A Study on the Evolution of the Word"Shu(黍)"in Excavated Documents from the Pre-Qin,Qin,and Han Dynasties
In this paper,we integrate the knowledge of bibliography,philology,and exegetics to explore the evolution of the word"shu(黍)"in the unearthed documents from the Pre-Qin,Qin,and Han dynasties.During the Shang dynasty,"shu(黍)"was predominantly used to record this term,with a few instances of another character,which is only seen in the inscriptions of Huayuanzhuang Dongdi.In the Western Zhou period,no definite"shu(黍)"has been discovered to date.In the Spring and Autumn period,the character was recorded with"shu(黍)","shu((米黍))",and"shu((秼))",with no distinction among the three.During the Warring States period,the main form of the character remained"shu(黍)",with the San Jin script using"shu(余)"to record it,and the Chu script using"shu((黍田))"and"shu((春))".In the Qin dynasty,"shu(黍)"was uniformly used for recording.In the Western Han dynasty,in addition to"shu(黍)",there were phenomena where the lower part of"shu(黍)"was assimilated into"mi(米)",resulting in the forms"shu((禾米))"and"shu((乘))".Through diachronic and geographical examination and sorting,the rules of character usage can be summarized as:primarily using"shu(黍)"to record,and the character form of"shu(黍)"should be clearly defined as a part of the character"xiang(香)".The word"shu(黍)"not only denotes the noun meaning"proso millet"but also conveys the verb meaning"to plant millet".Sorting out the evolution of the word"shu(黍)"not only usage rules,but also provides references for studying the formation,regional distribution,and dating of unearthed documents.
"shu(黍)"excavated documentscharacter usagecharacter patternthe meaning of a wordevolution
万方数据
