In ancient times, words of praying were often inscribed on the bottom of newly made bronzewares. Such words are now named "Jia-ci". Jia-ci originated in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, with much enrichent and diversification in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Most of the Jia-ci used in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty inscribed bronzes cannot be found in literature today. The scope of their contents is wide, contributing to their being complete reflections of ancient lives and culture. Not only is the notion of providence and spirits in primitive religious beliefs included, but the ancients' quests for immortality, good fortune, peacefulness and power are also revealed. In addition, Jia-ci can be seen as an important criterion for distinguishing the age and origin of bronzewares, due to the strong sense of time and place shown by their use. Variances can often been seen in the forms and use of words differing in the period. Using inscribed bronzes found on the Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronzewares as the focus, alongside their comparison with ancient books found, this study aims to provide a clear picture of Jia-ci in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty with proper cataloguing. / This study contains nine chapters. The first chapter would mainly elaborate the definition and origin of Jia-ci, together with a literature review on inscribed bronzes. Motive and methodology of present studies would also be mentioned. Moreover, Jia-ci are the ancients' words of praying with targets of such praying being gods and ghosts. As a result, the second chapter would provide a completely new research on the notion of providence and spirits in the early Qin Dynasty, assisted by the reference to ancient books and related materials from excavations. The third to eighth chapter would have an in-depth study of more commonly found phrases in Jia-ci according to their content types. In turn, the properties of Jia-ci in terms of forms and wordings, together with the reflected beliefs and religious ideas, would be looked into. The contents of Jia-ci in the Eastern Zhou inscribed bronzes can be primarily divided into four types, namely "the quest for health and longevity", "good fortune", "power of nation" and "peacefulness". Those belonging to "the quest for health and longevity" are chiefly "mei-shou", "wan-nian", "yong-shou", "da-shou", "wan-shou", and so on. The quest for "good fortune" includes "dou-fu", "wan-fu", "da-fu", "duo-xi", "fan-xi", and soon. Concerning "power of nation" are "jun-hui-zai-wei", "jun-ling-zai-wei", "bao-yi-X-guo", "X-bang-shi-bao", "pu-you-s i-fang". The quest for "peacefulness" involves such phrases as "kang-he", "kang-xie", "he-hao", "kang-le", "kang-shu". In these chapters, their time of emergence, rules of use, and evolutions of meanings would be respectively looked into. The ninth chapter would be a conclusion on providing a insight into such aspects as the forms, formulation of maxims, relationships with literature handed down to generations, characteristics of those in specific times, properties of those in specific regions, and cultural contents. / 鄧佩玲. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2006. / 參考文獻(p. 395-414). / Adviser: Kwong Yue Cheung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0543. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2006. / Can kao wen xian (p. 395-414). / Deng Peiling.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_343963 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Contributors | 鄧佩玲., Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Chinese Language and Literature., Deng, Peiling. |
| Source Sets | The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
| Language | Chinese, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, theses |
| Format | electronic resource, microform, microfiche, 1 online resource (534 p. : ill.) |
| Coverage | China, To 600 |
| Rights | Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
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