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Copyright of Early China is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of National Palace Museum Research Quarterly is the property of National Palace Museum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The concept of tianming 天命 (Mandate of Heaven/Heaven's Mandate) is often viewed as a foundational principle of Chinese political culture. However, as paleographic and textual evidence marshalled in our article suggests, during the formative age of this culture—the Eastern Zhou period (eighth through third centuries BCE)—this concept underwent profound changes and lost much of its original appeal. With the de facto collapse of Zhou authority in 771 BCE, tianming became dissociated from the idea of singular and universal rule. Henceforth it could refer to a regional lord's hegemonic power, or the right to rule one's state, or just to an opportune moment or individual destiny. The very idea of Heaven as an activist deity that guaranteed political order was questioned by many, further eroding the appeal of tianming. However, the Western Zhou notion of tianming did not perish altogether. It remained "an ideology in reserve," part of a broad toolkit of political ideas, to be rediscovered and redeployed by Han dynasty imperial ideologues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the earliest attested Chinese manuscripts date only from the late fifth century BC, bronze inscriptions cast between the tenth and eighth centuries BC provide abundant evidence of the administrative use of manuscripts at the royal court, especially during the appointment ceremonies in which the royal secretaries read out the king's command to the aristocratic elite. These command documents were sometimes quoted at length in inscriptions cast on the ritual bronze vessels by these appointees, who had them displayed in their ancestral shrines and used them in ancestral sacrifices and ensuing feasts. Based on the epigraphic evidence, this paper explores various aspects of manuscript production in the Western Zhou administration (1045--771 BC) and investigates the complex editorial process behind the textual transfer from the command documents onto bronze ritual paraphernalia. Through an analysis of various editorial approaches to the composition of bronze inscriptions, the value and status imputed to manuscripts by Western Zhou aristocracy has been further discussed. Such reconstruction of lost manuscript practices can enrich our understanding of textual production not only during the Western Zhou period but in Early China in general.

Volume 8 of Qinghua daxue cang Zhanguo zhujian 清華大學藏戰國竹簡 con-tains a manuscript entitled by the editors * She ming 攝命 (* Command to She) , which they argue is the original version of the ancient-script "Jiong ming" 囧命 ("Command to Jiong") chapter of the Shangshu 尚書. I review the evidence for this and further provide a full translation of the text. I also consider possible implications of the * She ming for Western Zhou history, and how the text may have been transmitted from the time of its original composition, perhaps in the ninth century BCE, to the time that the Tsinghua manuscript was copied, probably in the fourth century BCE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese character ⟨東⟩, writing a word meaning ‘east’, is shown here to have arisen in connection with the use of the vertical gnomon in the determination of cardinal direction. The simple geometric procedure involved—by Al-Bīrūnī (973–1048) termed the “Indian Circle”—is attested across a number of other early cultural contexts, and has a Chinese history traceable from classical-era technical treatises such as the “Kǎogōng jì” 考工記 to sixth-century commentary to the mathematical text Shùshù jìyí 數術記遺. Evidence offered below constitutes the first direct indication for such a practice in second-millennium BCE China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Historia is the property of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Humanitas Taiwanica is the property of National Taiwan University, Humanitas Taiwanica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of LANX is the property of LANX and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Information about several papers discussed at a conference held on November 11-12, 2011 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey organized by the committee members on Shang and Early Chinese civilization is presented. Topics included the studies on oracle bone and bronze inscriptions. The conference featured professors Kuang Yu Chen, Ching-I Tu, Dietrich Tschanz and Ki Cheung Chu.

