On the origin and early evolution of chinese characters.

It is a fact that Chinese characters are widely used by people in China, and it is obviously formed gradually with the development of Chinese civilization. Therefore, the study of the origin of Chinese characters can never be simply understood as the study of the origin of Chinese characters. In other words, to explore the origin of China characters, we should not only pay attention to the origin of Chinese characters, but also pay attention to the origin of non-Chinese characters used by ancient ancestors living in the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valley. With the accumulation of archaeological data, the multi-source characteristics of the origin of China characters become more and more clear.

The purpose of writing created by ancestors is to realize the communication and exchange between people and God or between people, so writing is the symbol of recording language. From the analysis of the general characteristics of early human characters, the creation of characters originated from hieroglyphics, which is actually the basic condition for people to establish the same understanding standard and cognitive connotation of characters between man and God. Therefore, before we have the ability to recognize the writing system, any symbol that exists independently without writing meaning will not help us to judge whether it has the function of recording language; At the same time, those symbols that can't fully reflect the pictographic characteristics of classes in structure can't prove that they were consciously created to express some relatively complex concepts. Obviously, these books and deeds are not enough to show that their nature must belong to words. In this sense, the Chinese character system represented by Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty is undoubtedly a quite mature writing system. This writing system not only has a considerable number of characters (1), but also widely uses pictophonetic characters, which shows that it must have gone through a long process of formation and development. Therefore, tracing the origin of ancient Chinese characters before Oracle Bone Inscriptions has always been a hot issue in academic circles.

The age of Oracle Bone Inscriptions discovered in Yin Ruins is about13rd century BC to the late Shang Dynasty1th century BC, but this is obviously not the age of this writing. According to the traditional staging results of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, although the first phase included four kings of Yin, namely Pan Geng, Xiao Xin, Xiaoyi and Wuding, there was little information about Oracle Bone Inscriptions before Wuding. Scholars have spared no effort to explore this problem (2), but it is still difficult to get a few materials with knowledge to judge their age. Of course, this does not mean that there were no words in Wu Ding before. The discovery of new materials and the innovation of research methods may greatly change the old understanding and the history of wholesale clothing.

Although Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Shang Dynasty, who was earlier than Yin Ruins, has found it sporadically in Erligang and other places in Zhengzhou since 1950s (3), and bronze inscriptions and pottery characters are basically confirmed to belong to Wu (4), the bamboo script characters found on pottery in Xiaoshuangqiao middle Shang Dynasty site in Zhengzhou, Henan Province are obviously more meaningful for tracing the origin of Chinese characters. These words are either single-character books or numbers coexist, and the recognizable ones are "Yin", "Tian" and "?" Such writing (figure 1) can be traced back to 65438 BC+5th century BC. These characters not only belong to the same system as Oracle Bone Inscriptions, but also predate Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins.

Of course, it is certain that Xiao Shuangqiao's bamboo calligraphy is not the most primitive Chinese characters. The word "Wen □" in bamboo slips has been found on pottery pots of Taosi culture in the 2nd/Kloc-0th century BC (Figure 2) and (6), belonging to the same system as Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The meaning of "Wen □" seems to be related to Yu's name (7), which means that the Chinese character system of Shang Dynasty, represented by Oracle Bone Inscriptions, was actually developed on the basis of inheriting the characters of Xia Dynasty (8), and this fact can be clearly traced back through the relevant written materials from Yin Ruins to Taosi culture.

It is true that the current archaeological data are not enough to provide a basis for us to find the origin of Xia dynasty characters. Although the fact that Chinese characters originated from pictographs once made scholars think that the painted pottery images of Yangshao culture may reflect the original form of early Chinese characters (9), the method of creating characters based on pictographs is not unique to Chinese characters (10). Of course, if cultural geography, archaeological cultural characteristics and other factors are analyzed as the cultural background of the formation of a text, this comparison is still of positive value.

Obviously, another kind of writing coexisting with Xia language does not belong to the Chinese character system. One of the important material evidences is the Wen Tao (1 1) in Longshan period discovered at Dinggong site in Zouping, Shandong. Wen Tao was carved on a large flat-bottomed basin with a sharp tool, and it still has 65,438+065,438+0 characters (Figure 3), dating back to 2 1 century BC.

