摘要
一、序文殷卜辞中完整的四方风材料,迄今所见共有两版,一为记事刻辞,见《甲骨文合集》14294版(图一),释文如下: 东方曰析,凤(风)曰协。南方曰因,凤(风)曰微。
The real meanings of the names for the four directions and the four winds recorded in oracle inscriptions of the Yin period aren't related to farming activities as believed traditionally, but reflect a close concern about astronomic and phenologic phenomena. Actually, the combination of the four directions and winds from them constituted a complete, independent system of standard time in the Yin period and became an impor- tant one of the bases on which the Yin people established their calendar. The Yin gods of the four directions were the divinities of the equinoxes and solsti- ces. The god of east, named Xi 析, and that of west, named Yi 彝, controlled the spring and autumn equinoxes respectively. Judging from the ancient meaning of the two characters, i. e. equal division, these names were obviously derived from the knowledge of the ancient Chinese about the equal length of daytime and night on the two equinoc- tial days. The god of south, named Yin 因, or Chi 遟, and that of north, named Shu 九, controlled the summer and winter solstices respectively. Yin (Chi)meant 'long' while Shu 'short' in ancient times: they expressed that daytime at the summer solstice was extremely long and at the winter solstice, extremely short. The Yin names of the four winds reflect phenologic signs at the equinoxes and sols- tices. At first, such description of climatic features was represented by the indication of birds' and animals' phenologic signs at the four times. A palaeosemantic study of the names for the four winds shows their primitive meanings: the name of east wind Xie 协 expressed 'mutual joining' and meant originally the bird' and animal's mating, a sign of the harmony of the positive and the negative at the spring equinox; the name of south wind Wei 微, scarceness, originally the thinness of the bird's feathers and the animal's fur,a sign of hot weather at the summer solstice: the name of west wind Xian (?), the latency of flourish, originally the regrowing of the bird's feathers and the ani- mal's fur, a sign of the autumn equinox when heat was gone and cold would come; the name of north wind Yi 役, flourish, originally the full growth of the bird's fea- thers and the anunal's fur, a sign of severe cold at the winter solstice. All these are weld kept in the book Shang Shu, the chapter 'Yao Dian' 《尚书·尧典》. Dealing with the early concept 'four times', i. e. four calendrical mark-points, and its relation to the circle of farming season and the four seasons, the author points out that by the Yin period, the system of four solar terms, i. e. two equinoxes and two solstices, had been established and the winter and spring had been distinguished to fit in with the circle of agricultural production, but the two systems hadn't eventually been combined to develop the notion of the four seasons.
出处
《考古学报》
CSSCI
北大核心
1994年第2期131-154,共24页
Acta Archaeologica Sinica
