| Generalist studies of writing have lately reinvigorated thinking about the origin of the Chinese script, with focus in newer work directed to the nature of the particular "recording" or "proto-writing" system or systems which might have prompted subsequent developments. Most recently, David W. Pankenier has offered that the archaic dating cycles of ten and twelve members known respectively as the Tiān Gān ("Heavenly Stems") and Dì Zhī ("Earthly Branches") constituted some portion of the orthography's ultimate developmental core: he suggests most generally that these two sequences, lying at the heart of Shāng-era cultic and calendrical practice, may have been devised in relation to early astro-calendrical concerns. Previous attempts by the current author to elaborate both Pankenier's general idea and his more specific proposal of a stellar Dīng, fourth of the denary Stems, may indicate that the twenty-two calendrical signs were indeed first conceived in representation of highly particular astronomical constructs—asterisms proximate to the ecliptic and lunar phases—instrumental in prehistoric Chinese steps towards the reification and organization of time and the cosmos.;This dissertation moves to extend the same investigation, again primarily by the methodologies of paleography and of historical linguistics. Chapter 1 introduces general issues—spoken word, written symbol and the early and fluid interaction of these two domains in relation to early cosmological conceptions—by reference to the glyph ⟨[Special character omitted.]⟩ and an associated word huáng 'jade ring' which found at an early date metaphorical reapplication to the diurnal and annual circuits of the sun. Chapter 2 turns to consider the origins of the glyph, writing most typically the word xià 'summer' and suggested as first depicting the key element of an early delineation of the northern circumpolar region of the celestial sphere into "seasonal" deific components. Chapter 3 considers archaeological indications from the Late Neolithic site at Língjiātān, Ānhuī province, for the emergence of formative portions of the larger astronomical and religious framework implied by the present and earlier results, offering in conclusion an adjusted description of the genesis of the Chinese script beginning from the proposed interrelated sets of cosmo-calendrical recording systems. |
