Chapter 3 3. Jinshi written records

Human society has taken a big step forward from the Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age.The appearance of bronze ware is a sign of the progress of social productive forces, and it is also one of the epoch-making signs in the history of culture. Bronze ware appeared very early in our country. There is a record of "Yu Zhu Jiuding" in ancient books, and it was already very developed in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The Simuwu Ding unearthed in Anyang, Henan Province in 1939 has a beautiful shape, complex patterns, and fine craftsmanship, which shows that bronze casting has reached a very high level of craftsmanship at that time.

Bronze ware was highly valued in ancient my country, and it was a symbol of the aristocratic status of slave owners.There are many types of it, which can be divided into ritual vessels, musical instruments, tableware, and daily tools.The so-called "Yu Zhu Jiuding", "Jiuding" is the symbol of the supreme ruling power, it represents the royal power.During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, once a country was wiped out, it was necessary to "destroy its ancestral temple and relocate its important weapons".Bronze wares are extremely cherished and protected. Once nobles encounter important events or receive important documents, they often cast words on bronze wares to pass on to future generations.This kind of written record is called inscription, and because it is cast and engraved on a metal vessel, it is also called Jinwen and Zhongdingwen in philology.Since the content of the inscription involves all aspects of social life at that time and records many important events, it is a precious historical document and an important material for historical research.

The inscriptions on the bronzes were only one or two characters at first, and then became longer and longer.At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the states of Zheng and Jin cast legal provisions on tripods.The longest inscription now is the inscription on Maogong Ding unearthed in Qishan, Shaanxi at the end of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty, with a total of 497 characters. Tens of thousands of pieces of bronze have been discovered in our country so far, among which there are more than 10,000 pieces with inscriptions.These inscriptions reflect many aspects of our country's ancient politics, economy, and culture, and are valuable documents for our study of ancient history. Bronze inscriptions are also one of the early forms of books.

The study of inscriptions on bronze wares has begun since the Song Dynasty in my country, and many books have been published.At present, there are many books that collect inscriptions, such as "Three Dynasties Jijin Wencun" edited by Luo Zhenyu, and "Shang and Zhou Bronze Wares Unearthed in Shaanxi" edited by Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology.In terms of textual research and interpretation, there are Guo Moruo's "Research on Inscriptions on Bronze Wares of the Yin and Zhou Dynasties", "The Great Collection of Jin Wenci in the Two Weeks" and Rong Geng's "Jin Wen Bian", etc.

In addition to oracle bone bronze, the ancients also carved characters on stone. It is a custom of the ancients to engrave characters on stones. In the book "Mozi", there is a saying of "engraving on gold and stone", which mentions casting records and stone carving records together, indicating that ancient stone carvings are as popular as bronze carvings.Since the Warring States Period, there have been many stone carvings, among which the most famous one is "Hou Ma League Book". The "Book of Alliance" is the speech written on the stone when the emperor and the princes, between the princes, and between the princes and the scholar-officials in order to restrain each other in terms of political interests, swore to the gods in ancient times. In the winter of 1965, a large number of alliance books were unearthed at the site of the capital of the Jin Kingdom in Houma, Shanxi.Written on jade or stone in vermilion or ink.Among them, the largest one is 32 centimeters long and 3.8 centimeters wide, regular in shape and dark gray in color.According to research, this is the product of the oath activities in the Spring and Autumn Period, and it is called "Hou Ma League Book".The person who established the alliance was Zhao Yang (Zhao Jianzi), one of the six ministers of Jin at that time.The Spring and Autumn Period was in the process of transition from a slave society to a feudal society. Zhao Yang, as a representative of the emerging landlord class in the Jin State, presided over the "Hou Ma League Letter", which reflected the process of the emerging landlord class in the Jin State seizing power from the old slave-owner nobles. , the result of political and military struggles between the emerging landlord class and the slave-owner aristocracy, and between various groups of the emerging landlord class.In this fierce battle, the emerging Jin State Zhao Group won.

Archaeologists divide these words of alliance into five categories according to their content: clan alliance, entrustment, Nashi, curse and divination.These speeches vary in length, with a maximum of more than 200 characters and a minimum of more than ten characters, with various fonts and complex shapes.Although the book of alliance is not a formal book, its contents provide important historical materials for us to study the fierce class struggle in the transition from slave society to feudal society in the late spring and Autumn period, as well as the ancient alliance oath system and calligraphy art.

Other stone carvings include as recorded in "Guanzi", Guan Zhong saw more than 70 kinds of stone carvings of enshrining Zen in Mount Tai during the Spring and Autumn Period, as well as various stone carvings of Qin and Han emperors.The earliest surviving stone carvings are the stone drums of the Spring and Autumn Period unearthed in Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province in the Tang Dynasty.There are more than a dozen of these stone drums, and each drum is engraved with characters around it. The font belongs to Zhenwen, which is called Shiguwen.There are four-character poems engraved on it, the content of which is related to field hunting activities.Originally contained 700 single characters, but now there are only more than 300 characters.There are different opinions about the stone drum era over the years, most of them believe that it is the relic of Qin Xianggong, about 2,700 years ago.

From the Warring States Period to the Qin and Han Dynasties, stone engraving prevailed, and finally led to the appearance of the entire book in stone, that is, the "Xiping Stone Classic" in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, and early stone inscriptions record the deeds and contents of various aspects of ancient Chinese society, and undoubtedly play the role of books today.However, because people did not consciously use these things to record and summarize experience at that time, especially oracle bones and bronze wares had their own special uses, their appearance paved the way for the emergence of books in our country.During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when people began to consciously use words to record and disseminate knowledge, a large number of bamboo slips appeared as carriers, heralding the official birth of books in our country.