The Unmarked Transferred-designations in the Contents of Exorcism Seen on Bamboo Slips for Divination in Chu Area
Based on the analysis of the contents of removing evil spirits on bamboo slips for divination in Chu area, this paper infers that the connotation of the object of removing evil spirits in the Warring States Period was considered as negative significance, so diviners regarded it as the source of disease. In order to relieve the illness, diviners will try to solve its specific reasons. This will transform some related actions and contents into noun-like ones, thus creating new parts of speech and semantics. Most of these transferred-designations are unmarked and difficult to distinguish from basic vocabulary. Therefore, it is necessary to restore their highly generalized meanings through the analysis of metonym-referential phenomenon. After defining and classifying , this paper re-interprets the objects of the study by combining the excavated and handed-down documents, such as “Shuishang(水上)”, “Mengzu( )” and “Renhai(人 )”, in order to further reveal the content and value orientation of early Chinese sorcery and religion.