The concept of ancient philology

The atmosphere of learning ancient Chinese characters began to take shape in the Han Dynasty, and people saw three kinds of ancient Chinese characters in the Han Dynasty. One is the inscription on bronzes in the pre-Qin period. Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty said in his Preface to Explaining Words that "mountains and rivers are often defined, and their inscriptions are ancient prose of the previous generation". Zhang Chang in the Western Han Dynasty was a "good ancient prose". When Xuan Di proclaimed himself emperor, an ancient bronze tripod was unearthed in Yangmei (now Fufeng, Shaanxi). He once read its inscription. See Hanshu for details? Under the ambition of the suburbs. One is Shi Shuo pian, a word book handed down from Mrs. Shi Shuo by Zhou Xuanwang. Shi Shuan Pian, as mentioned by Han people, refers to the characters of Shi Shuan Pian, the font of which belongs to the big seal script, and the other is the so-called classical Chinese prose, that is, some Confucian classic manuscripts hidden by Qin Shihuang when he burned books, such as those presented by Zhang Cang in the early Han Dynasty. The fonts of these manuscripts are neither official scripts nor small seal scripts and essays. People in the Han Dynasty often call it ancient prose. Scholars who admire classical Chinese prose, such as Xu Shen, think that this font is earlier than essays. However, according to the research of later generations, the so-called ancient prose is actually the writing of the eastern countries (referring to the countries east of Qin Dynasty) during the Warring States Period. The Confucian School, which admired China's ancient classics in the Han Dynasty, was later called an ancient prose writer. Another school of Confucian classics, opposing ancient classics, only believes in books handed down from generation to generation, and later generations are called scholars of modern literature. To understand China's ancient classics, ancient writers must study ancient Chinese from the perspective of philology, so they are often also philologists. They collected ancient prose and compared it with the words used at that time. Someone has further studied the structure of Chinese characters in theory. Hanshu? Ancient and modern figures and Sui Shu? The Historical Records and other books written by Wei Hong in the later Han and Wei Dynasties are the fruits of predecessors' work. The establishment of the theory of six books is the result of the latter work. The word "Six Books" first appeared in Zhou Li, which belongs to the ancient classic system of China. However, according to the research of people close to you, it is probably the creation of ancient writers in Han Dynasty to interpret the six books as "the foundation of word-making". 1 At the end of the century, Xu Shen wrote Shuo Wen Jie Zi, which made an excellent summary of the study of ancient writers' characters.

