Page 67 - Sotheby's Junkunc Collection March 2019
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He Hao notes in his paper that according to the Zhouli zhushu [Annotations to Rites of Zhou], the guard
                                 on the right of the royal war chariot holds a ge and a shield and rides together with the king. Qu Dang
                                 was on the right of the royal war chariot during the Battle of Bi, and therefore, he was a right guard
                                 to King Zhuang of Chu. The inscription on the present blade states that Qu Shutuo was the yuanyou
                                 of King Chu. He Hao argues yuanyou should be interpreted as the ‘right guard [of the war chariot]’,
                                 as the ancient name of war chariot is yuanrong, and the Chinese character for ‘right’ is you. Based
                                 on He’s interpretation, Qu Shutuo was a right guard for the king of Chu, which is consistent with the
                                 aforementioned historical records about Qu Dang.

                                 In attempting to determine the character that specifies the first name of Qu Shutuo’s grandfather, which
                                 is illegible in most rubbings and drawings, He Hao traces the history of the Qu family based on historical
                                 texts and concludes that Qu Dang was the grandson of Qu Wan, who was the dafu of Chu (for his detailed
                                 discussion, see ibid., p. 58). In conclusion, He Hao believes the owner of this blade was Qu Dang and
                                 infers the character he could not read must be wan. The validity of He’s conclusion, therefore, relies on
                                 the identification of the missing character in the inscription, which will either corroborate or refute his
                                 hypothesis.


                                 Fortunately, upon thorough physical inspection, the character previously illegible in the published
                                 rubbings can be made out. The once-intaglio character is now filled with oxidized encrustations and has
                                 an almost flat surface, which is why it could not be properly transferred via the ink rubbing. The character
                                 appears to be in a vertical two-part composition: the top part seems to be the character mao (spear), the
                                 bottom part has yet to be deciphered. Although the character remains unidentifiable, it is conspicuously
                                 different from the character wan. It is also unlikely to be the zi of Qu Wan, as a zi would normally consist
                                 of two characters. In addition, this character is not found in any of the names of the Qu family members
                                 noted in He Hao’s paper.

                                 A closer examination of the blade also reveals an additional character, zhi (of) on one side of the nei,
                                 which does not appear in some of the previous illustrated publications. For example, in Wu Zhenfeng’s
                                 book, the author records nineteen characters (including the illegible character). The zhi character
                                 complicates existing understanding of the inscription, as the placement of this preposition character
                                 allows the last part of the inscription to be read in a different order, which could produce a different
                                 interpretation of the inscription.


                                 The reemergence of the Chu Qu Shutuo Ge provides a great opportunity for the advancement of
                                 scholarship. The inscription poses challenges to the exciting understanding of Chu history raising
                                 fascinating new questions in the process. Hopefully fresh research based on this important artifact will
                                 illuminate the true identity of its original owner and the historical context surrounding him.




                                 經仔細觀察此戈實物,可見此前無法辨認之銘已被鏽                 目前亦見有出版記錄標註此戈共鑄銘文十九字,內正
                                 蝕填滿,幾乎完全處於平面,因此導致其字無法轉印                 面四字,讀法為「        笙于缶」。通過觀察實物,可
                                 於拓片之上。此字似分上下兩部,上半似為「矛」                  見內正面銘文除以上四字之外尚有一「之」字,故此
                                 字,下半仍未可辨,雖未能辨認全字,然而可知其與                 銘文最後部份讀法順序及意思可能與原先理解有別。
                                 「完」字有明顯區別。而此字亦不應為屈完之表字,
                                 因為古人傳統表字多為兩字。何氏文中所錄的其他屈                 楚屈叔沱戈實物的出現,雖然對目前已有的一些認知
                                 氏族人之名亦同樣不見似此字者。綜上所見,屈叔沱                 提出了挑戰,但其無疑是為相關課題的學術研究提供
                                 可能並非《左傳》所載之屈蕩,因屈蕩祖父之名與本                 一個難得的突破機會。希望隨著對其實物銘文更加深
                                 戈銘文記載不符。                                入的研究,能讓此戈原主身份最終得以確認,從而進
                                                                         一步加深人們對於楚國歷史的了解。











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