文献对于艺术史研究是不可或缺的,因为与艺术品同(或相近)时代的相关文献是理解该作品的主要途径。但早期艺术(本文指从新石器时代中晚期到西周早期的艺术)因其特殊性,在使用文献时必须更为慎重。首先,最早的可参考文献来自春秋战国时期,而这些文献与研究对象往往已有至少近千年的差距。其次,东周文献的性质也需要格外留意,不少论述看似援引上古史实,实则不乏托古臆造之辞。再次,这些论述往往不系统,东鳞西爪、语焉不详,整体呈现出“模糊性”。总之,时代差异、文献性质、 Literature is indispensable to the study of art history because the related literature of the same (or similar) age with artwork is the main way to understand it. However, the early art (which refers to the art from the late Neolithic to the early Western Zhou Dynasty) had to be more cautious in using the literature because of its particularity. First of all, the earliest available references came from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, and these documents and subjects often have at least nearly a thousand-year gap. Second, the nature of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty literature also needs extra attention, a lot of expositions that seem to invoke the ancient historical facts, but in fact there is no lack of Tuo ancient imaginary words. Again, these discourses are often not systematic, the East West scale claws, the language is not detailed, the overall showing “ambiguity ”. In short, the differences between the times, the nature of the literature,