The style of receiving characters in Shuowen is "the combination of modern narrative seal script and ancient writing brush" The glyph is mainly Xiao Zhuan, and there are also some ancient Chinese and essays written in different ways. When Xu Shen explained the characters, he pointed out the original meaning of the characters according to the six-script theory, and combined the glyphs as much as possible. Therefore, even from the point of view of traditional philology, Xu Shen's works have the nature of the study of ancient characters, without regarding Xiao Zhuan as ancient characters. It's a pity that Xu Shen and other ancient writers saw the ancient writing materials later. At that time, although the inscriptions on ancient bronzes have attracted some people's attention, the atmosphere for collecting and studying such materials has not yet formed, and it is difficult for scholars to make use of them. Shuowen mentioned "ancient prose" in Ding Yi, but the ancient prose collected in the book seems to be all from ancient prose classics, but in fact it is only the characters of the Warring States period. The era of Wen Shu was not very early. The Book of Stone read by Xu Shen and others was a book copied repeatedly, and some glyphs changed obviously. The glyphs of these ancient characters and Xiao Zhuan often can't reflect the original intention. Therefore, Xu Shen lacks a correct understanding of the development process of ancient Chinese characters, and his explanation of glyphs and the original meaning he pointed out are often not credible. Under the conditions at that time, these shortcomings were inevitable. From the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the early Song Dynasty, there was no great progress in the study of ancient Chinese characters. The most important ancient characters in this period, earlier than Xiao Zhuan, are still what ancient writers call ancient characters. During the period of Cao Wei and Zheng Shi, Shangshu and Chunqiu, which were taught by ancient writers, were engraved in imperial academy, and each word was written in three fonts: ancient prose, small seal script and official script. This is the so-called three-body stone sutra. In the fifth year of Xianning (279, or one or two years of Taikang, that is, 280 or 28 1), a large number of bamboo slips were found in a tomb robbery of Wei State in Jixian County (now Jixian County, Henan Province), with a total of 75 volumes and 65,438+10,000 words. The font is similar to that of ancient books and records in China. This is the so-called ancient prose in central Hebei. These bamboo books were collected by the government, and were compiled by Xun Xiang, He Jiao, Wei Heng, and others and written in this paper. The original bamboo book has long since ceased to exist, and all written books have been lost except The Legend of Mu. According to historical records, ancient books were also found between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but their contents were never handed down. During the Wei, Jin and early Song Dynasties, some people continued to collect ancient prose, while others carved inscriptions with ancient prose or forged ancient books. Some of the ancient Chinese they used were well-founded and some were fabricated. Guo Zhongshu (? ~ 977) according to all kinds of ancient Chinese materials that could be seen at that time, an ancient Chinese vocabulary was compiled and named as Khan Bamboo Slips. Later, Xia Song (985 ~ 105 1) compiled four rhymes of ancient Chinese (1044). The source of materials is basically the same as that of Khan bamboo slips, but Khan bamboo slips are arranged by radicals, while Xia Shu is arranged by rhyme. Although these two books contain a large number of fabricated ancient texts, most of the glyphs are still well-founded, which is an important reference for modern people to study the Warring States writing. After Guo and Xia, the study of ancient Chinese prose gradually declined.

During this period, ancient bronzes with inscriptions were also found from time to time, but unfortunately there was still no atmosphere for collecting and studying bronze inscriptions. In the early Tang Dynasty, an important pre-Qin stone carving-Shi Guwen was discovered in Tianxing County (now Fengxiang, Shaanxi Province). People in the Tang Dynasty attached great importance to Shi Guwen, and they often mentioned it when talking about fonts and calligraphy. Because Shi Guwen's glyph is close to Wen Shu's, it was written by Zhou Xuanwang's Taishi Book at that time. In the Tang Dynasty, the stone carving made by Qin Shihuang when he traveled around the world was also highly valued. There were eight copies of Shijing in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. There were also eight Qin carved stones and stone drums in the Tang Dynasty.

Shuowen was compiled by Li, a seal writer in the Tang Dynasty. He changed some forms of seal script in Shuowen according to the carved stone of Qin dynasty, such as changing (owing) behavior, which was criticized by later generations. It is wrong for Li to change ancient books without authorization, but he collated Shuowen according to the written materials left over from ancient times, which deserves attention. He also gave his own opinion when explaining the glyphs. Although absurd, it also has some merits. For example, Xu Shen explained the word "wood" and said, "From the bottom, it looks like its root", but he thought the whole word was "wood-like". In the Song Dynasty, due to the rise of epigraphy, the study of ancient Chinese characters reached a climax. In the third year of Emperor Zhenzong's reign in Xianping (1000), Zhongzheng and others confirmed the "Shi Xin Fu" presented by Ganzhou (now Ganxian County, Shaanxi Province), which was the beginning of the Song Dynasty's study of ancient bronze inscriptions. From the Renzong Dynasty to the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the atmosphere of collecting, recording and studying ancient bronzes and their inscriptions became increasingly prosperous. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the main areas where ancient bronzes were found were occupied by Jin and Yuan Dynasties, and the collection of newly unearthed bronzes was basically at a standstill. However, due to the influence of the style of study in the Northern Song Dynasty, the atmosphere of recording and studying bronze inscriptions in the early Southern Song Dynasty was quite prosperous, and it declined in the later period.

