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, expounds and proves the changing processes of the meaning of the character “帝”. In the Shang Dynasty in which the gods held sway,“帝”referred to deities. It differed from“王”(king) or “后”(queen), which meant human beings. It is only after the Western Zhou Dynasty that “帝” began to refer to God.