Ding Gong and Wen Tao belong to the ancient Yi language (12), because their glyph structures are obviously different from the Chinese character system represented by Oracle Bone Inscriptions, but they are almost the same as the ancient Yi language. We discussed the interpretation of its characters in detail (13). 1 1 Translated into Chinese from top to bottom and from right to left: "Charm, Apu, pray, Sue. Jichang, a hundred chickens turn their paws ... "Oracle Bone Inscriptions, who has the nature of praying for ancestors' protection, exorcising evil spirits and seeking happiness. Among them, "spell divination" means divination (14), and "spell" is the object of divination, which means evil spirits deify all evil. "Apudu Prayer" is a prayer for the Yi ancestor Apudu after the flood. "Su" is the name of the sacrifice. "Ji Chang" means Longji, which is called "Zhao Ji" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. "Baekje divination" means divination with chicken bones, which belongs to the traditional divination form of Yi people. Wen Tao reflected the ritual of exorcism in the sacrifice of Yi people's Bai Jie.

Yi people call themselves Ni, which is an ancient name, which translates into "Yi" in Chinese. The word "Ren" is the same as the word "Ren" in the ancient Yi language, and "Yi" is the latter word. Moreover, the word "Ren" in the ancient Yi language is the name of the ancestors of the Yi people, so the family name of the Yi people actually comes from the ancestors' names, that is, the Yi people take the ancestors' names as their family names (15). Comparing this fact with the historical fact that Oracle bone inscriptions reflect the victory of Yin and Yi will obviously help us to sort out the origin of foreign history. The Yin people called Fangbo, who was located in Haidai area at that time, "Ren Fang", which was consistent with the clan name and the place where the Yi people lived. These facts not only prove that they belong to the ancient Yi language family, but also directly relate to the understanding of the ancestors who distributed or partially distributed in Haidai area in the Neolithic Age and even in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

Through the study of a special octagonal figure created by the ancestors in Neolithic Age, this paper discusses the cultural relations among Xiaoheyan culture, Dawenkou culture, Majiabang culture, Songze culture, Liangzhu culture and Daxi culture, which are distributed in the vast areas from eastern Inner Mongolia to Shandong, Jiangsu, Hunan and Jiangxi (16) and across the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It was once called "Border Half-Moon Cultural Exchange Belt" by scholars (17), and its cultural outlook is really different from the primitive culture represented by Yangshao culture in the west, that is, the Yi culture matrix independent of Xia characters (18).

When we compare the archaeological cultures of eastern and western cloth with Taihang Mountain as the boundary, we believe that the macro differences between them will be recognized by everyone. This cultural difference is obviously more meaningful if it is considered in connection with different nationalities, and the formation of different cultures should have laid a fertile ground for the creation and production of Yi and Xia languages. Obviously, if we have no reason to trace the origin of Yixia culture back to earlier, then at least until the late Neolithic Age, it should be prudent and objective to reconstruct the history of this period with the view of ancient history of Yixia (19). At the same time, this view is bound to be related to our thinking on the interpretation methods of unearthed characters in related archaeological cultures. Of course, for the interpretation of such an important issue, the discovery of new ancient Yi language materials and the accumulation of text interpretation and reading results are very important.

