读契札记二则

Two Notes on Reading Oracle Bone Inscriptions

黄类卜辞中有两个从马之字,作“■”和“■”。左部构件与甲骨文“■/[尘犬]”(迩)及其声符“[木土]/尘”(埶之省)同形,应具有表音作用,战国文字有从马[木土](埶)声之字,皆应释为“驇”。甲骨文“■”字目前多释为“奚”,该字较“奚”字多出象征伐首义的短横,从字形和辞例来看当释为“[奚戌]”。

In the Huang-group oracle bone inscriptions,there are two graphs with the component ma马,written■and■.The components on the left of the two characters are er迩(■/[尘犬])and yi[木土]/尘,which have the same sound as yi埶and both act as the phonetic sign.In Warring States scripts,graphs have been found with ma as signific and yi埶as phonophore,and this paper argues they should all be interpreted as yi驇.Second,the oracle bone graph■was often interpreted as xi奚,but in fact,compared with xi it has an additional short horizontal stroke,symbolizing the cutting of the head.In terms of the structure of the graph and its context,it should be interpreted as[奚戌].