Scholars in the Song Dynasty made great contributions to the study of bronze inscriptions, including Yang Yuanming (Nanzhong), Ouyang Xiu (1007 ~ 1072), Lu Dalin (1046 ~ 1092) and Zhao Mingcheng (/kloc-0) in the Northern Song Dynasty. Song people compiled many books describing ancient bronzes and inscriptions, including Lu Dalin's Archaeological Map (1092), Bo Gu Atlas, Zhao Jiucheng's Archaeological Map of Southern Song Dynasty, Xue Shanggong's Notes on Ancient Ding Yi (1kloc-0/44) and Wang's. The first three inscriptions are recorded at the same time, and the last three inscriptions are recorded separately. Lu Dalin also compiled an Archaeological Illustration, which is the earliest collection of golden characters (or this book was compiled by Zhao Jiucheng, which seems absurd). Zhong Ding Transshipment was written by Zheng He and Xue Shanggong in Shaoxing, with more materials than Lu Shu, but both of them were dead (Wang Shu was actually preserved in Yang's Supplement Zhong Ding Transshipment in Yuan Dynasty).

The inscriptions on bronze in Yin and Zhou Dynasties are the earliest characters that literati came into contact with, earlier than inscriptions on bronze and ancient prose. The collection, description and research of bronze inscriptions by scholars in Song Dynasty is of great significance in the history of ancient philology. Through ancient inscriptions, they have realized that the pictographic characters of "the beginning of the book" are "pure portrait" and "the later generations are silent, and the strokes are gradually changed to facilitate the book" (archaeological figure 4? 26th). The Preface to the Interpretation of Archaeological Drawings briefly summarizes some characteristics of inscriptions on bronze (such as the number of strokes, the position of radicals, etc.). ) and the method of distinguishing and interpreting inscriptions on bronze inscriptions, which is also worthy of attention. Most of the inscriptions correctly published by Song people are easy to understand. However, they sometimes have good opinions. For example, Jin's translation of "Jiang Dingming" suspected that the word "qi" was pronounced as "qi", which was more accurate than modern experts in ancient Chinese characters such as Wu Dacheng and Luo Zhenyu.

In terms of stone carvings, the stone carvings of Heqin continued to be valued in the Song Dynasty. In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zheng Qiao called Shi Guwen Qin Zhuan, and the stone drum was a stone carving after King Huiwen of Qin and before the emperor. In his later years, Feng Gong thought that this was a stone carved by Qin Xianggong when he was dedicating himself to the public. This is a great progress in the study of Shi Guwen. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the carved stones that the Qin king cursed the Chu king during the Warring States Period were also found, namely, the so-called cursing Chu Wen, Ouyang Xiu (1007 ~ 1072), Su Shi (1037 ~10) and Dong Ti.

The influence of epigraphy can be seen in the study of six books by Song people. Zheng Qiao Chronicle? The explanation of some ideographic characters in Liushulue is obviously better than that in Shuowen. For example, Shuowen said that the word "stop" was like a tree with an address, and Liushulue thought it was like a toe. Shuowen said that the word "step" means "from stop to return", while Liushulue thought it was like two toes in front. Liu Shu lue says "Yao" and "running with his head hanging on his back and his feet wide". Generally speaking, the words "step", "stand" and "walk" are considered as literacy, but Liu Shu lue belongs to pictographic characters and has a good study of epigraphy (Tongzhi has Jin Shi lue). Obviously, he was inspired by ancient hieroglyphics in epigraphy. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Six Books written by Dai Dong directly adopted inscriptions on bronze. Because there are few golden characters, glyphs are often invented, so they are criticized by later generations. However, Dai's ci is quite distinctive, which is also recognized by later generations. If he thinks it is the first character of "star", the word "drum" comes from a drum shape, which is a good opinion. The Yuan and Ming Dynasties were a period of decline in the study of ancient Chinese characters, and the only thing worth mentioning in epigraphy was the collection and recording of ancient seal characters in Ming Dynasty. Song people began to do this work. However, most of the ancient prints in the Song and Yuan Dynasties have been lost, and the Atlas of Han and Jin Prints handed down from generation to generation is poor in information and of little use. The ancient printed spectrum compiled by Ming people, such as Gu's Collection of Ancient Printed Spectrum (157 1), is rich in content and provides useful information for the study of ancient Chinese characters.

