Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

Abstract

This paper focuses mainly on the interpretation of the character   in oracle bone inscriptions whose usage may be divided into two: nominally denoting objects related to worship; verbally having the same usage as the character   in oracle bone inscriptions. This latter character is often seen in phrases such as “ganzhi zimou yang hu mu san pin san” (干支子某    牡三牝三) wherein   means “presenting tribute” and reads as “yang”;   means “performing sacrificial killing.” Given that the character   denotes “name of object” nominally and “disposing” verbally, I argue that the character in question may be interpreted as the hu (互) in the “gong qi niu sheng zhi hu” (共其牛牲之互) in Rituals of Zhou: Neatherd (Zhou Li: Niu Ren). Seen as a pictogram,   is a wooden lattice-shaped rack for hanging sacrifices that is built by crisscrossing multiple wooden sticks. 
In this paper, I substantiate the philological interpretation of   as hu by combing through the relationship between hu and wu (五， ). In their respective analysis of the character wu, Ding Shan sees it as a rope-coiling device and Yu Xingwu believes it was originally formed as X. I argue that the above views are not contradictory. Specifically, the original X was later evolved into   to avoid confusion with other characters. The character hu also adopts   to denote a rope-coiling device. In other words,   serving as an example of polysemy denotes number five (wu) and a rope-coiling device (hu). In ancient Chinese, hu may denote a rope-coiling device, a roadblock, and a rack for hanging sacrifices. This is because of the similarity in shape between these objects and   (hu). In addition, the structural features of hu may have facilitated its further interpretation as jiao (交) and dui (對). Prior to the emergence of the character hu,   or wu was used for its denotation. Derivation of hu from the character ya (牙) occurred in the Qin dynasty (221-207 BC) to carry the aforementioned meanings. 

In addition to structural analysis and interpretation of   as hu, this paper also looks at relevant literatures for discourses relating to hu. In some literatures, the character hu denoting a rack for hanging sacrifices can also be called ge (格). Moreover, in the bamboo inscriptions housed in Shanghai Museum detailing the penalty of paoge (炮格) imposed by King Zhou of the Shang dynasty (1600-1064 BC), ge should correspond in meaning to yuanmu (圜木, a log). 
The last part of this article combs through examples of   in oracle bone inscriptions and examines why hu used as a verb can denote cutting and dissecting by analyzing its structural features, phonetic interchangeability, as well as usage as a device.

Keywords

oracle bone inscriptions, wu (五), hu (互), paoge (炮格)