Remember the newly unearthed Yinghou Bell in Lantian County, Shaanxi
Excerpted from "Cultural Relics", 10th issue of Rensong Fan Weiyue
In March 1974, members of the Red Star Commune in Lantian County, Shaanxi Province, found a bronze bell while sorting out the soil on the hillside. This bell has Yong, dry, spiral, and pieces, which is the form of Yong bell developed in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The height is 26, the length is 10, the width of the wontons is 13.1, the width of the dance is 8, and the length of the dance is 11 cm. The drums of the bell are decorated with bird patterns and "T" shaped moirés. There is an inscription between the two wontons and the IE:
隹 (only) Early February
Ji, Wang Hoof (Gui) Zi Cheng Zhou, Yan (Ying) Hou See Gong,
The widow of The King of Zhou. Xin Wei, Wang Ge (Ge) Yu Kang, Rong Bai (Bo) into the right Ma (Ying) Hou Jian Gong, Yi (Xi) Diagnosis (Tong Gong) One, Gong (Tong Ya) Bai, Ma
Judging from the content of the inscription, the text is not finished, and this bell should be one of a set of chimes. A preliminary explanation of its inscription is hereby made:
"Only the beginning of February is auspicious". The chronological format of the Western Zhou bronze inscriptions is generally "only a certain month and a certain day in the year of Wang", which is rarely used as "only a certain month of a certain year". The Zizhang Bell in the Spring and Autumn Period, known as "Ju Zheng Early July Ji Ding Hai" is the same as this bell inscription. "Zheng" means Zhou Zheng. The stuffing text here does not remember the year and day, and it is impossible to know which year and day it is. Chu Ji, that is, the first dry auspicious day, all ten dry days in the beginning of January can be called Chu Ji (1), which shows that this is a day in early February.
"The King Returns to Himself into a Week". Yaling Yi: "Ming Gong Returns to the King", "Poetry • June", "Coming to Return from pickaxe", all of which are the same as this example. Chengzhou is Luoyi, this sentence is to say that the king returned from Chengzhou.
"Geese see workers". Yan Jiying was a fiefdom of king Wu of Zhou's son. "Twenty-four Years of zuo chuan gong": "In the past, the duke of Zhou hanged the second uncle without saltiness, so the feudal relatives took the fanping zhou." Guan, Cai, Bu, Huo, Lu, Wei, Mao, Nie, Bu, Yong, Teng, Bi, Yuan, Handan, Wen Zhizhaoye. Deng, Jin, Ying, Han, Wu Zhi Mu ye". Du pre-notes: "Ying Guo is in the southwest of present-day Father City County", and the ancient city is in the southwest of present-day Baofeng County, Henan. The Ying Hou of this instrument is a descendant of Ying Hou, the son of King Wu. In 1958, Ying Guo's bronze artifacts were excavated in Yugan County, Jiangxi (see Archaeological Journal, No. 1, 1960), and also passed down by Ying Gong xie ("According to Gu" 11.25.4), Ying Gongzun ("Three Generations" 11.23.5), Ying Gongding ("Three Generations>3.36) and so on. The word "see the worker", Jin Wen did not see. Shang Shu Kangxuan: "Zhou Gong Chuji, as the new Dayi in Dongguoluo, the Sifang Mindahui, Houdian Nanbang Caiwei, the Hundred Workers Sowers and the People, see Shi Yu Zhou". Hou Zhiding (Zhensongtang Jigu Testament >3.16): "The first sight of The Marquis of Youhou was in Zong Zhou, and Wang Shang (Reward) intended to be a friend of the Emperor and defeated Bao Pi Yi with a defeat." ApProving (Constitution of the Constitution 5.14): "己海, in order to see things in Peng, shu shu faces the wind and horses, and uses father Geng Pu Yi". The "Seeing The Scholar in the Zhou" of the Kang Xuan, the "Seeing things in the Zong Zhou" of the Hidden Hou Zhiding, and the "Seeing things in the Peng" of the present Ding are similar to the example of the bell inscription "Ying Hou Seeing the Worker". Soldiers and things. "Poetry • Dongshan": "Don't do the shi xing", the reading of the shi is a thing, so "seeing the shi" is "seeing the matter". In addition, the Erya Interpretation is "Gong, Matter", and gong and gong are also connected. "Poetry • Lingtai": "Seeing the Ambiguous Gong", "Chu Ci Huaisha Zhu Cai", "Should Be Ambiguous", so "Seeing work" is also "seeing the soldier" or "seeing things". Sun Xingyan's annotation to the Shang Shu (尚書) "See the scholar Yu Zhou" says: "The Book of Heavenly Officials takes the star as the effect, and the justice is known as the effect, the scholar, and the poetry is also transmitted." Hundreds of officials are appointed, yue, serve Zhou, and attack the position also." According to this, "work" means to serve the King of Zhou.
"The Widow of the King yu Zhou". Guangya Shi 3: "Testament, Giving", that is, the meaning of giving. Zhou, regarding the location of the single name Zhou in the Jin text, there are several theories that have studied the Jin text in the past: (1) that "all the names of the Zhou in the Yi Ming refer to the Zhou" (2) ;(2) that "Zhou is the royal city" (3) that "The Jin Wen Example: Where the single is called Zong Zhou, that is, simply summarized by the word 'Zhou'. Where the symmetry of 'Zong Zhou' and 'Cheng Zhou' is symmetrical, the 'Zong Zhou' is used as the pickaxe, and the 'Cheng Zhou' is the Luo".'"&"&" In the inscription of this instrument, it is mentioned earlier that "the king returned to Chengzhou", which indicates that the king has left Chengzhou, so the "zhou" here should be Zong Zhou, that is, Beijing. "The king is left in Zhou", which means that the king rewards the king in Zong Zhou.
"Xin Wei, Wang Ge (Ge) Yu Kang". Grid is the meaning of to. "Kang" means "Kang Palace. Or "Kang Temple" is the name of the province of Kang, is the Zongmiao of King Kang. Zong Zhou has the Zong Temple of King Kang, just as there is the Zong Temple of King Mu, Da Keding, "The king is in Zong Zhou." Dan, Wang Gemu Temple", can be proved.
"Rong Bo entered the right should be waiting to see the worker". In the past, the bronze vessels of the Gongwang period, such as Kangding, 卯 Beaten, Scattered Beating, Tongbao, and Yongluo excavated during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, have Rong Bo in inscriptions, and the Rong Bo of this bell inscription is the same person, who knows that this bell should belong to the gongwang period, and the king in the inscription is the zhou gongwang.
"Xi Cai (Tong Bow) One, About (Tong Ya) Hundred, Horse", the King of Zhou rewarded Ying Hou with a bow one, a hundred arrows and a horse. Tong Bow, Tong Ya Heshu, and Yi Hou Ya Beat.
Before the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were not many Yong bells unearthed in the past. In 1954, the three groups of rain bells excavated from the tomb of the mayor of Pudu Village, Shaanxi Province, belonged to the Muwang period and are chimes of the early age known today, but there is no inscription. This Yinghou bell is also in the form of a rain bell, and has an inscription, the inscription is written between the two baht and the hammer, which has opened the format of the late bell inscription. From the inscription, it can be seen that its era is slightly later than the Gongwang period of King Mu, which provides important information for us to study the historical development of the Western Zhou Bell. In addition, Zhong Ming mentions Ying Hou and the confrontation between "Chengzhou" and "Zhou", and the emergence of the word "see work", which is also of great value to the study of Western Zhou history and Jin Wen.