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There was a generation of Zhou, whose rituals and music were brilliant, and their literary talents were varied.
Confucius once said: "Zhou was in charge of the second generation, and I was suffocated by writing. I follow Zhou." After the development of the Xia and Shang dynasties, the bronze ware reached its heyday in the Zhou Dynasty. Learn about the important documents of the Zhou civilization.
Bronze wares are hidden in the ancestral temple and are expected to be passed down to future generations. The inscriptions record the division of princes, official appointments, litigation disputes, family lineage, war marriage, moral preaching, etc., involving all aspects of political and social life in the Zhou Dynasty. .
The owner of the vessel has carefully considered the production of the inscriptions. Whether it is writing, word selection, or structure layout, it all shows the author's ingenuity.
Therefore, in addition to important linguistic and historical value, bronze inscriptions also contain rich literary value.
Researchers have long paid attention to examining this value of bronze inscriptions.
In the early years, Mr. Yu Shengwu, who devoted himself to the "Tongcheng School" of ancient writing and was a famous literary expert, published the book "Selected Works of Shuangjian Luji Jin" in 1932 after turning to the study of ancient writing. literary works.
Mr. Yu Xingwu said: "The rhyme used in Jinwen is like "Poetry", and the one that does not use rhyme is like "Book", which can be compared with "Poem" and "Book".
In this book, Mr. Yu expounded its literary value by commenting on famous golden articles.
For example, the famous Yuan and Qiang bells recorded important events in which the Han, Zhao, and Wei families of Jin joined forces to fight against China.
Mr. Yu believes that although his inscription is only 61 words, it can record many incidents in detail.
The inscriptions are mostly in rhyme, the words are loud and loud, the chapters change strangely, and the style of writing is majestic, which is the first of its kind in the Han Dynasty.
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Pre-Qin literary genres such as mythology, poetry, and prose are all displayed in the Zhou Dynasty's golden inscriptions.
Myths occupy a very important position in the treasure house of literature and are closely related to the genre of novels.
Among the many myths popular in the Zhou Dynasty, the "Flood Myth" is the most famous and widely circulated.
"Shangshu", "Guoyu", and the famous ancient book "Shan Hai Jing", etc., all record the mythical stories of Gun Yu's father and son's control of floods.
This story is also recorded in the Western Zhou Jinwen.
Bin Gongxu, which is collected in the Poly Museum, belongs to the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty. Its inscription records: "God ordered Yu to lay down the soil, fall into the mountains, and dredge the river." It is said that Dayu was ordered by heaven to control the water and soil, fill the floodwaters with the soil and flatten the hills. , filling depressions and dredging rivers.
This can be called the earliest record of the myth of Dayu's flood control, and it retains the early form of the flood myth in my country.
The four-character sentence pattern with lively rhythm and neat rhythm is quite common in Zhou Dynasty inscriptions.
This is consistent with the use of bronze wares as ritual instruments.
Bronze ritual vessels are often used in important ceremonies such as sacrifices and banquets.
The inscriptions with neat sentences and scattered rhymes are catchy to read and can be matched with music and dance.
The inscriptions on the white plate of Guojizi in the late Western Zhou Dynasty basically consist of four-character sentences and rhyme with Yangsheng words, describing Zibai's military exploits and the rewards of the Zhou king.
The latter paragraph is even ended with a parallel sentence style: "The king gave him a horse, and he used the king of the left; (the king) gave him a bow, and the center of the arrow was sharp; (the king) gave him a tomahawk, and he used political and arrogant recipes; his descendants and grandchildren, thousands of people. Years are boundless." The inscription is rhythmic and beautiful, with strong rhythm and majestic momentum.
Four-character rhyme similar to the neat rhythm is more common in chimes since the Spring and Autumn Period.
The inscriptions on bells often end with congratulatory speeches in the rhyme of "the emperor Xixi, the eyebrows have no end, the children and grandchildren, and the drum will forever be preserved", and the rhythm is quiet and lofty.
Jinwen rhyme is mainly composed of four characters, which is similar to the sentence pattern of "Book of Songs".
Seven-character poems are generally considered to have a late origin, not as early as the Warring States Period.
The inscription on the Fangding Ding of Mao Gong, which is in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, mentioned below provides an early example of the seven-character sentence pattern, which is worth pondering:
Mao's trip to the tripod is also only Gui,
I use my thickness to make my friends full;
Its UF is also filial piety,
If there is no Fushun, it is a test of longevity.
The inscription says that Mao Gong made a dinggui treasure to satisfy his friends; he used it to love his brothers, and he used it to honor his parents.
Mr. Dong Shan talked about this inscription, saying that it has a strict leaf rhythm, a delicate structure and a neat rhythm.
The first three sentences of the inscription are in seven-character rhyme, and the fifth sentence is also in rhyme.
If the "4" and "yes" in the last line are omitted, it will be read as "No Fushun Service Life Test".
In this way, this inscription is a four-sentence seven-character rhyme.
The inscription on the Fangding Ding of Mao Gong may be an accidental seven-character rhyme, but it may be regarded as the origin of the seven-character poem.
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The style of most of the Zhou Dynasty inscriptions can be classified as narrative prose.
The narrative prose in the Zhou Dynasty Jinwen mainly describes the events such as ceremonies, lawsuits, and wars that the Zhou Dynasty nobles participated in, showing relatively superb narrative skills.
The album Mai Fangzun of the Western Zhou Kangwang period has an inscription of 166 characters.
