Chapter 5 Section 3 The Creation of Early Books

The so-called early books refer to early written records, or archival materials, such as oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, and stone inscriptions.These things, you say they are books, but they lack the complete concept of formal books of later generations.You say that they are not books, but they are indeed faithful records of certain activities dominated by people's thoughts at that time. They are not chaotic texts, but have some elements of books, so we call them early books. Books in the early days of China may have been produced long ago, but they have been preserved, but none have been handed down to this day.When people describe China's early books, they mostly use oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, and stone inscriptions preserved in the Shang and Zhou dynasties as examples, but this by no means means that China's early books were only produced at this time.Of course, the early books should have been produced before the regular books in terms of time; but after the regular books were produced, the early books continued to be produced.Because written records and archival materials are being produced anytime and anywhere.At no time will people regard these written records and archival materials as formal books.However, when these written records and archival materials are processed and organized to systematically expound, publicize, introduce, and disseminate certain issues, certain experiences and knowledge, they become regular books.So when talking about early books, it is not only the concept of time, but also the concept of form and content.

Engraving on tortoise shells, animal bones or bone utensils is a custom that the Chinese have had for a long time.But as written records, or early books, the earliest ones that can be seen now are a large number of oracle bone inscriptions unearthed from the capital site of the Yin Dynasty in Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province more than 90 years ago.The so-called oracle bones refer to tortoise shells and animal bones.The inscriptions carved on these tortoise shells and animal bones are called oracle bone inscriptions or oracle bone inscriptions (Figure 2). More than 90 years ago, near Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan, farmers often found oracle bones of different sizes during the process of plowing and digging.At that time, farmers were superstitious and ignorant, saying that they were keel bones, and they added that they could cure diseases.Over time, such oracle bones from the Yin Ruins were sold to Beijing pharmacies, where they were officially sold as traditional Chinese medicine.In the twenty-fifth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1899 A.D.), Liu E (e evil), a student of Hongdu Bailian, traveled to Beijing and visited Wang Yirong, who was then Guozijian Jijiu and a native of Fushan, Shandong.It happened that Wang Yirong was suffering from malaria, so he asked a doctor for diagnosis and treatment.After seeing a doctor, the doctor wrote a prescription, and one of the medicines was "keel".The family took the medicine back with a prescription, and Liu E discovered that there were characters engraved on the "keel", and he decided that it was not a keel, but an ancient cultural relic.So he began to collect and study oracle bones, and since then oracle bones have become the objects of collection for antiquities collectors. Over the past 90 years, about 100,000 pieces of oracle bones with characters inscribed on them have been unearthed from the Yin Ruins and stored in China and around the world.There are about 300 or 400 well-known Chinese and foreign scholars who have studied these oracle bones, and they have written more than 1,000 monographs on oracle bone inscriptions, making the study of oracle bones an independent field of study.

In 1976, Chinese archaeologists conducted archaeological excavations in the Zhouyuan area of ​​Shaanxi, and discovered a batch of early Western Zhou oracle bones, totaling more than 15,000 pieces.Some of them are also engraved with characters, and the characters are so small that you need to use a five times magnifying glass to see clearly, which shows that the carving skills at that time were quite proficient. Whether it is Yin Shang oracle bones or Western Zhou oracle bones, only a few of them are written in the nature of records.For example, "a bird enters a hundred and fifty", "a day enters a hundred", etc., it refers to the surname of the tribute oracle bone man and the number of the tribute oracle bone.There are also some cattle bones engraved with important court events.Among the oracle bones in the Yin Ruins, there are also bone slips made of animal bones, on which are engraved historical facts of hunting, war and other activities.However, this kind of oracle bones that simply record events is rare after all, and most of them are divination bones, that is, tortoise shells and animal bones used to perform and engrave divination.

It may be the custom of the Chinese nation in ancient times to use tortoise shells and animal bones for divination, and to engrave the divination situation on them.In the Yin and Shang Dynasties, although human society had made great progress, people at that time, including educated nobles, rulers and historians, were still very superstitious.In case of conquests, hunting, animal husbandry, farming, disasters, diseases, sacrifices and other matters in the relevant countries, Gods are required to ask for divination. The method of divination is that before divination, the back of the tortoise shell should be drilled out of a circular deep nest, or a fusiform shallow groove should be drilled out, but the bone surface cannot be penetrated.When divination, first explain the matters to be asked to the gods, and then use a burning wooden branch to scald the center of the deep nest or the edge of the shallow groove.Once the oracle bone is heated, cracks of various shapes will appear on the front.This kind of crack is called divination.It is said that the will of the gods is euphemistically expressed from these omens.Based on the thickness, length, straightness, horizontal obliqueness, indistinctness and other shapes of the divination cracks, the divination people judge the outcome of the war, the gains and losses of hunting, the prosperity of agriculture, the severity of diseases, and the presence or absence of wind and rain. Wait.After the divination is completed, engrave the time of divination, the matters of divination, the result of divination, the name of the person who divination and the situation of subsequent fulfillment, all of which are engraved near the divination.Because this kind of writing is engraved on oracle bones, it is called oracle bone inscriptions.And because it is a record of divination, it is also called divination.Although these inscriptions are records of divination, which are different from oracle bones that record events, they are not historical records in terms of the time of divination, items of divination, results of divination, circumstances of fulfillment, names of persons who divination, etc. Something about books.In addition, holes are drilled in the middle, and they are connected in series to form books, which are kept and collected in an orderly manner.All these show that the oracle bones in the Yin and Zhou dynasties had the content of records and the form of binding, so we regard them as one of the forms of early books in our country.

