On Identity of"田"in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Related Issues
The military oracle inscription of the宾组,《合集》6057,recorded the historical facts of the invasion of the Shang Dynasty.In the past,most views accepted by the academia explain"田"as the field,"田几人"refers to several people of the field.Oracle bone inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty and bronze inscriptions in the early Western Zhou Dynasty,there was no one who used"人"as quantifier to modify"田",but"田几田"was a common expression in the bronze inscriptions.In the oracle bone inscriptions,"人几人","刍几人","人","刍"refer to a person of certain status,then"田"in"田几人"should also refer to a status.Therefore,the word"示某田"of"示"can be read as"寘",which is the meaning of putting"田人"in a place.What"田"reflected was a way of territorial expansion of the Shang Dynasty.
oracle bone inscriptionsmilitary oracle示(至來)田territorial expansion
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