During this period, the vocabulary of ancient Chinese characters continued to be compiled, but most of the collected glyphs were copied from previous books, which was of little reference value. In the early Yuan Dynasty, Liu Shutong, Liu Shujing Rhyme and other books should also be discussed according to the ancient characters earlier than Biography. These books are more sick than Gu, but their opinions are not as good as Gu's and are not valued by future generations. After entering the Qing Dynasty, epigraphy and primary schools were revived, and ancient philology was re-developed. The research level of ancient Chinese characters in Qing Dynasty was gradually improved. In the early Qing Dynasty, Min Qiji wrote Liu Shutong, which was edited and published by Bi Hongshu. This is an ancient Chinese vocabulary that combines ancient Chinese, Hindi, Zhong Ding and stone carvings. Widely circulated, but the content is messy, the description is out of shape, and the level is very low. During the Qianlong period, the Qing Emperor ordered Liang and others to record the ancient bronzes collected by the Imperial Palace in the form of Bo Gu Catalogue, and compiled them into Xiqing Ancient Mirror (175 1), Ningshou Ancient Mirror, Xiqing Continued Mirror Series and Series B during the period of Gan and Jia (the last three drafts were published during the Republic of China). After Daoguang, a large number of important stone collectors emerged, among which Chen Jieqi (18 13 ~ 1884, Zhuangzhai) was the representative. Their collection of ancient Chinese characters surpasses their predecessors in variety, quantity and quality. Due to the increasing richness of ancient Chinese characters and the development of primary schools, Confucian classics and other related disciplines, the research level of ancient Chinese characters has been continuously improved, reaching its peak in the Tongzhi and Guangxu periods in the late Qing Dynasty. Wu Dacheng (1835 ~ 1902) and sun rang are the most important scholars in the peak period.

The focus of the study of ancient Chinese characters in Qing Dynasty is still inscriptions on bronze. During the Qianlong period, due to the rise of Pu Xue and the compilation of books such as Xiqing Ancient Mirror, more and more scholars were interested in bronze inscriptions. In the first year of Jiaqing (1796), Qian Dian engraved the Textual Research on the Sixteen Chapters of Changle, which was collected from Tibetan artifacts and recorded in shape and inscription. In the ninth year (1804), Ruan Yuan engraved the Notes on Zhong Ding's Yi wares in Jiguzhai, recorded and verified the collected inscriptions, and continued to write Notes on Zhong Ding's Yi wares in past dynasties. Since then, many works of the same kind as Qian Shu or Ruan Shu have appeared, among which Wu Rongguang (1773 ~ 1843), the bronze inscription in Yun Qing Ge (1840) and Wu Shifen (1796 ~/kloc) have great influence.