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the inscriptions and finishing marks present on the surfaces of the thousands of bronze weapons recovered together with the Terracotta Army at the mausoleum complex of Qin Shihuang, the First Emperor of China (259–210BC). After utilising the textual information from the inscriptions to reconstruct aspects of labour organisation and political control during the production of the weapons, the work concentrates on documenting and explaining the techniques employed to produce the inscriptions, to file casting imperfections, and to obtain the smooth, shiny and sharp finish still noticeable on many of the weapons. Silicone rubber impressions of surface features of swords, lances, crossbow triggers and arrows were examined under the scanning electron microscope (SEM), and these observations were supplemented with examination of the artefacts under the stereomicroscope and the SEM. The evidence indicates the use of a variety of chisels for making the inscriptions, and of files for removing excess metal from surfaces. In addition, the grinding and polishing marks demonstrate the large-scale, systematic use of rotary wheels to achieve an ideal final polish. These findings are contextualised in the broader history of Chinese metallurgy, with special attention to the emergence of iron tools and of rotary mechanical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the first archaeometric, nondestructive analysis of a bronze tablet unearthed in 1986 in the Hittite city wall in Hattuša which is located in Turkey. The discussion focuses on the preserved state of a 13th-century BC treaty inscribed on the metal tablet. Speculation on the technical aspects of Hittite metal production and the purpose of alloys applied to the tablet and attached chains are part of the discussion. Examination of the tablet's chemical composition with energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence found the elements copper, iron, lead, cobalt, nickel, zinc, and tin.

The article looks at the Fu state of China's ancient Zhou dynasty, analyzing information taken from bronze inscriptions of the period. Bamboo slips are examined which suggest that Fu county existed in the state of Chu during the early and middle Warring States. The author speculates on the origin of the Fu state, believing that it was established by a southern branch of the northern nomadic Rong-Di people in the Fuyang Marquisate of the Han dynasty, currently the west area of Tongbai County in Henan Province, China.

Through a comparative word count of the bronze inscriptions, we have discovered that the "good fortune" words surfaced gradually in the inscriptions. They germinated during the time of King Kang of Zhou, mushroomed during the period of King Zhao, and became a set pattern during the time of King Gong. As a source of intellectual history, the bronze inscription good fortune words reflected family consciousness and meaning of life. They can also serve as the tool for dating the bronze inscriptions, and, through a comparison with the good fortune words in the Book of Songs, we can also use them to ascertain the dates of certain chapters of the Odes. In this way, they are very helpful to our discourses on certain issues in the history of the Book of Songs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses about the fragmentary epigraph Lex Agraria, which was published by Lintott and Crawford back in 1992 and 1996 that led to a new development wherein aside from the arrangement of the twelve surviving fragments of the law and the shape of the bronze plate where the laws were engraved, it has also shed light on some of the meanings of the passages which were found by the experts to be obscure. The article provides an overview of some of the explanations on the provision of the Lex Agraria and other views and commentaries made by experts on the particular epigraph.

The article examines the remnants of the Chinese writing which has been found beyond the culture area in China. It explores the studies involving materials from Roman/Parthian Syria, South China in the Bronze Age, and Los Angeles, California in the early 20th century including inscribed silk, bronzes, and porcelain. It describes the semantic dimensions conveyed by the inscriptions in their original cultural environment. The author also views on the ideas taken by the inscribed objects in the contexts in which they have been diffused. Information on the results of the studies is also offered.

The article describes the bronze spear butts, which were dedicated at different sanctuaries in the Peloponnesos and discovered in Greece. One of the bronze spear butts was found at Olympia and bears an inscription, while the other was identified in the precinct of Apollo Korythos near Korone in Messenia and carries a fragmentary dedication. L. H. Jeffery hypothesized that the first dedication at Olympia records an unknown defeat of the Lakedaimonians by the people of Methana, however, the second is unrelated to the Methanians of the Argolid and should be connected with the perioikic town known as Methone or Mothone.

The article analyzes the inscription on the bronze bottle excavated from the vicinity of the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan in 1972. The inscription was paleographically dated c. 600 B.C., but no report on its exact location can be given. It is described as having 8 lines that depict a special work of Amminadab, the king of Ammonites. The English translation of the inscription is presented.

The article focuses on the historiography of Golden Horde studies. It features the engagement of Russian academician Ch. M. Fraehn to the study, saying that Fraehn has studied inscriptions on bronze mirrors of the said period from the Middle Volga region. Moreover, it states that the problems associated to the toreutics of Golden Horde were already investigated by A. A. Spitsyn and Ya. I. Smirnov at the beginning of 20th century.