Allen's academic research.

Dr Allen's important contribution to the study of Oracle bone inscriptions is his participation in compiling and compiling The Collection of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in England.

1899 Shortly after the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, it attracted the interest of some foreigners. Some Oracle bones are collected in Japan, Canada, Britain, the United States, Germany, the former Soviet Union, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Singapore, Belgium, North Korea and other countries, with about 26,700 pieces, accounting for about 10 of all Oracle bones. Among them, Japan, Canada, the United States and Britain have large collections, while the Oracle bones in the first three countries have been published in rubbings, and only Britain has put them in the blank. Scholars have studied the Oracle bones collected in Britain on the basis of Kulin-Chalfant Oracle Bone Inscriptions Collection (1935, Shanghai) and Hopkins Oracle Bone Inscriptions Collection (new york, 1939). Eight of the 34 Oracle bones collected by ashmore Lan Museum were published in the form of photos. These two copies are distorted. Zhang Jin's copy in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is slightly smaller than the original, which makes it difficult for scholars to combine it with other Oracle Bone Inscriptions. In addition, there are still some problems in the two books, such as missing words, Oracle Bone Inscriptions inversion, missing negative words and bone mortar words, and a considerable number of Oracle bones hidden in Britain have not been included. For many years, overseas Oracle bone research has always regretted this.

From 65438 to 0982, Dr. Allen cooperated with Li Xueqin and Qi Wenxin, experts from the Institute of History of China Academy of Social Sciences, to investigate and expand the Oracle bones collected in Britain, and collected about 3000 pieces of Oracle bones collected in Britain 1 1 public and private institutions. After identification, all false and illegible fragments were ignored. 2,674 pieces of English Oracle bones were selected. This book is divided into two parts, the first part is a chart, and the second part is an explanation and appendix. Published by Zhonghua Book Company 1985, 199 1. Among them, in addition to the published 1649 pieces, there are also new materials 1025 pieces that have not been published before. According to the classification table by stages attached to the book, 66% of these Oracle bones belong to the first period divided by Dong Zuobin, which is the most extensive period of divination in Shang Dynasty and has the greatest value. The publication of The Collection of Oracle Bones in Britain provides credible new materials for studying and clarifying some difficult problems in Oracle bones and Shang history, and its academic value is obvious.

In addition to sorting out and compiling Oracle Bone Inscriptions's contributions collected in Britain, Dr. Allen's other contribution to the study of Oracle bones is to adopt new techniques and means to identify Oracle bones. Dr Allen used a camera to photograph Oracle Bone Inscriptions's words or parts on a microscope. He showed the shape of seal cutting through microscopic magnification, and made clear the number of carving knives and the order of strokes, thus providing a more scientific means for the comparison between real characters and fake carvings, and some difficult problems were re-examined and solved.

About carving knives, about the chronological order of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's inscriptions and omens, about the direction and order of strokes, about the sculptor and the Virgin and so on. , can be solved by micrographs. In addition, micrographs can also provide a solid basis for Oracle Bone Inscriptions's staging and the evolution and forgery of calligraphy. Of course, not all the above conclusions drawn by Dr. Allen through the micrograph of Oracle bones are conclusive, and there is room for further discussion. But her microscopic amplification method is undoubtedly an important breakthrough in Oracle Bone Inscriptions's methodology. Besides his contribution to Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Allen has a good understanding of Chinese bronzes. She once co-authored the book Pearl of Chinese Bronzes Collected in Europe with Li Xueqin. In his book Attached Theory, Allen made a detailed review of the study of Chinese bronzes by western sinologists, listed the gains and losses, and gained a lot.

Professor Allen's research on Chinese bronzes is based on a comprehensive understanding and unique examination of Western Sinology and art history, and some conclusions are often novel and profound.

During the period of 1992, Dr. Sarah Allan, who was working in the School of Asian and African Studies (SOAS) of London University at that time, edited the collection of essays "Interpretation of Early Bronze Rituals in China", which reflected the latest achievements of Chinese and Western research on China Shang and Zhou bronzes. Among them, the article "Chinese Bronze in Westerners' Eyes" written by Alan himself makes a systematic review and prospect of the course of western academic research on Chinese bronze in the 20th century, and reveals the western academic research on Chinese bronze.

