Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2019

Tripod Ding Inscribed with the Penal Code, Clan Law, and the Promulgation of Written Law—A Study Based on Bronze Inscriptions from the Eastern and Western Zhou

(Abstract)

Wang Pei

Research on Eastern and Western Zhou bronze inscriptions shows that up to the Spring and Autumn period, the inscriptions on ritual vessels marked family and clan characteristics, and this was also true of inscriptions recording written law. The function of the tripod ding and the nature of such inscriptions changed in the Warring States Period due to changes in the structure of social organization. Confucius’ opposition to casting ding bearing penal regulations, recorded in the Zuozhuan, occurred just before this upheaval. In discussing the issue of casting such ding in the Spring and Autumn period, we need to understand the true implications against the background of this controversy. After the Warring States period, the nature of bronze inscriptions became more popular and down to earth, and legal inscriptions unrelated to family and clan became the norm. Thus, when scholars annotated the Zuozhuan in middle antiquity, they analyzed it in terms of their own age, misinterpreting the significance of the ancient writings. The real value of the controversy over casting ding bearing penal regulations in the Spring and Autumn period lies in its demonstration of the decay of the model of clan governance in society. Lawmakers’ identity urgently needed to be redefined, and groups applying the law needed to go beyond the bounds of family and clan. Ritual vessels and their inscriptions could no longer perform multiple social functions. This was a question of changes to the model of legal governance, not of the first issuance or promulgation of written law. The imminent end of the age of clan law and the coming of age of centralized law are the reasons for the controversy over casting ding bearing penal regulations; the controversy bears no relation to the promulgation of written law.