The main scholars who studied bronze inscriptions in Qing Dynasty were Qian Gui and Ruan Yuan, which can be traced back to Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, and Xu Tongbai (1775 ~ 1854) and Han Xu (1797 ~ 1867) in Daoxian period. Xu Tongbai wrote Xuegutang (1886), and Han Xu once revised the Jin Wen Gu Lu for Wu Shifen. His views on Jin Wen can be found in this book. During the Tongguang period, the study of bronze inscriptions reached a climax, and the main scholars were Wu Dacheng, Sun Rang and Fang (? ~ 1899), Liu Xinyuan (1848 ~ 19 15) and others. Wu Daxiao's main works related to bronze inscriptions include Shuo Wen Gu Shu Bu and Zi Shuo. The ancient Chinese character department is a vocabulary of ancient Chinese characters. The recorded words are mainly in bronze inscriptions, as well as stone carvings, seals, coins and ancient pottery. Many people have their own views on the interpretation of characters. This book has changed the style of collecting words by rhyme since the Four Rhymes of Ancient Chinese, and based on Shuowen, it has included unexplained and doubtful words in the appendix. The recorded words are carefully copied, which is very different from the ancient Chinese vocabulary with distorted fonts. Later, the vocabulary of ancient Chinese characters was mostly modeled after Wu Shu in the arrangement style. Sun Rang's Notes on Ancient Chinese Characters (1888) and Notes on Ancient Chinese Characters Remains (1929) corrected the mistakes in previous studies on bronze inscriptions. Fang wrote Textual Research on Yi Inscriptions (1935), but it was not published until many years after his death. Liu Xinyuan's main work is Ji Jin's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio (1902). The above-mentioned people's textual research and interpretation of inscriptions on bronze inscriptions has many advantages over their predecessors.

Since the Song Dynasty, bronze inscriptions with strange strokes, such as bird prints in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, have been regarded as Xia and Shang characters. Gong Zizhen (1792 ~ 184 1) once suspected that Wu was the "Dong Wuzhong" recorded in Wang Fuzhai's Notes on Zhong Ding. Fang clearly pointed out: "qi zhou was the first choice for Dong Wuzhong of Wang, and they had one of their own at that time, such as Wonderful Biography of Qin and Shu Qi Shuo (Volume I of Shuo). This is an improvement. The Qing dynasty also surpassed its predecessors in linking inscriptions with relevant historical materials in ancient books. It was from the Qing Dynasty that monetary characters really became the materials for studying ancient Chinese characters. The custom of collecting and studying ancient coins began very early. However, since the Song Dynasty, most people who study ancient coins refer to the Eastern Zhou coins, such as knives and cloth, which basically belonged to the Warring States period, as belonging to ancient emperors such as Tai Hao, Yao Shun, Xia Shang and so on, and try to explain them as much as possible. Qian Lu written by Gan Long (175 1) still stays at this level. The turning point in the study of ancient coins is also at the time of dry armor. According to Cai Yun's Pi Tan (1827), Qian Daxin once said that "coins began in the Warring States Period". During Jiaqing, Chu Shangling wrote Records of Jinji (18 19), and the ancient Dao and cloth were returned to the Spring and Autumn Period. Since then, the study of ancient coins in the pre-Qin period has gradually been on the right track. Wu Dayou's Supplement to Ancient Books contains a lot of coins, and Liu Xinyuan also interprets some coins in Qian Qi.