In the Shang and Zhou dynasties when oracle bone inscriptions were popular, inscriptions cast on bronzes were popular.Although these inscriptions are only early written records, and are not yet formal books, the records of inscriptions are different from oracle bone inscriptions in terms of form, content, and length of characters, and they play a more obvious role as books.Therefore, we should regard them as one of the early forms of books in our country. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin.Its main component is copper. Because a certain proportion of tin is added, it is cast in blue-gray color, so it is called bronze.Vessels made of bronze are called bronze ware.The words cast and engraved on the bronze ware are called "inscriptions", also known as "golden inscriptions".

Bronze ware was a highly prized utensil in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.It has many categories, which can be roughly divided into ritual vessels, musical instruments, weapons, food utensils and other daily utensils.These things were the exclusive products of the aristocratic ruling class at that time.In particular, the ritual vessels, also known as "auspicious gold", are heirlooms of the aristocratic ruling class and can only be used when holding grand ceremonies or grand sacrifices.In particular, the big tripod among the ritual vessels is a symbol of the power of the ruling class. It is regarded as the "heavy weapon" of the country and must be protected and cannot be lost.If it changes hands and loses, it means that the state power has been destroyed.Therefore, the change of dynasties in later generations is often said to be the "Ding Revolution", and the source of its classics comes from this.During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, whenever a country was wiped out, the two warring parties must "destroy its ancestral temple and relocate its heavy weapons", which also means the righteousness of the tripod.Therefore, countries that are about to lose in wars often bury such heavy weapons underground. As long as the heavy weapons are not lost, it means that his country has not yet died out.After the nobles died, they often buried the bronze vessels they used during their lifetime to continue to express the status and respect of the deceased.Therefore, since the Western Han Dynasty, bronze wares have been unearthed and discovered in successive dynasties, and tens of thousands of them have been obtained so far, including more than 10,000 pieces with inscriptions.

Only the owner's name was inscribed on the original bronzes.As bronze wares were cherished, nobles and their rulers engraved important documents that needed to be preserved for a long time and major events that needed to be permanently commemorated on bronze wares.In this way, the number of words in the inscription will continue to increase and lengthen.For example, Yihou Shigui (gui ghost) in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, Dayu Ding of Zhou Kangwang, Xing Ding of Zheng State and Jin State, as well as handed down or unearthed Maogong Ding, Sanshi Pan, and Guo (Guo State) Jizi Bai Pan , Shi Siepan, etc. (Figure 3), are all bronzes with long inscriptions.The longest one is the Maogong Ding in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, and its inscription is already four to five hundred characters long.These inscriptions are very important, and they reflect all aspects of society at that time from different angles.For example, the Yihou Shigui inscription records that King Cheng of Zhou enfeoffed a slave-owner nobleman to Yidi near Dantu, Jiangsu today, and rewarded him with a large amount of land and 2,000 slaves.The inscription on the Great Yu Ding during King Kang of Zhou Dynasty records that King Kang of Zhou rewarded 659 slaves, 13 housekeeper slaves, and 1051 minority slaves to the great slave owner Yu at one time.This shows that the society at that time was still a typical slavery society.As for the punishment tripods of Zheng and Jin, the laws of the country were directly engraved on the tripods for the purpose of informing the whole country. As we all know, we may regard them as the earliest legal monographs.Therefore, in the past, some people called these bronze vessels with inscriptions bronze books. Although they may not be very accurate, there is no problem in regarding them as one of the early forms of books in our country.

Writing and engraving characters on stones is the custom of many peoples in ancient times, and our country is no exception. The book "Mozi" mentioned many times that "writing on bamboo and silk, engraving gold and stone, carving pans, and passing on to future generations". Facts lettering.It shows that before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period when Mo Di [Di Di] lived, there were indeed many words carved on stones.But until today, not many early stone inscriptions have been found in my country.Among the extant stone inscriptions, the earliest ones are 10 drum-shaped stone inscriptions discovered in Tianxing, Shaanxi (now Baoji, Shaanxi) in the early Tang Dynasty.There are characters engraved around each drum body, and the font belongs to 〔zhou〕wen, which is called Shiguwen.The content of Shiguwen is a four-character long poem commemorating Qin Xianggong's field hunting activities. The full text has about 700 words.It was discovered in the Tang Dynasty and displayed in the Confucius Temple in Fengxiang County.In the Song Dynasty, they were moved to Bianjing (now Kaifeng).The Jin people broke through Bianjing and moved the stone drum to Yanjing.During the Huangqing period of the Yuan Dynasty (1312-1313 A.D.), it was moved to the Guozijian in Dadu (now Beijing).In the fifty-fifth year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1790), in order to protect the stone drum from damage, a set was carved and placed in the Dacheng Gate of the Confucius Temple in Beijing. After the "September 18th" Incident, the cultural relics moved to the south, and Shigu also moved to the south. It was not until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War that they moved back to Beijing.Existing Beijing Palace Museum.Due to long-term natural and man-made damage, serious erosion, and many characters [huan suffering], the full text has long been blurred, and one of the stone characters has disappeared.Judging from the content of the poem, although it is a eulogy, it is a poem created intentionally.From the perspective of the carrier, although it is made of stone, it has been processed intentionally, and its shape is like a drum, probably because it has the largest font size.Although it still cannot be read like the books of later generations, it has a more bookish meaning than oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions.Therefore, we regard this kind of early stone inscriptions as one of the early forms of books (Figure 4).

