A Study Of The Bin Li In Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions

The Western Zhou was the heyday of ancient Chinese ritual development,inheriting from the Yin etiquette and developing in its own way.The etiquette system developed during this period had a profound impact on later generations and is an important element in the study of pre-Qin etiquette system.Using a multidisciplinary approach,this thesis examines the Western Zhou etiquette and related issues through a comprehensive analysis of literature,oracle bones and bell-cauldron inscription,and archaeological materials.The main points of this thesis are summarised as follows:It is a special form of etiquette for the interaction between the Son of Heaven and his vassals,and was born out of the need for the Son of Heaven,the vassals and other members of the noble class to interact with each other.It includes the etiquette of bridegrooming,the etiquette of having the audience with the emperor,the etiquette of presence and the etiquette of meeting.According to the records of oracle bone inscriptions,Bin-li had existed in the Shang Dynasty.In the inscriptions,there are some written materials describing the communication between princes,ministers and kings of Shang Dynasty,and there are symbolic words that clearly indicate the meaning of pilgrimage and employment.This paper holds that this is an early guest ceremony.The guest ceremony in the Shang Dynasty mainly had two forms : pilgrimage and questioning.The two had been quite mature in the ceremony,and the role of messengers in the questioning activities began to appear.There are also inscriptions in the inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty that reflect the patrol ceremony and the alliance ceremony.The patrol ceremony and the alliance ceremony in this period are mainly aimed at military expeditions.The etiquette nature of the guest ceremony is not significant,but its ritual procedures have begun to be standardized.The above shows that the guest ceremony has been formed in the late Shang Dynasty,and the development is relatively mature.The Western Zhou Dynasty was the most prosperous period of ancient Bin-li.The Bin-li of the Western Zhou Dynasty have made great progress in terms of the type,scale and content of Bin-li.According to the records of the guest ceremony in the Western Zhou Dynasty,the guest ceremony was gradually developed and improved over time.The description of the guest ceremony in the early Western Zhou Dynasty is relatively simple,and it is similar to the relevant records of the bronze inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty.The early form of the guest ceremony inherited from the late Shang Dynasty,and the etiquette of the bride price and the pilgrimage ceremony was further improved.’ Wang sent envoys to the princes ’ became a fixed mode of the bride price.In addition,Yinjian-li became popular as another form of the guest ceremony during this period.In the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty,the development of the guest ceremony was flourishing,and the royal ministers began to have the right to exercise part of the inquiry on behalf of the Zhou King;the princes,the princes and so on became the mainstream of the guest ceremony at this time,and began to pay attention to the relationship between the guest ceremony and other etiquette.In the late Western Zhou Dynasty,the dowry and the pilgrimage were still the main forms of the guest ceremony,but the dowry in this period was mainly based on the governors.In addition,the late pilgrimage rites and Yin ’s rites are currently only recorded in the inscriptions of the Xuanwang period,mostly with the main purpose of appeasing the Yi state to maintain the rule of the Zhou royal family.But at this time,the Zhou royal family was at the end of the strong crossbow.’ Historical Records · Zhou Benji’ records : ’ The king abused the tyranny and arrogance ’ During the reign of more than 30 years,the struggle for profits with the people made the people tired of life,and the class contradictions were further intensified,so that the royal family ’s deterrence was no longer,and the phenomenon that the princes did not dynasty became the norm.Even if Xuan Wang tried to revive,he still could not restore the declining trend.By the time of You Wang,the politics and religion had declined,and the degree of ritual collapse had further deepened.The royal family had been unable to follow the pre-existing system to ask the vassals and perform a series of rituals such as pilgrimage.It was also impossible to register and reward the vassals who came to the court until the Eastern Zhou Dynasty began to fade out of the historical stage of the ruling class.In addition,the three rituals of the Zhou dynasty are described in the ’Three Rites’,which include a description of the attendants and utensils involved in the rituals,and a review of their duties and functions in conjunction with the gold records.It can be seen that each of the rituals of the Zhou dynasty had a corresponding official with a corresponding instrument to assist in the performance of the rituals,and that the objects presented were of different specifications depending on the rank and purpose of the guest and the political achievements of the vassal.It is clear that the rituals of the time were well developed.The combination of the Western Zhou bell-cauldron inscription and the surviving records of the rituals of the Binyan shows that the main rituals were generally consistent with the documents,except that they are more detailed.However,some of the details of the rituals used in practice differ from those recorded in the documents.Firstly,the specific titles of the rituals are not the eight that are recorded in the Zhou Rites,but rather the four main types of rituals,namely the Hajj,the Hajj,the Meeting,and the Yin See,along with the rituals of archery and entertainment.Secondly,there are no strict restrictions on the time and place of the rituals or on the object of the rituals,which are usually ordered by the king.To sum up,the ancient bin-li ceremony in the Shang Dynasty has been quite rich,but the etiquette system is not systematic;with the further development of the Western Zhou Dynasty,it became a relatively complete etiquette system in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty,as an indispensable etiquette for the emperor of Zhou to maintain political rule at that time.By comparing the bronze inscription of the Western Zhou Dynasty with the literature handed down from ancient times,it is found that there are still differences between the two in the specific procedures of the ritual process and the utensils used,which indicates that the ritual text of the Western Zhou Dynasty has not been completely finalized,or the ritual system of later generations has been changed because it was used by people at that time.