Bronze Inscriptions Index: Yin and Western Zhou Volume

Author: East China Normal University, Chinese Literary Research
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-10-01
Features: Bronze inscriptions are the main material textual data of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, possessing 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 research outcomes 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 implement contextual searches at the character level for bronze inscriptions as with traditional literature. The author of this book—the Key Research Base for Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Chinese Character Research and Application Center—has, based on the integration of computer information processing technology into gold inscriptions research, utilized 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 guarantees 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) that were transmitted or unearthed and published by the first half of 2001. This surpasses any previous gold inscription cataloging works.
2. Concise yet Rich Information. The book consists of three main parts: "Interpretation," "Index," and "Character Search." "Interpretation" includes the standardization and punctuation of bronze inscriptions, with identical inscriptions from different vessels merged into a single entry. The names of vessels with the same inscription are marked below, followed by the bibliographic references for each vessel. "Index" lists all sentences containing each character in the "Interpretation." "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, vessels, and bibliographic references at multiple levels with concise textual volume.
3. Comprehensive Retrieval Methods. By developing the "Three-Level Full-Stroke Pinyin Retrieval Code," which is applicable to both original ancient character forms and cursive ancient characters, the book incorporates a large number of previously unsearchable ancient character forms into the retrieval scope, supplemented by stroke-based searches. This solves the problem of single-character retrieval in gold inscriptions, making searches at all levels simple, effective, and user-friendly.
The "Gold Inscription Index" consists of two main parts: "Bronze Inscription Interpretation" and "Bronze Inscription Interpretation Index." The "Interpretation" part includes 9,916 inscriptions collected based on historical catalogs and those published in professional journals over the past two decades, representing an exhaustive search. The compilers not only selected the best existing interpretations but also provided interpretations for inscriptions that had never been previously studied. The "Index" part organizes the book by gold inscriptions, allowing users to retrieve sentences, passages, vessel names, and bibliographic references by character. Particularly noteworthy is the application of computer information processing technology during the compilation of the "Gold Inscription Index." It replaced the traditional manual copying and tracing methods, fully utilizing computer processing to present a clear, elegant, and visually pleasing book to readers. In fact, before compiling the "Gold Inscription Index," the Chinese Character Research and Application Center had already developed the "Gold Inscription Corpus" and the "Gold Character Library." Combined with subsequent computer processing programs such as the "Ancient Text Indexing System," this 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, totaling 1.8 million words.
The book consists of three main parts: "Interpretation," "Index," and "Character Search." The "Interpretation" includes 2,253 vessels (1,692 inscriptions) of Spring and Autumn and Warring States bronze inscriptions published before 2001, with standardized characters and punctuation. 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."