New interpretations of yi 翌 in a group of oracle-bone inscriptions (in Chinese)
一组甲骨卜辞中 “翌” 之意义推论
Deng Fei 邓飞; Wen Xu 文旭
Abstract 摘要
The oracle-bone inscriptions of the ancient Shang dynasty of China recorded on XiaoTunnandi Jiagu 小屯南地甲骨 (ZKY 1980) 2106, 214, and Jiaguwen Heji 甲骨文合集 (Guo and Hu 1978-1983) 6054, 9615, 11215, 13878, 20656, 21579 are of great academic values for studying the farming, weather, hunting and war of 3000 years ago. However, the meanings of one critical character yi 翌 in these oracle-bone inscriptions is still unclear, and it is difficult to accurately understand the oracle-bone inscriptions following the existing research achievements that yi 翌means ‘one kind of sacrificing activity’ or ‘the second day’. Based on the systematic property of oracle-bone inscriptions as a cultural image, this paper has studied the meanings of yi 翌in these oracle-bone inscriptions from such cultural subsystems as the expressions of time, the tradition of farming and the sacrifice circle. This paper has concluded that yi 翌in this group of oracle-bone inscriptions derived from the yi-form (yi si翌祀) sacrificing activities, indicating an around 4-month cycle of a yi-form sacrificing activity or the time of the yi-form sacrificing activity, which has the same cycle and location as the plant he 禾growing and harvesting. So yi 翌in this group of oracle-bone inscriptions is a metonymy of the yi-form sacrificing activities. These meanings of yi 翌are helpful to interpret the related oracle inscriptions and the bronze inscriptions of the same period. They along with the article are also present in strong linguistic value and documentation significance for learning about the ancient culture of farming and hunting and for investigating the time expressions in the oracle-bone inscriptions and bronze wares’ inscriptions of the Shang dynasty.
Subject Keywords 主题词
Semantics 语义 Systematic features 系统性特征 Oracle-Bone Inscriptions 甲骨卜辞 Yi 翌 Offer sacrifices 祭祀 Time cycle 时间周期
Journal of Chinese Linguistics vol.45, no.2 (June 2017): 394-422
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