characters X ß \ comprise a continuous
"unpunctuated" sentence wherein B served both as the object of yu
fa
"to assist" and the subject of ju "to enter". Thevalidity of this interpretation has not hitherto been fully
considered. However, following the excavation of the kung/miao
remains at Ch'i-shan, a review of the earlier interpretation now
seems necessary. According to the excavation report, there was
only one entrance whereby the entrant-on-the-right, A, and the
investee, B, would enter the central courtyard (c f . Figure 2
above). To read the sentence as above, it would require that
the entrant-on-the-right, A, enters the courtyard first, then
retires to assist the investee, B, to enter the courtyard i.e.
make two entrances! If, however, the sense is broken at y u :
A }\ [ ,] ß A P ^ and so read as two sentences, a perfectly
straightforward interpretation results; the entrant-on-the-
right enters the courtyard and takes up his position "to assist"
(i.e. act as patron of the investee) throughout the ensuing
ceremony. Next the investee enters through the same doorway and
takes up his position in the central courtyard.
18. Ssu-kung Yi Po served as a Ssu-kung-officer in the Royal Court,
as recorded in this inscription and at the same time he held the
title of P o . This title might either indicate his Princely
status, Earl, in which case he would in effect be holding a
concurrent appointment in the Royal Court, or Po might simply be
a courtesy title and so he might be merely an ordinary officer
in the Royal Court. I take Po in this latter sense here.
19. In the Mu Kuei and the Shih Yu Kuei a l o n e , it is not entirely
clear whether the term kung-tsu is actually an official rank.
It is, however, quite evidently so in the two following passages
in the Mao Kung Ting j|pj [ins. T. 500.1 ] : ^
^
r f e ] , - 1 ' A t
a n d
t h a
Fan Sheng Kuei (lid) ^ [ins. 138.1]: jfj«a]
^ ^ where the term kung-tsu is entered along
with the t s 1a n - y u - s s u , h s i a o - t z u , s h i h-shih, ch'ing-shih-[liao],
t 1a i - s h i h - [l i a o ] , etc. - all characteristic titles of office in
the Royal establishment. In the T s o - c h u a n , it is recorded that
kung-tsu-ta-fu was one °f the major ranks in the
State of Chin, a State established by a member of the Chou
title itself would furthermore appear to indicate that the post was one generally held by a member of the Royal clan.
20. In 1976, a group of 103 bronze vessels was unearthed in Fu-feng, Shensi (see Anon., WW 1978.3:1-18), amongst them is the Tso-ts'e Che Kuang [ins . A/1 : 40.13] , the Shih Ch'iang P ' an
^ i-fjlj 'x§i_ [in s * A / 1 : 275.1 ] , and the Hsing Chung (Series A) [ ins . A / 1 : 100.9] which were made by members of the same family over a period of four generations. The fourth generation, Che, had served in the office of tso-ch'e during the reigns of Chao and Mu, as recorded in the Tso-ts'e Che Kuang. The sixth generation, Ch'iang, served during the reigns of Kung, Yi and Hsiao as a Shih-officer, as recorded in the Shih Ch'iang P 'a n . Whereas the Hsing Chung of Series A records that the seventh generation, Hsing, had inherited the office of his forbear and father, namely that of a Tso-ts'e or Shih-officer in the Royal Court, and would "day and night serve as an assistant to the yin-shih: :ß$L ^ ^rj7 j ! ^ . / )§La
^ ''F* . The terms shih and tso-ts1 e were thus very likely different titles pertaining to the same office, while the subordinate status of the tso-ts'e and shih to the yin-shih would seem obvious.
21
.
The character shou was written as ^ , 3^ etc. in the bronze inscriptions (c f . CWKL 5:2536-2538). It comprises a combination of the phonetic chou "a boat" held between two hands thus representing the action of "giving" or "receiving" which is still customary in China today. In Table 10, there are only the two examples a and j' : ^ ^_j£_ thus it is difficult to judge with reference to these sentences alone whether shou is used in the sense of "receive" or "give". However, if we take into account also the sentences immediately following which may be reconstructed in full as:
-5- rf" ^ A
ß , it is evident that the documentcontaining the Royal Decree would have to be passed from the first to the second historiographer, who has been called forth by the King to read out the Decree. He would [ ] the
document from the first historiographer who likewise had [ <5^ ]
the document earlier from the King: the recording is surely in the passive.
In the Mien Kuei ^ [ins. T.64♦3] (Table 10, b ) , it is apparently recorded that the King had personally given ( ) the Decree to the second historiographer, who then read it out to the investee: *5^ 0 ^ 0 \ p . However, in view of the majority of the cases as already discussed above, it is likely that the inscription text is at fault in some way. Similarly, too, the related vessel, the Mien Yu gTJ [ins. T.49.2 (v.b)] (Table 10, p ' ), is open to question as to the reliability of the wording.
22. For further discussion on the combinations j£. S J wang-jo- yueh and J3L wang-yüeh with reference to the studies of Tung Tso-pin and Ch'en Meng-chia, see Note 82 below.
23. Scholars have rendered the character in this inscription either as tsu "to continue", or read it as hsii f a "to assist". The graph ^ is a radical in the archaic forms: ,
ch' u ) , and accordingly is to be transcribed as
f a hsii. C h1 u sometimes is used in the sense of assist, e.g.
the Mi Shu Kuei <£5^ ^ 0 [ins. A/ 2 :70.2] : fa] /'(b . According to the Erh-ya gloss, hsu also has the meaning of "assist". Hsii is found, furthermore, in the compound verb: ^ , in the Shan Ting [ins. T. 110. 1 ] . The meaning of tso-hsii would be equivalent to that of tso-yu jfa f a . Thus the single graph 2 should be transcribed as in the sense of
"assist".
24. This vessel made by Mien is traditionally referred to as Mien Fu . However, according to Kao Ming (WW 1982.6: 70-73, 85) the _fu vessel which has for a long time been referred to by scholars as "casket" should actually be rendered as or hu. Fu on the other hand, represents vessels of tall rounded body similar to that of a tou-pedestal-bowl. The photograph of the present vessel is not recorded in the various catalogues and the inscription merely refers to the vessel as lu-shang-yi
difficult to define whether the vessel is a fu or a hu-casket. Nevertheless, it seems that the chance for the vessel to be a hu-casket is greater.
25. There is some measure of disagreement among scholars as to the