Graphs, Words, and Meanings: Three Reference Works for Shang Oracle-Bone Studies, with an Excursus on the Religious Role of the Day or Sun

All three of the reference works under review will assist scholars who wish to survey the usages and meanings of particular words and phrases that appear in the corpus of the Shang oracle-bone inscriptions. Yinxu jiagu keci leizuan is essentially a needed update of Shima Kunio's invaluable conc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 117; no. 3; pp. 507 - 524
Main Author Keightley, David N.
Format Book Review Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ann Arbor American Oriental Society 01.07.1997
Subjects
Bibliography
Chinese language
History
Inscriptions
Oracle bones
Oracles
Religious beliefs
Review Articles
Sinologists
Sun
Word meaning
Words
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Summary:All three of the reference works under review will assist scholars who wish to survey the usages and meanings of particular words and phrases that appear in the corpus of the Shang oracle-bone inscriptions. Yinxu jiagu keci leizuan is essentially a needed update of Shima Kunio's invaluable concordance. Kôkotsumoji jishaku sôran represents a streamlined and far more comprehensive development of Li Xiaoding's collected commentaries. All three works under review are major scholarly resources; the two works published in Beijing, however, especially Leizuan, need to be used with some caution. The article ends with a demonstration, initially inspired by a transcription error in the Leizuan, that shows how these works may be used to study one Shang graph in context. The examples cited suggest that the "sun" or "day" played a greater role in divinations about the Shang ancestral cult than has usually been thought.
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ISSN:0003-0279
2169-2289
DOI:10.2307/605249