What is David N. Keightley's occupation?

David N. Keightley was born in London on 1932, and then moved to the United States. He is a pioneer in the study of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the West and a giant in the research field of Shang and Zhou history. David N. Keightley, an old gentleman, has his own unique views on the ancient system of "learning divination" and "three divinations" in China. His views in the famous Oracle Bone Inscriptions monograph Historical Materials of Shang Dynasty have made special contributions to the study of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin and Shang Dynasties.

Chinese name: David N. Keightley.

Mbth: David. Keightley

Alias: David N. Keightley

Nationality: UK

Place of birth: London, England

Date of birth: 1932

Occupation: literary sinologist, linguist

Graduate school: new york University.

Main achievements: He has made outstanding contributions to the study of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in China.

Masterpieces: More than 30 papers, such as "The Authenticity of" and "The Newly Discovered Oracle Bones in Anyang".

Times: Modern

Character experience

At the age of 24, David N. Keightley received a master's degree in modern European history from new york University. After getting his master's degree, he first worked as an editor for three years in the world publishing company, and then worked as a freelance writer for two years. During these two years, he realized that today's China is still a new field with great potential, and he became interested in learning about China's society and culture. From 65438 to 0962, he studied Chinese in the Graduate School of Columbia University, and gradually realized that the key factors that could explain the difference between China and other countries were deeply rooted in China's distant past. So, his eyes turned to ancient China. 1969, with the thesis "Public Labor in Ancient China: A Study on Forced Labor in Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty", he obtained a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University, and was employed as a teacher at the University of California in the same year. Since then, he has been devoted to the study of China's ancient history and culture.

Pioneer of Oracle Bone Inscriptions Studies.

David N. Keightley is a pioneer in the study of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the West and a giant in the field of Shang and Zhou historiography. Since 1969, David N. Keightley has written more than 0 comments on 10, such as Zhen Mingwen-A New Theory on the Nature of Divination in Shang Dynasty, Religious Belief and the Origin of Urbanity, Divination and Metaphysics in Shang Dynasty-Also on Divination and Metaphysics in Neolithic Age. He was elected as the chairman of the China Ancient Research Society, an academic organization centered on the University of California, and served as the editor-in-chief of the publication Early China published by the organization. Before retiring, he was a history professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In the past twenty years, David N. Keightley has worked hard and achieved fruitful results. Published the famous Oracle Bone Inscriptions monograph Historical Materials of Shang Dynasty-Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Bronze Age of China, and edited the Origin of Chinese Civilization.

academic research

Discussion system

Mr. David N. Keightley has a system of "learning hexagrams" and "three hexagrams" in divination, and Song Zhenhao once wrote a paper on these two systems. He believes that learning divination refers to following a specific event many times, and the time is divided. Therefore, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, who has different divination dates and the same divination numbers and events in the same version, belongs to this system, and its purpose is to try to achieve the unity of God's will and human's will. Another one-off "three-bone divination" belongs to different versions of the same word, and "Yuan divination", "Right divination" and "Left divination" are all manifestations of this system. In particular, the article points out that the "Yuan Bu" in the three hexagrams was written by Wang Shang, and the purpose of formulating the three hexagrams is to make people change their worship of natural gods into absolute obedience to the king. The article extends from divination system to the relationship between kingship and theocracy, which is very innovative.

Interpretation of "truth"

According to the interpretation of the word "truth" in Shuowen Jiezi (Zhen, Bu Ye Wen), Oracle Bone Inscriptions scholars interpret life words as questions. 1972 David. Keightley of the University of California, Berkeley, published The Interpretation of Zhen —— The New Essence of Zhen Department in Shang Dynasty.

