甲骨文所见殷人空间观念

Space Concept of Yin People Reflected in Oracle Bone Inscriptions

甲骨文字构造反映了殷人地理认知方面的空间观念,包括空间方位界定、疆域意识及层级结构划分。甲骨文里有东西南北中的方位概念,其明确的四方观可由大量东西南北四方之辞验证,八方观念可能已经出现并用于指称地理空间,但其使用不多,表述尚未定型。殷人方位辨称还有左、右、上、下、内、外等。殷人具有不同范围等次的空间视野,除了方位,尚有疆域与结构的空间观念,如田、邦、封、对等表界划,圉、囿、邑、啚等表区域,奠、戈、郊、牧、野、林、冂等表结构。以甲骨文字表述商代疆域的层级结构为:王邑外谓之郊鄙,郊鄙外谓之奠牧,奠牧外谓之邦方,邦方外谓之四戈。

The structure of oracle bone inscriptions reflected the space concept of Yin people in their geographycognition, including the definition of dimensional orientation, sense of territory, and division of hierarchical struc-ture. There are already the concepts of orientation such as east, west, south, north and center in oracle bone in-scriptions ,and the specific idea of four directions can be proved by the large number of words of east, west, south,and north. The idea of eight directions may have appeared and been used to point to geographical space, but its us-age is few and the expression is not got into shape. The orientation concepts of Yin people also included left, right,up, down, inside and outside etc. Yin people have the horizon of space in different levels, and besides the orienta-tion ,they also have the space concept of territory and structure, for example, the words 田（ tian ） ,邦 （ bang） ,封（feng ）, 对（ dui） are supposed to show the boundary; the words 圉（ yu ） 、囿（ you ） 、邑（ yi ）、最 （ bi） show the are-as; and the words 奠（ dian）、戈（ g e ）、郊（ j iao ）、牧（ m u ）、野（ ye ）、林（ lin ）、门（ jiong） show the structures. Thehierarchical structure of territory in Shang dynasty, which were indicated by oracle bone inscriptions, can be divid-ed in the following order; Out of Wangyi it is Jiaobi, out of Jiaobi it is Dianmu, out of Dianmu it is Bangfang, andout of Bangfang it is Sige.