As a historian of Xinghou, the master of the utensils Zuomai records the events of Xinghou Huizong and Zhou debriefing, and then he participated in the sacrifice and shooting ceremony respectively, and was rewarded twice by the king of Zhou.
The first sentence of the inscription first explains the background related to the debriefing event, that is, the king of Zhou ordered Xinghou to move from the original fief (now Xingyang, Henan) to Xing (now Xingtai, Hebei); The whole process of Zongzhou's journey.
The inscriptions involve the transformation of many activities and their places, and the narrative levels are clear.
Mr. Yu Shengwu praised it for its completeness of rules and regulations, and its solemn style of writing.
Some of the inscriptions in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty are records of transactions or disputes between nobles over property such as fields and slaves, reflecting the increasing complexity of social and economic life at that time.
Researchers often regard such records as covenants or legal documents.
Such records are sophisticated, clear in expression, diverse in narrative techniques, and varied in structure, reflecting the maturity of narrative prose in the Zhou Dynasty.
The Qiu Weiding inscription records a dispute over land between two nobles, Qiu Wei and Bang Junli.
On Gengxu, the first month of the fifth year of King Gong, Qiu Wei brought Bangjun Li to the ruling ministers of the dynasty to tell about the disputes between the two. It was judged that the prince of the state swears to carry out the oath; then officials from the Zhou Dynasty, such as the chieftain, Sima, and workman, were dispatched to lead people to survey the soil field and determine the boundary of the transferred soil field; finally, the two parties involved in the soil field survey were listed.
The inscriptions are completely in chronological order, explaining the whole process of the occurrence, development and result of this event.
The Sanshi Pan, which also records the transfer of soil fields, adopts a different narrative method.
This inscription records the process of Uncle San obtaining soil from Uncle Kui during the period of King Li of Zhou.
The first part first explains that Uncle Sui compensated the other party for the soil field due to the destruction of Sanbotian Township, and then records the process of excavating the soil field in detail; the second part records the personnel and government officials of both parties involved in the expedition of the soil field; the third part explains Uncle Sui Order the family members to swear to deliver Tutian faithfully to Uncle San.
Both inscriptions include all aspects of handling Tutian litigation cases: the reason for the lawsuit, the oath of the trial, the survey of the field boundary, the production of documents, etc. However, the Sanshi Pan changed the narrative method, deliberately mentioned the demarcation of the demarcation to the first inscription, and detailed the process of the demarcation. The addition of records is obviously to emphasize this content and to highlight the nature of the disk as a soil-field conciliator.
"Zuo Zhuan" is a sign of the maturity of pre-Qin narrative prose, and its description of war has always been praised by people.
This narrative ability can be traced back to Western Zhou Jinwen.
The inscriptions on Yu Ding, Duoyou Ding, and Jin Hou Su Zhong in the late Western Zhou Dynasty describe the grand battle scene, the description of the war is clear, the rhythm is tense, and it is exciting and vivid.
In the Yu Ding inscriptions belonging to the era of King Li, Yu first described that he had been rewarded by Duke Wu's policy to be in charge of the fief, and then used a retrospective method to state that he was rewarded for his deeds, that is, he won the battle against the Hou of E.
The inscription is passed on to the description of the war with the words "Wuhuuaizai", first emphasizing that "the sky falls and the lower country will be destroyed", which highlights the critical situation; in trouble.
Yu was ordered by Duke Wu at the right time to rescue Wang Shi from the crisis, and conquered the kingdom of E and won a great victory.
In the process of narrating the twists and turns of the war, the inscription twice directly quoted the military orders of the King of Zhou and the Duke of Wu "do not leave the young ones behind", depicting the tragic war that Yu personally experienced as picturesque.
Since the mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, the main body of this kind of narrative prose has begun to have a certain degree of occupation or class differentiation, roughly forming the two divisions of historians and teachers.
The narrative prose written by these two types of creative subjects presents a certain style difference.
Historians are longer than records, and teachers are more important than preaching.
The historians of the Zhou Dynasty were mainly responsible for making documents and recording the words and deeds of the King of Zhou. Most of the inscriptions mentioned above were written by the historians.
The historical wall plate inscriptions in the period of King Gong of the Western Zhou Dynasty can best reflect the narrative style and skills of the historians.
The inscription is 284 characters long and is divided into two sections. The first section praises the merits of Wen, Wu, Cheng, Kang, Zhao, Mu and King Shi, and the second section describes the deeds of the six generations of the Shiqiang family. The language is elegant and the conception is ingenious.
Each character is summed up in highly condensed words to summarize his character and achievements, such as "King Xianshengcheng", "King Hongluzhao", "Qingyou Gaozu", "Rouhui Yizu", etc., which profoundly shows the talent of historians.
Teachers are mainly in charge of education.
According to Mr. Li Xueqin, education in the Western Zhou Dynasty did not distinguish between civil and military, and teachers were both academic officials and military officials.
In the inscriptions made by Shi Shi, he liked to use the way of "Wang said" or "Wang Ruo said", citing the teachings of Zhou Wang, especially in the words of reasoning and preaching.
For example, the inscription on the tripod of Shizai, which is similar to that of the historical wall plate, directly states that the King of Zhou praised Shizai for being able to guide King Mu and make him happy.
The whole article affirms the importance of moral education by repeatedly emphasizing the idea of "virtue".
These two types of creative styles have opened up the precedent of narrative prose and reasoning prose in my country.
(Author: He Jingcheng, professor at the School of Archaeology, Jilin University)