A study of the appellations in twelve imperial mandates from the Book of Zhou = Zhou gao shi er pian cheng wei yan jiu

Abstract

The study of Shangshu or the Book of Documents 尚書has long been a popular subject in China since the Han dynasty 漢 (206 BC-220 AD). Numerous topics have been investigated and studied deeply by scholars throughout the years. They, however, rarely focus on the appellations in the book and thus this will be the main research area of this paper. In order to maintain the consistency of the study and avoid the problem of authenticity of the passages, only 12 chapters (also known as the twelve imperial mandates 周誥十二篇) from the Book of Zhou 周書, which are considered to be the original and real texts from the Western Zhou period 西周 (1046-771 BC), will be the corpus of this research. By studying the appellations from the selected passages mentioned above, it aims at enriching the study of vocabulary of the Western Zhou period, identifying and investigating the meaning of appellation of ancient China, as well as studying the society of Western Zhou period from the perspective of appellation. This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter one generally introduces the study of appellation in Chinese history, the aims of this research, the definition of appellation and the research materials. Chapter two focus on the explanation of the appellations in twelve imperial mandates from the Book of Zhou. Chapter three investigates the difficulties of handling the appellations in the previous chapter, as well as the solutions to the problems. Chapter four discusses the characteristics of the appellations. Chapter five studies the human relationship and the political culture of Western Zhou period from the perspective of appellation and finally chapter six concludes the findings of the research.