Evolution of the inscriptions on the Bronze Mirror of Han Dynasty in the Furnace Smoke

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 1008-1020
Author(s):  
Xu Zhongfeng
Keyword(s):  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
New Process ◽  
Bamboo Slips ◽  
Level Design ◽  
Bronze Mirrors ◽  
Aesthetic Characteristics

The Chinese characters evolution fromseal script to clerical script in Han Dynasty underwent one a new process of development and stability from top-level design to folk application, where the most important relic, inscriptions of bronze mirror, together with the bamboo slips and stele inscriptions, constituted the basic calligraphy aestheticsat that time, forming historical legends in the smoke of casting. Among the mirrors of Han Dynasty, there are a lot of surviving inscription mirrors, the chirography on which has extremely rich subjective design, showing important aesthetic characteristics. Most of the previous writings have tended to study explanation and entry, and there are few studies based on the chirography. The classification and analysis of the considerable and complex inscriptions of bronze mirror based on archaeological typology indicate that at different stages and in different regions, the sources of popular materials are similar, with typical styles gradually appearing, different creative effects, as well as fresh and interesting cases. Comparing the inscription chirography with bamboo and wood slips and calligraphy on rubbings, it is possible to see the combination of “mirror caster” and “ Daobili (petty official drawing up indictments)”, new calligraphic patterns appear in the smoke of the fire. The calligraphy is applied to bronze mirrors, and is cut and transformed by the craftsmen to be suitable for deformation, so that the character shape is integrated with bronze and stone tablet casting, presenting a unique decorative taste and design meaning, carrying the open and inclusive spirit of Han Dynasty.

The excavation of the burial M8 at the Zhoujiazhai Cemetery in Suizhou, Hubei

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-114 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Hubei Province ◽  
Ancient China ◽  
Western Han Dynasty ◽  
Bamboo Slips ◽  
Lower Ranking ◽  
Game Board ◽  
Grave Goods

Abstract The burial M8 excavated at the Zhoujiazhai Cemetery in Suizhou City, Hubei Province in 2014 was a vertical earthen shaft pit burial with one coffin chamber and one coffin. The grave goods unearthed from this burial were mainly lacquered and wooden wares, including flask, eared cup, lian-cosmetic case, figurines, bi-disc, ladder-shaped object, T-shaped object, liubo-game board, bamboo case, etc. The occupant of this burial is estimated to be a lower-ranking official in the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. In the bamboo case unearthed from the burial, ink-written “gaodishu (letter informing the underground)” on wooden tablets are found, and hundreds of bamboo slips with text of“ rishu (almanac) ” were also unearthed, which are significantly meaningful for the studies on the rishu of the Qin and Han Dynasties and the date-selecting system in ancient China.

Yue Ren, Luli, and Anlu: the Tomb Occupant of Yunmeng Shuihudi Han Tomb No. 77 and the Village Where He Resided

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-274
Author(s):  
Chen Wei ◽  
Cai Dan
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Western Han Dynasty ◽  
The Third ◽  
Bamboo Slips ◽  
The Village ◽  
Office Assistant

By examining the excavated bamboo slips and boards of Shuihudi 睡虎地 Western Han tomb no. 77 in Yunmeng 雲夢, it is possible to know that the name of the tomb occupant was Yue Ren 越人 and that he served as an Office Assistant 官佐 in Anlu 安陸 County from the ninth year (171 bce.) of the reign of Western Han Emperor Wendi 文帝 (r. 180–157 bce.) to the seventh year (157 bce.) of the Houyuan 後元 era (163–157 bce.) of his reign. In addition, we can understand a number of the actions and life events of Yue Ren and his colleagues and family members, and know that in the tenth month of the third year of the Houyuan era of Wendi’s reign (161 bce.), Yue Ren and his family moved their residence to Luli 路里. Moreover, by analyzing the slips and boards of tomb no. 77, and viewing these in connection with lacquerware items on which are inscribed two graphs spelling out “Luli” 路里 excavated from the Shuihudi Qin tombs, it can be concluded that from the Qin dynasty to the early Western Han dynasty, residents of Luli were entombed in the cemetery at Shuihudi. This provides what is currently the strongest evidence for arguing that the ancient walled town at Yunmeng 雲夢古城—also referred to as the “Walled Town of the Chu King” 楚王城—is the ruins of the walled town that was seat of Anlu County in the Qin and Han periods.