bamboo slip

In the paper, Alan believes that Tao, as an abstract concept based on water, is as famous as Taiyi in the cosmology of Taiyi's holy water. Taiyi is the North Star, the God of the North Star. As the source of water, it is a universal phenomenon, and water is the source of everything after that. Taiyi in Taiyi holy water is another name of Tao. As the center of the universe, the North Pole is an inexhaustible source of water in the universe. The philosophical concept of "Tao" originates from the metaphor that water comes from the source of nature. Allen's thesis uses the latest "metaphor" theory in western academic circles to further analyze the metaphorical thinking and application in China's early thoughts. One of the basic principles of the theory of yin-yang and five elements is to establish the corresponding relationship between nature and human society; This correspondence is also reflected between the material world and the spiritual world. There are a lot of visual descriptions of natural objects in China's ancient philosophical terms, and many abstract concepts are often closely linked with concrete images and cultural backgrounds. Alan deeply analyzed the relationship between natural phenomena such as water and plants and the concepts of Tao, inaction, destiny and nature in philosophy, and revealed a group of natural metaphors related to Yin-Yang and Five Elements, which has philosophical significance beyond the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements. She also observed that the difficulty in translating some philosophical terms between Chinese and English reflects some essential differences between Chinese and western thinking. Heredity and abdication were originally the doctoral thesis of Professor Allen. 1970 started writing this article, and 1974 sent it to the University of California, Berkeley. 198 1 year, this article was published after a slight modification. The idea of writing this book stems from her master's thesis "Analysis of the Legend of King Taigong in the Early Zhou Dynasty". In her research, she found that in China's ancient literature, especially in philosophical works, historical figures of different times are often discussed as examples of the same theme, such as: the appearance of the founding king, the King Taigong of the Zhou Dynasty and Yi Yin of the Shang Dynasty are often combined; Another example is Wang Jie in the last Xia Dynasty and Zhou Wang in the last Shang Dynasty. These figures can be compared with their peers, such as Boyi and Shu, which refused to eat after the collapse of Taihe and Shang Dynasties, or with Tanghe and Shu. Therefore, she decided to conduct a comprehensive study on the legendary figures about the transition of sovereignty from Yao to Shun to the early Zhou Dynasty, and determine the conceptual relationship between different figures according to the early literature. Drawing lessons from Claude Levi-Strauss's structuralism theory and method, she made a brand-new investigation on the history of China's classical literature about the historical legend established by Yao, Shun, Yu, Qi, Shang and Zhou as an ideological movement, thus revealing the deep structure hidden behind the legend and showing the true colors of history.

Contemporary western structuralism is a research method involving linguistics, literature, sociology and history. Structuralism holds that structure consists of many components, and the relationship between these components is structure. Structuralism divides structure into deep structure and surface structure. The former refers to the internal connection of phenomena, which can only be understood through models, while the latter refers to the external connection of phenomena, which can be understood through human feelings. Structuralists emphasize the relationship between things, especially the deep structure. In short, "we can regard the influence of structuralism as an X-ray film, and explore the world of relationships through the concrete objects that exist independently on the surface and the world centered on elements."

Allen pointed out in Inheritance and Concession that the method of recording the ancient history of China changed regularly with the change of philosophy. Whether the relationship between ancient Emperor Yao and Shun was abdicated, usurped or simply popular varied from person to person. In addition, the function of historical legends, like myths, is to mediate an internal social conflict. In the legend of power alternation, there is always a typical conflict, whether to rule the country by heredity or morality, whether it is a family or a larger social group. The so-called "virtue" here basically reflects the requirements of a larger * * * same body or country, and sometimes conflicts with the interests of one's own family or blood organization. "Inheritance" is an inherent difference in maintaining family or blood organization in society, but it is particularly important for complex political and social organizations. In the traditionally settled agricultural society in China, this kind of opposition is extremely important because of the complicated blood organization system and the existence of political organizations with hereditary monarchs and non-hereditary officials. Heredity and virtue are the themes of ancient legends in China. Here, Dr. Allen reveals how ancient writers relate a legend to an era and how they retell the legend of another era. Inheritance and Concession is a successful work to study the ancient legends of China by structuralism.

In this book, the author is not concerned with the historical development or historical authenticity of myths and legends, that is, whether the history in ancient documents is true or not, but how the early authors used "history" to express their views. In addition, her main basis is not a large-scale and concrete mythological description, but a short sentence that philosophers sum up its essence. In this way, she can construct the relationship system between legends on the basis of the relationship described by the ancient authors themselves.

This book has seven chapters. The first chapter raises questions and launches theoretical discussion. The second to fifth chapters respectively discuss five groups of legend series around the critical period of power transformation, and illustrate the relationship between people and things in different historical periods with charts, including: ① the power transformation from Yao to Shun; ② Power transformation from Shun to Yu; ③ Qi's succession and the establishment of Xia Dynasty; (4) the establishment of Shang Dynasty; ⑤ The establishment of Zhou Dynasty. The sixth chapter discusses the philosophical documents-Mozi, Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, Han Feizi and Zhuangzi. By analyzing and studying them, we can judge whether there is a transformation model in these historical accounts that conforms to a specific philosophical point of view. The seventh chapter simply discusses the importance of China's later myths and legends. Although the topics and viewpoints discussed have changed greatly since and after the Han Dynasty, they are still similar to the previous ones and continue to exert an influence on China's history, historical compilation and historical novels.

Myth, Art and Universe in Early China.