“石沱”新释

The New Interpretations of Shituo“(石沱)”on the Chu bronze Inscriptions

楚系青铜器中有一类鼎铭自名为“石沱”等。“石”字或作“沰”“■”“橐”“■”“宕”等从“石”声之字形,“沱”字或作“■”“■”“■”“铊”等从“它”声之字形。不少学者对于“石沱”等的命名各有不同解说。本文认为,“石沱”等本字当作“宕沱”或“宕铊”。石为禅母铎部,宕为定母阳部,禅母、定母的关系密切,铎部阳部对转。因此,“石沱”可以读为“汤池”。古文字“池”本作“沱”,原指蓄水处,后蓄水之器物亦可称为“池”或“沱”。“汤池”古多指城池。楚金文中以“汤池”代指盛汤之器皿,是一种语言学上的转喻行为。

Within the bronze vessels during the Eastern Zhou period,some Chu types inscriptions on the caldrons are named“shituo(石沱)”etc.The characters of“shituo(石沱)”have lots of derivatives which are combined the phonetic components“shi(石)”with“tuo(它)”,and lots of interpretations by many scholars.This paper reveals that the orthography of the word“shituo(石沱)”should be“dangtuo(宕沱/宕铊)”,and it should be read as“tangchi(汤池)”which is derived from the city moat.The natming way of that the word“shituo(石沱)”on the Chu types inscriptions refers to“tangchi(汤池)”(the vessels contained hot water)is just a kind of metonymy.