In addition to engraving characters on stones, the ancients also had the habit of writing on flakes of stone and jade.In ancient times, for some political interests, it was often necessary to coordinate, restrain each other, and swear to the gods between the emperor and the princes, between the princes and the princes, between the princes and the scholar-bureaucrats, and even between the scholar-bureaucrats and the slaves.Before the oath of alliance, the speech must be written first, and then the alliance will be made with [shaxia] blood.After the alliance was established, the alliance speech had to be in duplicate, one was hidden in the alliance mansion, and the other was buried underground.In the late Spring and Autumn period, the slavery was shaken, wars broke out constantly, the emperor's speech failed, the activities of the princes were frequent, and the wind of oaths became stronger. In 1942, dozens of pieces of jade and stone were found in Henan, with ink writing on them, the content of which was the ancient oath. In 1980, a large number of ancient alliance books were discovered again in Henan. In 1965, a large number of alliance books in the late Spring and Autumn Period were unearthed at the site of the Jin Kingdom in Houma, Shanxi Province.Among them, 1/3 are jade flakes and 2/3 are stone flakes. There are more than 5,000 pieces in total.Their shape is pointed at the top and bottom, with different lengths, widths and thicknesses.Many of them have calligraphy written on them, some in ink, some in vermilion.After research by experts, there are about 600 pieces that can be read and read now, most of which are related to Zhao Yang.Zhao Yang, also known as Zhao Jianzi, was a senior official of the Jin State at that time and a member of the slave-owning nobles.But the era he lived in was the era when slavery society began to transform into feudal society.Affected by the trend of the times, Zhao Jianzi separated from the old camp, and fought against the old forces on behalf of the emerging landlord class with the courage of slave owners and aristocratic class rebellious sons and ministers.At that time, some conservative slave-owner nobles formed a military alliance and launched a large-scale attack on Zhao Jianzi.Some vassal states also supported the conservative forces and opposed Zhao Yang.In order to unite within the struggle and strive for victory, Zhao Yang made a series of oaths with people of the same clan, which is a type of content in Hou Ma's alliance letter.Once, Zhao Yang wanted to fight against Zheng Guo, who was helping the conservative forces, but Zhao Yang was at a disadvantage due to the strength of the opponent.So he took steps to win the support of the slaves.In the speech of the oath of alliance, he announced that as long as he defeated the enemy in the war and made military achievements, slaves in agricultural production, industrial and commercial slaves, and domestic slaves could all be exempted from the status of slaves and become free citizens.There is also content in the alliance book that restricts "Nashi". "Room" is the property unit owned by slave-owner nobles in the Spring and Autumn Period, including slaves and land. "Nashi" means seizing slaves and land from other slave owners.Zhao Yang's restriction of the oath in the oath shows that he opposes the expansion of slavery's exploitation and rule by seizing slaves and land.This was undoubtedly progressive at the time.

Although all these contents written on jade and stone tablets are the words of ancient oaths, they are far from formal works that have been created or edited, but they reflect the information of social changes at that time, and indeed play a certain role in books. some effect.Therefore, we regard these early inscriptions and writing on stone as one of the forms of early Chinese books. Of course, stone was used as a material to make books, not only in the early days, but also formal books in later generations often used stone as a material.For example, the Confucian classics are engraved on stones, including the "Xiping Stone Classic" of the Han Dynasty, the "Zhengshi Stone Classic" of the Wei Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period, the "Kaicheng Stone Classic" of the Tang Dynasty, the "Shu Stone Classic" of the Five Dynasties, and the "Jia Shijing" of the Northern Song Dynasty. Youshi Jing, "Yu Shu Shi Jing" in the Southern Song Dynasty, and "Qianlong Stone Jing" in the Qing Dynasty.The Buddhist classics are engraved on stones. There are cliffs, scripture buildings, and stone scriptures.The "Fangshan Stone Classic" collected by Fangshan Yunju Temple in Beijing is the largest, with a total of more than 7,000 stones and more than 4.2 million words.After the mid-Tang Dynasty, some people carved Taoist classics on stones.These are different from the early stone inscriptions in nature, and they are already out-and-out books on stone carriers.