This article explores the socioreligious background of the Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions from an unconventional perspective by analyzing the use of oracular language in epigraphic texts found on slightly later ritual bronze vessels. While this phenomenon has so far received little scholarly attention, the author argues that the cross-contextual occurrence of oracular terminology indicates a relationship between the two types of epigraphic texts and the social discourses from which they were created. Drawing on parallel passages in other bronze inscriptions, the author examines the precise meanings of the two most common oracular phrases and proposes that they belonged to a technical terminology that shared fundamental conceptual characteristics with later legal jargon. Addressing the communicative intention behind their use, the author points out that oracular language is generally placed in prominent positions in bronze inscriptions and appears in various highly ritualized and ceremonial interactions between humans and the ancestral spirits. Based on these observations, the author concludes that the bronze inscriptions support the view that the Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions were written for administrative and specialized purposes and were embedded in a much wider network of communication practices between humans and supra-human powers.

本文通過分析較晚發現的青銅禮器銘文的卜筮語言語用，從一個特殊視角探究了商代甲骨文的社會宗教背景。儘管目前學界對這種現象關注甚少，但筆者認為，卜筮術語的跨語境呈現，表明兩種文字與創建這兩種文字的社會話語之間的關係。利用金文中其它的類似語句，筆者考察了兩個最常見卜筮語言的具體意義，並提出它們屬於與後期常規術語共用基本概念特徵的術語。關於這些短語語用背後的交流目的，筆者指出，卜筮語言常用于金文中的突出位置，並且常見於人類與祖先神各種高度儀式化和禮儀性的互動中。筆者基於這些考察得出結論：商代甲骨文是為政治及其他特殊用途而書寫，並融入到人類和超自然力量之間更廣泛的交際實踐中。

Abstract
Introduction
The Semantics of Oracular Language in Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions
The Communicative Context of Oracular Language
Conclusion
References

• Thomas Crone(Ruhr-University Bochum) | 사마당