An Overview of Western Sinologists’ Studies of Chinese Paleography (西方漢學家中國古文字研究概要)

Abstract

This essay, the first chapter in the author’s Xifang Hanxue chutu wenxian yanjiu gaiyao 西方漢學出土文獻研究概要 (Essentials of Western Sinology’s Research on Unearthed Documents), provides a survey of Western Sinology’s research on Chinese paleography from the time of the first such study (1881) through 2015. The survey includes especially the following topics: general discussions of Chinese paleography and/or unearthed documents, the origins of Chinese writing and its social functions, the nature of Chinese writing, methodological studies, and reference works, but does not cover studies of ancient Chinese grammar or phonology. 摘要這篇文章是作者著《西方漢學出土文獻研究概要》第一章，就 1881 年到 2015年間西方漢學對中國出土文獻與古文字研究成果作概括的論述，分成下列題目：中國出土文獻與古文字學綜論、中國文字的起源及其社會作用、中國文字的性質、古文字學方法論、古文字學參考書，但是不包括相關的古代漢語語法研究和古代漢語音韻學。