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Using Sequential Relations of Day-Dates to Determine the Temporal Scope of Western Zhou Lunar Phase Terms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 August 2014
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Abstract
The meaning of the lunar phase terms in bronze inscriptions is a difficult problem in Western Zhou chronology. Scholars have attempted to discover their meanings by various means, including philological and textual analysis and by dating the inscriptions to specific historical contexts and to the reigns of particular kings. But because there are a number of uncertainties about the early texts, the reigns to which bronze vessels belong, as well as the lengths of reign of the Western Zhou kings, several different interpretations of lunar phases still persist. The present article presents a method which avoids the questions of historical date and reign length, and instead investigates the possible range of meaning of each lunar phase term by means of the relational constraints imposed by the calendar dates themselves. Seven groups of materials were selected, each having two or more lunar phases and calendar dates so their separation in days could be calculated. Within each group of inscriptions arithmetic constraints then make it possible to establish the range of days to which the lunar phase term could possibly refer. The results obtained from the seven groups are all consistent: jishengba and jisiba ought to refer to the waxing and waning halves of the month, respectively. Chuji refers to certain days at the beginning of the month, probably the first occurrence of the auspicious heavenly stems (gan 干).
金文月相詞語的含義是西周年代學研究的一個難題。學者或通過訓詁 學和古文獻學的方法、或通過將材料放入具體的王世和歷史年代的方 法，試圖找到其真正的含義。但因早期文獻、銅器所屬王世和西周王 年本身都有諸多不確定性，因此金文月相詞語的含義至今仍聚訟紛 紜。本文設計一種方法，避開每件銅器屬於哪個王世以及每個王在位 的歷史年代的問題，由曆日的相對限制關係探討各個月相詞語在當時 可能包含的範圍。具體做法是選擇 7 組材料——其中有 4 組只包含一件 銅器，另外 3 組包含多件銅器——每一組都含有兩個或兩個以上的月相 和曆日，各曆日之間相距的日數可以計算出來。通過同一組材料中多 個曆日的相互限制關係，可以確定其中月相詞語的可能範圍。7 組材 料得到的結果互相洽合：既生霸和既死霸的範圍當分別包含一個月的 上半月和下半月，初吉是一個月前面的若干日，大約是指初幹吉日。
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References
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3. These four vessel inscriptions were first suggested to me by Professor Li Xueqin 李學勤 who advised me to analyze lunar phase terms using the methodology adopted here. Jin Hou Su zhong was found in 1996; see Chengyuan, Ma 馬承源, “Jin Hou Su bianzhong” 晉侯蘇編鐘, Shanghai bowuguan jikan 上海博物館集刊 7 (1996)Google Scholar. For the Jing fang ding, see Xueqin, Li 李學勤, “Jing fang ding yu Zhou Zhaowang liri” 靜方鼎與周昭王 曆日, in Xia shang zhou niandaixue zhaji 夏商周年代學劄記 (Shenyang: Liao ning daxue, 1999), 22–30Google Scholar. Hu ding was found in mid-Qing, and first recorded in Ruan Yuan's 阮元 Ji gu zhai zhong ding yi qi kuan shi 積古齋鐘鼎彝器款識. Zuoce Hu you was first published in Mengjia, Chen 陳夢家, “Xizhou tongqi duandai (2)” 西周銅器斷代 (二), Kaogu xuebao 10 (1955), 69–142Google Scholar, which dated the vessel to King Cheng's reign.
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5. In the “four-phase” hypothesis, jiwang refers to days 16–23, in the “four fixed- days” hypothesis jiwang refers to the day immediately after full moon, and in the “bisection plus two short periods” hypothesis jiwang refers to several days after the full moon. See Ye, “Ershi shiji yilai xizhou jinwen yuexiang wenti yanjiu zongshu.”
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初吉，謂自一日至七八日也；二曰既生霸，謂自八九日以降至於十四五日 也；三曰既望，謂十五六日以後至二十二三日；四曰既死霸，謂自二十三 日以後至於晦也
chuji refers to the period from the first to the seventh or eighth day of a month, jishengba refers to the period from the eighth or ninth day to the fourteenth or fifteenth day, jiwang refers to the period from the fifteenth or sixteenth to the twenty-second or twenty-third day, and jisiba refers to the period from the twenty-third to the last day of the lunar month
See Wang, “Shengba siba kao.”
11. For example, David S. Nivison, “The Dates of Western Chou.”
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