Gold Script Index - Yin and Western Zhou Volume

Author: Center for the Study of Chinese Characters, East China Normal University
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2001-10-01
Features: Bronze inscriptions are the primary material textual evidence of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, holding significant academic research value in multiple aspects. Since the Han Dynasty, especially since the Qing Dynasty, numerous scholars have conducted fruitful research and interpretation on bronze inscriptions, achieving substantial results. However, these interpretive achievements have yet to be comprehensively compiled. Particularly due to the structural characteristics of ancient characters, traditional indexing methods have faced insurmountable obstacles, making it impossible to fully realize contextual searches at the character level for bronze inscriptions as with transmitted texts. The authors of this book—the Center for the Study of Chinese Characters, East China Normal University, a key research base for humanities and social sciences under the Ministry of Education—have, based on the integration of computer information processing technology into the study of gold inscriptions, leveraged the convenience provided by the "Gold Inscription Corpus" and the "Gold Character Library" to finally compile this "Gold Inscription Index." At the same time, the book ensures the following features:
1. Comprehensive Collection of Materials. The book includes 13,271 bronze inscriptions (9,916 from the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, and 3,255 from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods) up to the first half of 2001, encompassing both transmitted and unearthed inscriptions that have been published. This surpasses any previous specialized gold inscription catalog.
2. Concise yet Rich Information. The book is divided into three main parts: "Interpretation," "Index," and "Character Search." The "Interpretation" section presents the collation and punctuation of bronze inscriptions, merging identical inscriptions from different vessels into a single entry, with the names of all vessels bearing the same inscription listed below. The important catalogs of each vessel are then marked. The "Index" lists all sentences containing each character in the "Interpretation." The "Character Search" indicates the page numbers of all single characters in the "Index." Through this arrangement, repetition is minimized, and a retrieval system is established that efficiently searches for sentences, passages, vessel names, and vessel catalogs at multiple levels using concise textual volume.
3. Comprehensive Retrieval Methods. By developing a "three-level full-spelling retrieval code" suitable for both original ancient character forms and cursive ancient characters, the book incorporates a vast number of originally unsearchable ancient character forms into the effective retrieval range, supplemented by stroke-based searches. This solves the challenge of single-character retrieval for gold inscriptions, making searches at all levels simple, effective, and easy to operate.
The "Gold Inscription Index" consists of two main parts: "Bronze Inscription Interpretation" and "Bronze Inscription Interpretation Index." The "Interpretation" section includes 9,916 inscriptions based on catalogs from past dynasties and those published in professional journals over the past two decades, representing an exhaustive collection. The compilers not only adopted the best existing interpretations but also provided interpretations for inscriptions that had yet to be studied. The "Index" section organizes the book around individual gold characters, allowing users to retrieve sentences, passages, vessel names, and catalogs associated with each character. Particularly noteworthy is the application of computer information processing technology during the compilation of the "Gold Inscription Index," which replaced the traditional manual copying and tracing methods with fully computerized processing, presenting a clear, elegant, and aesthetically pleasing book to readers. In fact, before compiling the "Gold Inscription Index," the Center for the Study of Chinese Characters had already developed the "Gold Inscription Corpus" and the "Gold Character Library," along with a series of computer processing programs such as the "Ancient Text Indexing System." These advancements ensured that the editing and processing of the "Gold Inscription Index" were both fast and of high quality.
The "Gold Inscription Index: Shang and Western Zhou Volume" is a large 16-page hardcover book with a total of 1.8 million words. It is divided into three parts: "Interpretation," "Index," and "Character Search." The "Interpretation" section includes 1,692 inscriptions from 2,253 bronze vessels (2253 from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods) published in books and journals before 2001, with collation and punctuation provided. The "Index" lists all sentences containing each character in the "Interpretation," while the "Character Search" indicates the page numbers of all single characters in the "Index."