试说花东氏族所用卜甲的来源

On the Origin of Tortoiseshell Used by the Huadong Clan

花东氏族占卜所用龟甲,其上有一些记事刻辞,这些刻辞有的明确记载了贡献此龟甲的邦族,如屰、■、疾、宁、庚、史、周等。这些贡献龟甲者或为商王朝之大臣,或是与商王朝有关系的邦族,但均与花东氏族无直接联系,由此可以推测这些龟甲当来源自商王朝的收存。这就为花东氏族与王朝关系的密切提供了一个旁证。花东氏族虽然没有进献龟甲和卜骨给商王朝,但却因其与王室关系密切而可以取用商王朝所收存的龟甲,对于说明花东氏族族长“子”的身份也有一定的参考价值。

The tortoiseshells used by the Huadong clan for divination have some memorizing words on them,some of which clearly record the state which contributed the tortoiseshells,such as Ni,Ji,Ning,Geng,Shi,Zhou and so on.These people who contributed tortoiseshells were either ministers of Shang dynasty or states related to the Shang dynasty.They were not directly related to the Huadong clan,so it can be inferred that these tortoiseshells must have come from the collection of the Shang dynasty.This provides a circumstantial evidence for the close relationship between Huadong clan and Shang dynasty.Although the Huadong clan did not donate tortoiseshells and bones to the Shang dynasty,they could use the tortoiseshelles collected by the Shang dynasty because of their close relationship with the royal family,which also had a certain reference value for explaining the identity of the chief“son”of the Huadong clan.