The Laoguanshan Cemetery of the Han Dynasty in Tianhui Town, Chengdu City

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Acupuncture Points ◽  
Western Han Dynasty ◽  
Bamboo Slips ◽  
Medical Theory ◽  
Presence And Absence ◽  
Grave Goods

AbstractIn July 2012 through August 2013, four earthen shaft pit tombs with wooden chambers were excavated in a cemetery of the Western Han Dynasty located in Tianhui Town, Jinniu District, Chengdu City. All of the four tombs, which had been looted and disturbed, were in similar sizes and same south-north orientation, and could be classified into two types by the presence and absence of the bottom chambers. 620 pieces of grave goods were unearthed from these tombs, most of which were lacquered wooden wares and pottery wares, as well as some bronzes and iron objects. The most important discoveries are the over 50 wooden tablets unearthed from M1, the jade seal and four loom models made of bamboo and wood unearthed from M2 and 920 (numbered) bamboo slips and lacquered human figurine with marks of meridians and acupuncture points unearthed from M3. The bamboo slips unearthed from M3 were mostly medical works, the contents of which were about medical theory, meridian and pulse, diagnoses, causes and symptoms of diseases and the treating of diseases, etc.

scholarly journals Cognates of Old Chinese *-n, *-r, and *-j 
in Tibetan and Burmese

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan W. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Old Chinese

Following a suggestion of Starostin (1989), Baxter & Sagart (2011) reconstruct *-n, *-j, and *-r as distinct finals in Old Chinese. These three finals have regular correspondences in Tibetan and Burmese. The Trans-Himalayan proto-language distinguished *-n, *-j, *-r, *-l, and *-rl. Burmese loses *-r and generally loses *-l, except after -u-, where it changes to -y. Tibetan loses *-y and changes *-rl to -l. Chinese changes *-rl to *-r. Because Burmese shows different reflexes for *aj (-ay) and *əj (> -i), the merger of *ə and *a in Tibetan and Burmese are independent innovations; and this merger does not confirm a ‘Tibeto-Burman’ subgroup (contra Handel 2008). These correspondences require confirmation through further research on evidence of *-r in the Min dialects and Han dynasty Buddhist transcriptions from Indic languages in Chinese characters.


Marquis of Haihun’s tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in Nanchang, Jiangxi

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-59
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Main Chamber ◽  
Western Han Dynasty ◽  
Bamboo Slips ◽  
Settlement Site ◽  
Truncated Pyramid ◽  
Cultural Relics

AbstractSince March 2011, Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other institutions conducted excavation to Marquis of Haihun’s tomb of the Western Han Dynasty located on the Guodun Hill in Datangping Township, Xinjian District, Nanchang City. Marquis of Haihun’s tomb consisted of the burial mound in the shape of a truncated pyramid, the grave in a 甲 -shaped plan and the rectangular wooden coffin chamber. The wooden coffin chamber was partitioned into the main chamber, the passage, the ambulatory-shaped storage quarters and the corridor. The artifacts unearthed from the tomb included gold objects, bronzes, jades, lacquered and wooden wares, textiles, pottery wares, bamboo slips and wooden tablets, etc. Referring to the unearthed artifacts and the relevant historic textual materials, the occupant of this tomb is estimated to be Liu He, the first generation of the Marquis of Haihun of the Western Han Dynasty. The site of the Purple Gold City, the graveyards of the Marquises of Haihun of all of the generations and the cemeteries of the noble and common peoples formed the largest and best preserved settlement site of marquisate of the Han Dynasty found to date with the richest connotations.

On the cognitive strategy of ideographic writing: Taking the semanto-phonetic structure of Chu bamboo-strip scripts as an example

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Kehe Zang
Keyword(s):  
Structural Type ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Character System ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
History Of Evolution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese Writing

Ideographic writings, such as Chinese characters, do not lay stress on the pronunciation of characters. However, the so-called function of indicating meaning has been reduced in the long history of evolution. A question then arises as to whether it is necessary to maintain such complex structures for modern writings. The main structural type of Chinese character system became the ‘semanto-phonetic structure’ long ago. Shuowen jiezi is the earliest extant compilation of Chinese characters, in which semanto-phonetic characters account for about 81% of the total characters. In fact, the Chu bamboo-strip scripts of the Warring States, which are much earlier than Shuowen jiezi of the Han Dynasty, had demonstrated such a tendency. Its primary reason is to differentiate new meanings from the extant meanings, and to create orthographs. The preference of semanto-phonetic structure in the development of Chinese writing is more convenient in terms of the cognitive classification of Chinese characters than in emphasizing the phonetic function of phonetics.

Mirror Mold Reuse Techniques in Ancient East Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 983 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Yasuji Shimizu ◽  
Takashi Uno ◽  
Fuminori Sugaya ◽  
Takushi Toyooka ◽  
Katsuro Shimizu
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Bronze Mirrors

Re-using technique of casting molds for “bronze mirrors with triangular rims and designs of divinities and animals” have been considered. Presence of the same carving decorative patterns have recognized because crack marks of the surface of mirror are comparable. Although this technique was applied for casting of bronze mirrors in ancient Japan, it was presence in the Linzi site in Early Han Dynasty in China.

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