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商周文獻中歷史觀念形成脈絡考

The Formation of Historical Consciousness in the Texts of Shang and Zhou Periods

摘要


筆者認為,能夠反映出一個文明其有成熟歷史觀念的,唯有紀年記錄和敘述性的歷史記載而已。因此,若欲探究商周時期的歷史觀念如何形成,即必須特別看重於甲骨文、金文文獻中的紀年傳統遺蹟。本文主要從三個角度來探討中華文明的歷史觀念形成問題。一是商周文獻的類型、結構,以及其中「歷史記載」的痕跡;二是文獻中關於時間的記錄方式,以及「歷史時間」觀念的形成;三是商周史官任務的演化。就第一項問題來說,現有三種商周文獻:甲骨文、金文、簡冊。其中,甲骨文沒有與占卜或祭祖無關的記錄,甲骨刻辭也沒有歷史記載的目的,因此不能當作「歷史記載」。青銅器銘文的目的是祭祀祖先,本與歷史記載根本無關,但發展至西周後半葉,許多銘文中已含有歷史記載的成份。殷商、西周時期的簡冊雖已不存,但從甲骨金文可知,「冊」都是祭冊和禮冊,並不用以記事,然而在西周後半葉,禮冊也出現了與銘文相同的發展。就第二項問題來說,商代以前的文明中,已有週期性的「自然時間」觀念,殷商時還有另一種「祭禮時間」的週期概念。直至西周後半葉,才有足以稱為歷史記錄的紀年文獻出現,這也是「歷史時間」觀念形成的重要標誌。因此,中國編年史始於西周晚期,不過一直要到戰國晚期,「歷史時間」觀念才變得完整而成熟。就第三項問題來說,史官記錄國家大事的傳統應該也始於西周晚期至春秋時代。若考諸《尚書》、《逸周書》等傳世文獻的用語,其中年代最早的內容,同樣只能溯至西周晚期。是故,不論從各方面來看,中華文明歷史概念之形成都指向完成於西周後半葉。

並列摘要


The author argues that the presence of a historical consciousness in a culture can only be corroborated by the presence of chronicles and archives of events. The emergence of this type of consciousness in Chinese culture is analyzed by observing the appearance of chronicles in ancient texts on bones and bronze. This paper analyses three aspects of this issue: 1) the texts of Shang and Zhou periods (14th-8th centuries B. C. E.) and their historic component; 2) the dates and formation of the concept of "historical time"; 3) the inception of the clerical position of scribes of chronicles. 1) Three types of records were kept in Shang and Zhou: on bones, bronze and bamboo. The bone records do not contain information on topics aside from divination or rituals; they were not intended to retain information on events; therefore, they are not historical records. The bronze records are devoted to the worship of ancestors; they also do not convey information about historic events. However, many bronze epitaphs from the second half of Western Zhou (9th century B. C. E.) do contain records that are partially historical. We do not have extant bamboo records of Shang and Zhou periods, but inferring from what is known about bronze and bones, we can state that they initially contained only religious and ritual records. Again, in the second half of Western Zhou (9th century B. C. E) many bamboo records, as well as bronze epitaphs, began to contain records that are partially historical. 3) Court scribes only appeared at the end of the period of the Western Zhou, at the beginning of the Springs and Autumn period (9th8th centuries B. C. E.) From the point of view of the extant Classic of Documents ( Shangshu) and other documents, the earliest part of these scriptures also was written at the end of the Western Zhou. Therefore I conclude that the historical thinking of Chinese civilization was born in the culture of the second half of the Western Zhou period.

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