After Ganjia, the study of seal script has also made great progress. People in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties didn't know that there were things in the ancient seals earlier than the Qin Dynasty (in fact, many Warring States seals were included in the ancient seals of the Ming Dynasty, but they didn't know the age). In the fifty-second year of Qianlong (1787), Cheng prefaced Pan Shi's "Wangyin Tower", explaining the word "private seal" in the seal of the Warring States period, and said that "those who use" two "in the seal will keep the ancient prose" (Yi Tong Record Volume 8 "Wangyin Tower"). This is the first time that Qing people recognized ancient seals in the pre-Qin period. In the 15th year of Daoguang (1835), Zhang Tingji (1768 ~ 1848) compiled The Ancient Seal of Qingyige, calling the pre-Qin seal an ancient seal. In Tongguang and Guangjian, Wanshan House Seal was compiled, and the ancient seal and Qin Zhou seal before Han and India were listed. Judging from its content, the former is basically the seal of six countries, while the latter includes Qin seal, Qin seal and early Han seal in the Warring States period. Chen Jieqi thinks that the seal of Qin Zhou belongs to the weekend and the Qin Dynasty, and the ancient seal belongs to three generations. In the fourth year of Guangxu (1878), he said in a letter to Wu Dacheng: "... Zhu Wen's bronze seal, formerly known as Qin seal, is not known as three generations, but now it is common, and it is also like the characters of six countries" (the fifth volume of the five-volume "Footprints of Shazhai" was written on April 22, 5), and he had a better understanding of the ancient seal era. There are some seals in the ancient trees department. In terms of seal script, Gui Fu's Miao Zhuanyun (1796) and other words were published in Jiaqing, and the copying and printing of seal script were more rigorous than other ancient characters. After Daoguang, some new kinds of ancient writing materials were discovered, such as pipa writing (that is, seals printed on pipa, which are mostly found in Han Dynasty), ancient pottery writing and Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which were discovered in the late Qing Dynasty. Ancient pottery characters were first discovered in Tongguang, Linzi, Shandong, and later found in Yizhou, Zhili (now Yixian, Hebei). Chen Jieqi was the first person to discover and collect "three generations of ancient Wen Tao" (in fact, most of them belonged to the Warring States period). Wu Dacheng was the first person to seriously study ancient Wen Tao. He did some textual research on Chen Jieqi's Tibetan pottery manuscripts, and also included many Wen Tao in Gushanbu.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions (mainly composed of Oracle Bone Inscriptions) in Anyang Yin Ruins began to attract the attention of antique dealers in the 24th year of Guangxu (1898). The following year, Wang (1845 ~ 1900) was identified as three generations of ancient prose and collected. Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins is rich in information and important in content. It belongs to the late Shang Dynasty, which is earlier than most bronze inscriptions. Its discovery is of great significance in the history of ancient philology. In the second year after Wang identified the Oracle bones, Eight-Nation Alliance committed suicide in Beijing, and the Oracle bones belonged to Liu E (1857 ~ 1909). Liu E selected and expanded some Oracle bones, and compiled "Tieyun Hidden Turtle", which was published in the 29th year of Guangxu (1903). This is the first book written by Oracle Bone Inscriptions. In Preface, Liu E called Oracle Bone Inscriptions "the masterpiece of the Yin people", and the following year, Sun Jian wrote Example based on "Hidden Tortoise". This is the first monograph on Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The manuscript of this book was published by Oracle Bone Inscriptions founder Luo Zhenyu in 19 17. After Oracle Bone Inscriptions discovered it, the antique dealer deceived the collectors and described the unearthed place as Tangyin. Luo Zhenyu was the first scholar to find out the real place of excavation. In the second year of Xuantong (19 10), Luo Zhenyu wrote Textual Research on the Zhen Department of Yin Shang Dynasty, and determined that the place where the Oracle bones were unearthed was the ancient ruins of Yindu, and the Oracle bone inscriptions were the relics of divination in the Yin Dynasty, which made a big step forward in the study of Oracle bone inscriptions (he mistakenly thought that the Yin ruins were just "Wuyi ruins" at that time). The year after this book was published, the Qing Dynasty perished.

The development of epigraphy in Qing Dynasty is also reflected in Shuowen. Duan Yucai quoted the word "le" in inscriptions on bronze inscriptions as an explanation. Gui Fu, a former epigraphist, quoted epigraphy many times in Wen Yi Zheng. Wang Yun often compares the glyphs of Jinwen and Shuowen in Shuowen Jiezi.

With the gradual deepening of the study of ancient Chinese characters, some mistakes in Shuowen are becoming more and more obvious. In the preface of Gu Shu Bu, Wu Daxiao pointed out that the form of the ancient prose of Shuo Wen was not in line with the familiar bronze inscription, and he suspected that it was all written during the seven countries at the weekend. Chen Jieqi also has a similar point of view ("Gusha Supplement"). Wu also expressed doubts about the age of the articles collected in Shuowen. From some words about seals, coins and Wen Tao in the Ancient Books Department and Zi Shuo, Wu Dayou has realized that these written materials are basically from Weekend and Six Kingdoms. Under the word "Er" and "Jun" in the Supplement to Ancient Books, he also clearly pointed out that the glyphs of these two words in Shuowen are consistent with the bronze inscriptions of the Six Kingdoms, which should be the words of the Six Kingdoms period, rather than the real "ancient prose". It can be seen that Wu Dacheng's views on the ancient prose of Shuowen are largely based on his research on the characters of the Warring States period. Wu Dacheng, Sun Rang and others often point out the style of seal script in Shuowen and Xu Shen's mistakes in describing the font and original meaning according to ancient Chinese characters. The first article of each case in the Supplement to Ancient Books says: "The characters seen in ancient vessels are slightly different from those in Xu Shu's font ... It can be seen that ancient sages made words, and Biography can be true."