The Neolithic remains of Jiahu Lake in Wuyang, Henan Province are primitive cultures dating from 9000 to 7800 years ago. Although its pottery features are very close to Peiligang culture, the custom of burying Bugui and Songya together is similar to Dawenkou culture and Xuejiagang culture. As for its rice farming, it is more in line with the Neolithic culture in the Jianghuai basin, but not with the Yellow River basin, which shows its close relationship with the Oriental Yi culture. It is worth noting that three inscriptions were found on three tortoise shells unearthed from Jiahu site, one of which is a complete tortoise shell (M344? 18) is shaped like ""(Figure 4) (20), which is similar to the word "wood" written by Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty. This glyph not only has a complete pictographic structure, but also appears on Liangzhu cultural relics thousands of years later. This symbol, which exists in different time and place but has the same structure, has shown its characteristics of timelessness and super-dialect stereotype, and should be different from simple notes. But the problem is, if we take Oracle Bone Inscriptions as the standard and interpret the word "wood", although there is not much problem in shape, it seems difficult to explain why the ancients carved the word "wood" on the tortoise shell of divination. Moreover, similar characters can be found on the jade jade of Liangzhu culture (Figure 5) (2 1). As a gift from heaven, jade jade is even more difficult to understand. However, when we use the ancient Yi language as the standard of research and interpretation to explain this text, the problem will be solved. Because the word "Ji" in the ancient Yi language is exactly the same as the word "Ji" in the tortoise shell in Jia Hu, and the pronunciation is V? It is very close to the ancient sound of the Chinese character "Mu", which proves that the original meaning of the word "Ji" in the ancient Yi language is to take the hieroglyphics of the eyes as good or bad luck, and the word "Ji" is engraved on the tortoise shell for divination and the jade wall for worship to heaven, which is very reasonable. Therefore, according to the ancient Yi language, it is meaningful to interpret the tortoise shell inscription and the jade wall inscription of Liangzhu culture in Jia Hu as "Ji".

There are four symbols (22) carved on the outside of the pottery pot unearthed from Liangzhu Cultural Site in Qing Dun, Hai 'an, Jiangsu Province, among which the special octagonal image on the left is the symbols of Bagua and Jiugong, and the Yi language Bagua is octagonal. We have discussed the related problem (23) in detail. There are three characters on the right side of the octagonal statue (Figure 6). The first character looks like an axe. It was first seen in the pottery figurines of Dawenkou culture (Figure 7) (24), and later in the bronze basin of Bashu culture in the Warring States Period (25). The glyph structure comes down in one continuous line. Characters with the same glyph are pronounced ndzo in ancient Yi language, meaning leader. Of course, this also provides us with an opportunity to discuss the original meaning of the word, because Oracle Bone Inscriptions's word "Wang" comes from the image of the ceremonial axe as a symbol of kingship (26), and the ancient Yi language indicates the leader or leader, which exactly reproduces this feature. This word is found in the pottery sculpture of Dawenkou culture, and it seems to have the same meaning as the word "Yin" in Zhengzhou Xiaoshuangqiao pottery, because the meaning of the word "Yin" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions can sometimes be understood as "Jun" (27). There is no doubt that the two forms of Wang Zi's * * * in Xia Dynasty and Xia Dynasty not only reflect the common understanding of different nationalities on the symbol of power, but also reflect the close relationship between the two cultures. In fact, if the leader of the ancient Yi language has the same meaning as the Chinese character "Wang", it will help us to think about the history of the political transformation from "emperor" to "king" in China's early civilization.

Interpreting the above written materials in ancient Yi language can not only fully explain the text itself, but also reasonably explain the relationship between the text and its carrier. This fully proves that Yi characters, represented by, and, are an ancient writing system that coexists with Xia characters (28).

While Yi language in the East and Xia language in the West are popular, there is also a simple note-taking symbol in Yixian area. These symbols are basically engraved on pottery, and a pottery is often engraved with only one symbol. The number of pottery symbols is much richer than the early written materials that we have the opportunity to discuss, and it has become the basic material for scholars to explore the origin of China characters, to be exact, the origin of Chinese characters. They think that these inscriptions are simplified Chinese characters produced in the origin stage of characters, or the remains of China's original characters (29), and even put forward the "binary" argument that Chinese characters originated from signifiers and pictographs (30). In fact, such pottery symbols are structurally. The existence of pottery symbols and Chinese characters is enough to show that these pottery symbols, which have long been suspected by scholars as characters, are actually strictly different from Chinese characters, and their relationship with ancient Yi language remains to be studied. Scholars may distinguish such early pottery symbols from Wen Tao and point out that they are not Chinese characters (365,438+0), which is insightful.