The article hypothesis denies that life words are interrogative sentences, thinks that life words are "statements about the future", declares some "intention" or "foresight", and interprets "chastity" as "righteousness", that is, righteousness. Shu @( 13) of the University of Washington 1974 also argues that destiny should not be a problem, and "truth" should be interpreted as "positive" or "ding", which is close to testing and positive. David. Stanford university nivison in 1982 and EdwardL L. Shaughnessy of the University of Chicago wrote an article in 1983 to discuss this issue, which is similar to David N. Keightley's opinion. Because this issue involves a correct understanding of the connotation of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, this issue was heatedly discussed at the 65438-0987 Anyang International Business and Culture Seminar. To this end, Qiu Xigui submitted a paper "Investigation on whether the life words in Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins are interrogative words", arguing that only sentences with interrogative modal particles can be identified as interrogative words, and pointed out that interrogative words without interrogative modal particles at the end of sentences often appear in Chinese. There may be such words in life words, but not many can be identified, and not many can be identified as interrogative words. It can be seen that although Qiu's paper denies some viewpoints of American scholars, it also puts forward some opinions on the nature of life words that are different from traditional understanding.

Research on "Wang"

David. Keight 1ey, a history professor at the University of California, Berkeley, once discussed the "king" in Oracle bones. It is believed that the "King" who offered sacrifices to ancestors in the "Wu Wen No.1" Temple and "Zhou Fangbo" is not the King of Zhou, but the King of Shang. I also went to the History Department of Peking University to give a special report on the study of Oracle bones in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Professor Zhang Guangzhi, a Chinese-American scholar in the Anthropology Department of Harvard University, also discussed the relationship between Shang and Zhou based on Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Joo Won?. In addition, some scholars from Taiwan Province Province and Hongkong also participated in this discussion. For example, Yan Yiping also made a detailed textual research on the characters, times and historical facts of these Oracle bones with the title of Oracle bones in Joo Won?.

Unique viewpoint

Due to the complexity of the background of each regional unit in the foreign service area, the foreign service area presents diversity and imbalance. David N. Keightley, an American scholar, once quoted anthropologists' terminology to call Shang Dynasty a "segmented country", which means a loose state system. Associated with this loose feature, there was no continuous bridge between the landscape of foreign service areas in Yin and Shang Dynasties. Mr. Wang once correctly pointed out that the territory of Shang Dynasty was a combination of "point" and "face" and was "flower arrangement".

In the political system of the Shang Dynasty, the control of the territory by the Shang king did not need zoning, but mainly controlled and occupied a number of places and orientations with practical value and belief significance, just like the opening of Weiqi. The geographical scope of each monarch is not formed by dividing a large area into small areas, but by the expansion of the central fief to the surrounding areas. Therefore, for the western-style clothes sub-contracting units in Shang Dynasty,

It can be called local power, but it cannot be called administrative division.

Although the political and regional structure of Shang Dynasty was pluralistic, loose and unbalanced, conceptually, it produced a more pure sense of national territory than reality. There are four concepts such as "four places", "four seals" and "four directions" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which reflect the exclusive consciousness of merchants (Dayi merchants) to the world centered on the capital. The combination of the center and the quartet embodies the balance and integrity of the king's rule over the world, which is undoubtedly an ideal concept. Although the ideal is not a reality, it expresses a kind of value, and it is this territorial value that promotes the country's development towards integration. The conceptual model of the combination of the center and the quartet has cohesion and integration, and the concept, politics, military affairs and economy jointly create history. There were no words like "slave" and "free man" in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and there was no record of human trafficking, so the Shang society was not like slavery. It is also unconvincing to regard Shang people as slaves, because there is no evidence that these people were used as slave workers before martyrdom, and martyrdom more reflected political relations and religious beliefs at that time.

main work

The history of Yin and Shang Dynasties in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is an interdisciplinary subject, which takes the archaeological materials of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Shang and Zhou Dynasties as the main research objects, and uses the theories and methods of ancient philology, archaeology, historical philology, history and cultural anthropology to explore the history and culture of Shang and Xia and Zhou Dynasties. 1899 After the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, the discipline of Yin and Shang history in Oracle Bone Inscriptions was born, formed, developed and expanded. After more than 0/00 years of exploration and efforts by scholars at home and abroad, this discipline has become an international "prestigious school" with strict discipline norms.

David N. Keightley's viewpoint in Historical Materials of Shang Dynasty has made a unique contribution to the history of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Yin Dynasty.