In the 31st year of Guangxu (1905), Sun Jian wrote Ming Yuan, which summarized his achievements in studying Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze inscriptions from the perspective of philology. He pointed out that characters are "based on images". At first, Chinese characters "must be painted on ancient stone carvings in Babylon and Egypt, which are all like achievements (paintings)". Later, due to the inconvenience of writing, it was gradually simplified, and it was "finally quoted neatly by the seal" and became the kind of text contained in Shuowen. The book also pays great attention to putting the same radical word together for investigation. Ming Yuan jumped out of the circle of epigraphy and traditional philology to a certain extent, and it is a work of great significance in the history of ancient philology. In the Republic of China, under the influence of western academic thoughts, China's modern history, archaeology and linguistics were gradually formed, and ancient philology was gradually strengthened.

Luo Zhenyu and Wang Guowei are representative scholars in the study of ancient Chinese characters in the early years of the Republic of China. Luo Zhenyu's study of ancient Chinese characters began in the late Qing Dynasty, but his academic activities were mainly carried out in the Republic of China. Roche has a rich collection of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronzes, bronzes rubbings, seals, seals and other ancient China written materials. He is diligent in recording and disseminating all kinds of materials, as well as in research and writing, and his contributions are various. Among his works, the most important one is Textual Research on the Shuzheng of Yin Ruins (19 15) based on the textual research of Zhenguan Department of Yin Shang Dynasty. This book made a great breakthrough in the textual research and interpretation of Oracle bone inscriptions and Oracle Bone Inscriptions's thorough reading, which laid the initial foundation for Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Under the influence of Luo Zhenyu, Wang Guowei began to study ancient Chinese characters. He has made great achievements in the study of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions and ancient prose. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, there are not many new words written by Wang Guowei, but they are often of great significance to reading Oracle Bone Inscriptions. His main contribution is to study history, geography and etiquette with the mutual evidence of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and ancient books. In terms of inscriptions on bronze, he has written five kinds of ancient prose in Guantang, with a single article and many articles. In terms of ancient prose and essays, there are many articles such as Textual Research on Wei's Classics, Textual Research on Historical Essays, Ancient Prose Used by the Six Countries of Qin during the Warring States Period, and Xu Tongxiang's Preface. He believes that ancient prose was written by six eastern countries during the Warring States period, which is more accurate than that written by Wu Dacheng. This statement has now become a conclusion. There are still different opinions in the field of ancient philology as to whether Wen Shu was written by Qin during the Warring States Period.

Both Luo and Wang were influenced by western academic thoughts and were dissatisfied with the old epigraphy. Luo Zhenyu advocated changing epigraphy to paleontology (Cloud Window Man Draft? Studying ancient cultural relics with friends). Wang Guowei once called his predecessors' research on ancient bronzes and inscriptions "the study of ancient artifacts and ancient characters" (preface to Guo Bronze Illustration), and often used the names of "the study of ancient characters", "the study of ancient characters" or "the study of ancient characters" alone, which shows that he tends to divide epigraphy into the study of ancient artifacts and the study of ancient characters. This actually reflected the objective existence trend of academic circles at that time. However, judging from their research work, Luo and Wang did not really get rid of the shackles of epigraphy and traditional philology.