Just as archaeological research should first distinguish different archaeological cultures, it is impossible to separate the characters from the culture to which they belong in the study of the origin of China characters. Different archaeological cultures may reflect the diversity of ancient nationalities, which actually determines the multi-source origin of characters. Archaeological evidence shows that the unified political pattern in China was not formed three generations ago, which means that people's long-standing habit of using Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin and Shang Dynasties as the only means to interpret early characters needs to be re-examined, because it is tantamount to admitting that the writing system represented by Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the only one prevailing in early society. Obviously, the discovery of Wen Tao in the Longshan period in Dinggong, Shandong Province made us realize that it is not so simple to deal with the origin of characters. Whether the study of the origin of Chinese characters can get rid of the shackles of the concept of "great unity" is a problem that we must seriously consider. In fact, only by jumping out of the traditional pattern of Chinese characters dominating the world and exploring the original historical materials that can be used to study the origin of Chinese characters in different archaeological cultures can we draw an objective conclusion. The excavation of Ding Gong and Wen Tao provides an important opportunity for studying the origin of China characters. This is not only because Wen Tao appears in groups, which clearly shows its function of recording language, which is of course essentially different from a large number of symbols independently carved on pottery. At the same time, more importantly, the formation of Wen Tao is completely different from the Chinese character system represented by Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which means that if we can correctly interpret such characters, then we may have a new understanding of the development of China's early characters, and then establish the same or different criteria for judging the origin of characters as the known Oracle Bone Inscriptions system and find the correct research methods.

We have pointed out that the bamboo script of Taosi culture clearly shows that they belong to the same system as Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty, so it should undoubtedly be the direct ancestor of the Chinese characters represented by Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty. The fact that the cultural characters of Taosi in Shanxi coexist with those of Longshan times in Dinggong, Shandong Province clearly proves that there are at least two independent systems in the origin of China characters (Bashu characters may belong to another new system), namely, the Oriental Yi writing system represented by the characters of Longshan times in Dinggong, Shandong Province and the Xixia writing system represented by the cultural characters of Taosi in Shanxi Province. Later, the Xia system inherited the Xia system and the Zhou system inherited the Yin system. With the powerful political power of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, Xia Wen gradually became the orthodox script of the Chinese nation and developed strongly. However, with the continuous attack, integration or southward migration of the Shang and Zhou nationalities to Dongyi, Huaiyi, Nanhuaiyi and Nanyi, the Yi culture spread, making its characters eventually become the characters used by Yi people in a corner of security. These facts clearly show that in the process of realizing the ideal of rulers' political expansion and the unification of kingship, words have served as the most important educational tool.

Pay attention to and release:

(1) According to the latest statistics of scholars, the number of words in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is nearly 4 100, which is more than 6,000 if the variant characters are counted. See Shen Jianhua and Cao, A Summary of Oracle Bone Inscriptions Shapes, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 200 1.

(2) Hu Houxuan: "Oracle Bone Inscriptions insisted? Preface, Qunlian Press,1955; Liu Yiman, Guo, Wen: Archaeological Excavation and the Dating of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Archaeology 1986 No.6; Peng Yushang: Dating of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, China Social Sciences Press,1994; Cao Dingyun: Field Excavation of Yin Ruins and Dating of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Archaeological CollectionNo. 15, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2004; Anyang Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: Excavation Report on the East Side of Huanbei Shopping Mall in Anyang City, 1998-1999, Archaeological Collection, 15, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 2004.

(3) Cultural Relics Task Force of Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau: Erligang, Zhengzhou, p. 38, Land Picking by Plate, 6, Science Press,1959; Pei: A Brief Discussion on the Bone Carved Characters in the Early Shang Dynasty in Zhengzhou, Proceedings of the National Symposium on Business History, Supplement to Yindu Academic Journal,1985; New Archaeological Discovery and Research of Zhengzhou Shopping Mall, Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House, 1993.

(4) Cao Shuqin: A Preliminary Study on Bronzes with Inscriptions in the Middle Shang Dynasty, Archaeology No.3,1988; Liu Yiman: Research on Yin Ruins, Essays on the 55th Anniversary of Soviet Archaeology, Man Briefcase, Cultural Relics Publishing House,1989; Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: Discovery and Research of Yin Ruins, Science Press, 1994.

(5) Song Guo Ding: Bamboo calligraphy on pottery unearthed from Xiaoshuangqiao site in Zhengzhou, No.5 of Cultural Relics in 2003.

(6) It is too early to judge whether the foundation site of Taosi Building is a city site, Guangming Daily, A3 edition, June 200014; Liang Xingpeng: rammed earth remains found in Taosi site, China Cultural Relics Newspaper, July 2000 16, 1 edition.

