The Writing System of Scribe Zhou: Evidence from Late Pre-imperial Chinese Manuscripts and Inscriptions (5th-3rd Centuries BCE)

Haeree Park

Open Access Published by De Gruyter 2016

The Writing System of Scribe Zhou

Evidence from Late Pre-imperial Chinese Manuscripts and Inscriptions (5th-3rd Centuries BCE)

Haeree Park

Volume 4 in the series Studies in Manuscript Cultures

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110459302

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book investigates the nature of regional variation in the early Chinese writing system through bamboo manuscripts and inscriptions dating from the late pre-imperial China (5th-3rd centuries BCE). Diachronic and synchronic comparisons of graphic details show that none of the well-recognized regional varieties developed independently from one another. Furthermore, differences in graphic components can be accounted for as alternations of graphs that are compatible in their semantic or phonetic values. The phonological systems underlying various regional orthographies unanimously point to a single coherent sound system with some mixture of dialect pronunciations. This strongly suggests that all the late pre-imperial regional scripts derived from a kind of orthographic meta-system based on one spoken standard language. This orthography and its phonological systems should reasonably be dated to ca. 9th century BCE, just about the time when the earliest known Chinese lexicography "Book of Scribe Zhou" (ca. 830 BCE) was written. The conclusions of this book have further implications on reading and understanding manuscript texts in general as well as on using them as data for linguistic studies.

Author / Editor information

Haeree Park, University of Hamburg.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Symbols and Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
1. Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	1
2. The Old Chinese phonology Publicly Available Download PDF	31
3. The Shanghai “Zhouyi” and the Warring States script Publicly Available Download PDF	73
4. The Chu Script Publicly Available Download PDF	139
5. The Shanghai “Zhouyi” and the Early Chinese Orthography Publicly Available Download PDF	171
6. Conclusions Publicly Available Download PDF	241
Appendix I: A Lexicon of the Shanghai “Zhouyi” Publicly Available Download PDF	247
Appendix II: Index of Synonymous Significs and Equivalent Phonophorics Publicly Available Download PDF	311
Index of Equivalent Phonophorics Publicly Available Download PDF	317
References Publicly Available Download PDF	323

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars, libraries, institutes (esp. Chinese studies, manuscript studies)
Pages
- Front matter: 14
- Main content: 328
Keywords: Pre-imperial China; writing culture; orthography; bamboo manuscripts

eBook

Published: February 22, 2016
ISBN: 9783110459302

Hardcover

Published: February 22, 2016
ISBN: 9783110449440