Journal paper

Issue No.	No. 42
Title	Reconstruction of the Concept of “Historical Time” Based on Shang-Zhou texts by Olga Gorodetskaya
Author	Kuo Jing-yun
Page	1-20
Abstract	This study is based on authentic Shang-Zhou documents. Conducted analysis showed that there were three types of time cycles in Shang-Zhou era: natural, ritual, and historical. There was no concept of “linear time” in early China; the concept of cyclic time dominated. This was caused by observation of recurrent cycles in the nature. The Neolith agricultural cultures very early discovered laws of correspondence of rotations of heavenly bodies and season changes. Both the solar calendar of solstices and equinoxes and the lunar calendar are “natural time”-based. 　　However, over time, time measurement units grew beyond natural seasonal time cycles. In Shang period, a new time measurement unit was established, beside natural time, the cycle of sacrifices to ancestors, si. Si is the full cycle of sacrifices to all past wangs and their spouses. This is not the natural time, but it is not the historical time yet. This is a special kind of the ritual time. The length of si periods depends on number of ancestors. Their number had been growing; the ritual cycle was growing too. The natural and ritual cycles could not be harmonized; therefore, the ritual cycle could not become the foundation of time keeping. The record for the year of king’ ruling, using nian character, appeared only on bronzes of Yi-wang period (the first half of the 9 century B.C.). The period of king’s ruling as the unifying cycle for time-keeping demonstrates natural time, combined with the historico-societal definition. That was the birth of the historical time in the Chinese civilization.
Keyword	Shang-Zhou texts, cyclic time, natural cycle, ritual cycle, historic time, Shang rituals, characters 祀-si, 年-nian, 歲-sui
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