(7): An Examination of Summer Society, 2 1 Century China Archaeology and World Archaeology International Symposium Paper, Beijing, August 2000; China Archaeology and World Archaeology in 2 1 century, China Social Sciences Press, 2002.

(8) Shi Feng: "The Origin of Characters and the East and the West", "Newsletter of Ancient Civilization Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences", No.3, 2002.

(9) Guo Moruo: Dialectical Development of Ancient Chinese Characters, Journal of Archaeology,No. 1972,No. 1; Li Xiaoding: the primacy and evolution of Chinese characters (up and down), points 2 and 3, Journal of the Institute of History and Language of Academia Sinica, No.45,1974; "Re-discussion on Prehistoric Wen Tao and the Origin of Chinese Characters", Journal of Institute of History and Linguistics, Academia Sinica, 50th Edition, 3, 1979.

(10) Ancient Yi language and Naxi language also originated from hieroglyphics.

(1 1) Department of History, Shandong University, Archaeology Major: Briefing on the Fourth and Fifth Excavation of Dinggong Site in Zouping, Shandong Province, Fourth Archaeology 1993.

(12) Shi Feng: Wen Tao and Ancient Yi Language in Longshan Period, Guangming Daily1June 6, 993, Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Punk Belt Buckle.

(13) Shi Feng: Interpretation of the Characters in Longshan Age in Dinggong, Shandong Province, Archaeology 1994No. 1.

(14) Yi grammar is just a form in which the object is placed in front of the verb. The same below.

(15) The traditional documents of the Yi people have always called themselves "Yi". After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the word "Yi" was changed to "Yi" because it was mistaken for "Yi", but the Yi people still have objections to this change.

(16) Shi Feng: Prehistoric octagonal pattern and ancient view of heaven, Collection of archaeological knowledge, China Social Sciences Press,1997; Astronomy and Archaeology in China, Chapter 8, Section 2, Social Science Literature Publishing House, 200 1.

(17) Tong: On the Half-Moon Cultural Exchange Belt in China's Borderlands from Northeast to Southwest, Collection of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1987.

(18): "The Origin of Characters and the East and West in Yi Xia", the newsletter of the Center for Ancient Chinese Studies of China Academy of Social Sciences, No.3, 2002.

(19) Fu Sinian: On Things in Summer, Collection of Papers Celebrating Mr. Cai Yuanpei's Sixty-Five Years Old, Volume II, edited by Institute of History and Linguistics, Academia Sinica, 1935.

(20) Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology: Wuyang Jiahu Volume I, Science Press, 1999.

(2 1) Deng Shuping: Mysterious symbols on Neolithic jade articles in China, No.3 of the Academic Quarterly of the Forbidden City, 10, 1993.

(22) Zhang Minghua and Wang Huiju: Wen Tao in the Neolithic Age in Taihu Lake, Archaeology,No. 1990.

(23) Shi Feng: Prehistoric Octagonal Patterns and Ancient View of Heaven, Collection of Archaeological Knowledge, China Social Sciences Press,1997; Astronomy and Archaeology in China, Chapter 8, Section 2, Social Science Literature Publishing House, 200 1.

(24) Gao Ming: "Ancient Wen Tao? Editor of Zhonghua Book Company, 2004.

(25) Sichuan Provincial Cultural Management Association, Ya 'an District Cultural Management Institute and Baoxing County Cultural Management Institute: Excavation Report of the Stone Tomb in Hantashan, Baoxing, Sichuan, Journal of Archaeology, No.3, 1999.

(26) Lin? Talking about Wang, Archaeology, No.6, 1965.

(27) Li Xueqin: "Many kings have many sons", "Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the History of Yin and Shang Dynasties", Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1983.

(28) The research on the collection of ancient Yi language materials is discussed in another article.

(29) Guo Moruo: Dialectical development of ancient Chinese characters, Journal of Archaeology1972 No. 1; Yu: Some Issues on the Study of Ancient Chinese Characters, Archaeology, No.2, 1973.

(30) Yang: Dualism of the Origin of Chinese Characters, Language Studies in China, Series 3, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 198 1 year.

(3 1) Gao Ming: On Fu Tao and the Origin of Chinese Characters, Journal of Peking University 1984, No.6. Related articles: