Abstract The present thesis concentrates on the inscriptions on bronze vessels from the state of Chu.With comprehensive command of the original materials about the inscriptions as the basis of the study,together with some other sources such as traditional documents,excavated materials from other areas and of other media,it takes synthetic methods,comparing the materials of different natures,to delve and show the features of written forms and vocabulary,of the Chu bronze inscriptions.It tries to explore the contents of Chu bronze inseriptions,providing new criteria for classifying the bronze vessels by dates and areas,as well as new methods for studying inscriptions on bronze vessels. It is composed of four chapters.The first one defines the field,points of view, and meanings of the present study,with a brief survey of previous researches on the related topics.The second chapter discusses the methods and issues in studying the time and area natures of Chu bronzes,evaluating the previous achievements in the field.analyzing the problems existent in the studies.With adequate considerations on all kinds of evidences,it ascertains the number and a chronology,together with the relevant evidences.of Chu bronzes.It further discusses several bronzes,controversial among the scholars about their dates and areas,to verify the proficiency of the synthetic linguistic methods that the present thesis advocates.Chapter Three presents a study on the written forms of the characters on bronzes,first surveying the methods, achievements.and Methodology of past studies on the formation of the characters, then giving a chronically classification of Chu bronzes according to the styles of the inscriptions,finally suggesting a new conception for the study of character morphology:writing morphs.It then studies the formation features,together with symbols for dates and areas,of Chu inscriptions,using the method of the morphs. Chapter Four discusses the vocabulary of Chu inscriptions.It first studies the linguistic phenomena of proper names,idiomatic phrase,etc.Then there is a research on character usage and grammatical deviants.With the above studies,it gives a reconsideration on the relationship between the elements of Chinese characters: written form,pronunciation,and meaning,suggesting a linguistic law that pronunciation-meaning dominates while written form being subsidiary.At last,taking advantage of the nature of Chinese characters that written forms bear meaning,it studies the origins and processes of duplication of two words,Xi-Sheng and Qin-Shou, to substantiate some evolutionary nature of ancient Chinese,so that the importance of bronze inscriptions in the historical study of ancient Chinese is revealed