甲骨文所揭示的殷人的光学知识

Yin Dynasty's optical knowledge from bone-shell inscriptions

甲骨文是《墨经》之前含有丰富光学内容的文献资料 ,从其造字的方法 ,对甲骨文中有关光学现象的词类进行分析 ,推知殷人对光的现象已有较多的认识 ,从而将中国光学史从墨子时代推到甲骨文一期的时代 ,向前推进了约八、九百年。

Bone-shell inscriptions, a pre-Mojing (classics of Mohism) writing, contain abundant and valuable optical knowledge. The cognition of optical phenomenon by the people in the Yin Dynasty (c. 13th century, B. C.) can be inferred from our analysis of the b-s inscription character formations and the words describing optical phenomena. Thus, the history of Chinese optics could be pushed backward as far as 800-900 years from the Mohism period.