百年金文研究之思考——以金文所见西周门朝制度为例

Reflections on Studies of Bronze Inscriptions Over the Past Century:A Perspective on the Gate and Palace System of the Western Zhou Period

包括金文在内的古文字学是考古学的重要分支学科,百年来随着考古学的不断发展,金文研究也取得了长足进步。要充分发掘金文史料的学术价值,须注意制度先行的问题,即在传统文献构建的商周制度的框架下,讨论金文与商周史的诸问题。本文以小盂鼎、鼎为例,结合传统文献所记相关制度,讨论了二铭所反映的西周时期的"门制":小盂鼎铭文所记为宗庙献俘礼,铭文中关于"门"的记述关乎西周宗庙门制,应与门朝制度无涉;鼎所记王宫门制则印证了传统文献记载的周天子"五门三朝"的制度。通过上述二鼎铭所见西周制度与文献所记相关制度的比较,希望对金文与商周史的研究有所启益。

Study of ancient scripts(including bronze inscriptions) is an important subfield of archaeology, which has made remarkable progress over the past century. We argue that, to fully explore the significance of bronze inscriptions, we must set up the framework of Shang and Zhou regulations and rules with historical documents before we discuss the relation between bronze inscriptions and the history of Shang and Zhou dynasties. The present paper chose xiaoyu ding and hu ding for a case study and, combining the regulations and rules documented in historic records, discussed the Gate System of the Western Zhou period. Specifically, we argued that the inscriptions on xiaoyu ding recorded the offering of human sacrifices on the ancestral shrines and the gate mentioned in inscriptions was related to the gate regulations(instead of the Gate and Palace regulations) in ancestral shrines of the Western Zhou.We also proposed that the inscriptions on hu ding confirmed the validity of historic records about the Five Gates and Three Palaces regulations of the Zhou King. It is hoped that our case study of inscriptions on the two bronze ding, as well as our interpretations of the correspondence between historic records and the Western Zhou regulations, can shed light on the study of bronze inscriptions and the history of Shang and Zhou dynasties.