Bronze inscription

Inscription of the "Shisong-Ding" (史颂鼎) a Chinese ritual vessel from the Western Zhou dynasty

The bronze inscriptions ( Chinese  金文 , Pinyin jīnwén or 銘文  /  铭文 , míngwén or 鐘鼎文  /  钟鼎文 , zhōngdǐngwén ) belong to a group of writings on Chinese bronzes, such as on Zhong ( 鐘  /  钟 , zhōng  - "bell") and can be found on ritual vessels such as the three-footed thing ( 鼎 , dǐng  - "three- or four-footed bronze ritual vessel"). For centuries, bronze artifacts have been given Chinese characters and can be found in many places in China . The characters in the bronze inscriptions are sometimes irregular in shape, that is, they are not built as regularly and as regularly as in a modern script, both in shape and in size. Bronzes from the Shang dynasty are rarely described, more towards the end, while those of the Zhou dynasty are often described. The inscriptions provide important information about the history of the country and the development of Chinese writing. During the last years of the Daoguang reign (1821-1851) in Qishan , Shaanxi Province , unearthed and now kept in the Palace Museum in Taipei called Maogong-Ding from the late Western Zhou Dynasty has the longest known bronze inscription with 497 characters. The Chinese researchers Guo Moruo and Rong Geng have made a particular contribution to the systematic philological study of these ancient texts .

literature

• Guo, Moruo: Liang Zhou jinwenci daxi kaoshi (Examination of the bronze inscriptions of the Western and Eastern Zhou Dynasties) , Shanghai: Shanghai shuju chubanshe, 1999; ISBN 7-80622-557-9
• Rong, Geng: Jinwenbian (new edition), Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1985

See also

• Oracle bone inscriptions
• Yin Zhou jinwen jicheng

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Bell and Cauldron Inscriptions - Mao Gong Ding (English) and 金文 重 宝 —— 毛公鼎 ( Memento of the original from January 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Chinese) 

Web links

• Chinese bells ("Zhong") (English)
• Illustration of the bronze inscription in the "Dake-Ding / Dake-Ding-Vessel" (大 科 鼎) in the Shanghai Museum (Chinese)
• Kwok Fan Chu: The Question of the Authenticity of the Mao Kung Ting (Maogong ding) Seen from the Use of Its Vocabulary (English)
• Illustration of the bronze inscription of the Maogong ding vessel (Chinese)
• Illustration of the "Shisong-Ding ritual vessel / Shisong-Ding vessel" with 62 characters (exterior view) from the Western Zhou dynasty (Chinese)