試釋甲骨文的“盾”字——甲骨文所謂“眢”字新釋

殷墟甲骨文有舊釋爲'眢'之字,主要見於祭祀卜辭中。該字的確釋,對於明確該類祭祀卜辭的含義,進而深入瞭解殷商時期的祭祀制度有着重要的作用。長期以來,甲骨學者對此字的釋讀提出了很多看法,已經取得一定的共識,這些共識主要體現爲:一、從字形上看,該字右半部分从'夗',左半部分在甲骨文中有繁簡不同的寫法;二、從用法上看,該字在祭祀卜辭中的用法與'率'相似,過去認爲該字是'祭名'或'祭祀動詞'的看法,是不正確的。在此基礎上,作者認爲此字應該釋爲'盾',是隱蔽、隱匿之'遁'字的初文。在祭祀卜辭中讀爲'循',表示遵循、依循的含義。

The OBI graph that was interpreted as yuan眢occurs widely in Shang inscriptions,particularly in the inscriptions that are related to divination about sacrificial offerings.As such,this graph may hold the key for our understanding the rituals of sacrificial ceremonies.It is generally agreed that one part of the graph is yuan夗and the other part exhibits variant forms,and that the function of this graph appears to be similar to that of another OBI graph shuai率“all,in all cases”.Here we argue that the graph cannot be a noun for specific ritual or a verb for performing a specific ritual.Rather,this graph should be interpreted as dun盾,the precursor for dun遁“to conceal,to hide”.In the divination inscriptions,the graph should be read as xun循“to follow,to perform according to certain order”.