A Comparative Study on Zhou-wen in Shuowen jiezi and the Ancient Chinese Characters of Shang Dynasty

Critics in the past has ever stated that there are similarities between Zhuo-wen and the ancient Chinese characters of Shang dynasty.However,little attention is paid to this aspect in the previous research.This article is a comparative study on Zhou-wen and the inscriptions of Shang dynasty.Through comparison,we find that a number of Zhou-wen in Shuowen jiezi is identical to the inscriptions.It is certain that Zhou-wen is a kind of characters adopted in the ancient period.Nevertheless,the characters of Shang dynasty may not be regarded as Zhou-wen.It is because there are still some differences between the scripts of Shang dynasty and Zhou-wen,and the level of development of Shang characters is distinct from Zhou-wen as well.Therefore,we believe that Zhou-wen is a succession of the scripts of Shang dynasty.Generally speaking,the inscriptions of Shang dynasty may be considered as the origin of Zhou-wen.