OLD IRANIAN ORIGINS OF CHINESE METALLURGY TERMS

ABSTRACT The present study continues the series of investigations devoted to identifying the Old Iranian lexical substratum in Old Chinese. The focus is on two key terms of Chinese metallurgy: 鑄 (zhù) and 銷 (xiāo), attested respectively in Shang oracle-bone inscriptions and in written monuments of the Warring States period. Both sinographs are defined in the Shuowen Jiezi through the concept of melting metal and are surrounded by a group of graphs associated with fire, luminosity, and the flow of liquid. Traditional Chinese lexicography explains each sinograph separately but does not answer the question of why the terms for metallurgy, flow, and fire came to be linked by a single phonetic basis. Keywords: Old Chinese; Old Iranian languages; 鑄; 銷; 注; Sino-Iranian language contacts; Iranian loanwords in Chinese; Sino-Iranica; Sino-Iranian; Old Chinese etymology; terminology of Chinese metallurgy; Chinese historical phonetics; Eurasian language contacts; sinographic writing; phonetic reconstruction; verificational analysis.