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Symbols of Parentage in Archaic Chinese
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
A Few lines of introduction to the following paper seem advisable before presenting to readers of the Journal a summary of an essay by that ultra-modern Chinese scholar, Mr. Kuo Mo-jo. On the other hand it may be that the limited but steadily growing body of students of Chinese art and archæology in America and Europe will, so to speak, sniff at any “introduction” to Mr. Kuo. However, let it go. In brief the author is deeply versed in the history no less than the writing of ancient China, equally so as these are disclosed on the multitudinous bronze vessels, and on those fragmentary entries on the broken pieces of bone and tortoiseshell which are known as the “oracular sentences”, or pu tz'ῠ by the Chinese epigraphists. Nor is Mr. Kuo unacquainted with (nor, I think, uninfluenced by) Western literature on the subjects relevant to his own researches, as I infer from the several German authors whom he mentions by name.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1940
References
page 352 note 1 Kuo does not mention the character 
tsang, though it is interesting in itself, and if this sound and meaning are authentic, very relevant to his own theory of the true origin of 
tsu. The Shuo Wen's present text gives the meaning as 
chuang ma, a powerful horse, and analyses it as composed of 
ma and 
as the phonetic, which should normally give tsu, not tsang, as the sound of 
. I must leave the doubt as to the original sound unresolved.
page 353 note 1 As Kanghsi, citing the Chi Yün 
, points out, pi ia a less usual sound of the normal p'in.
page 356 note 1 The author's text is more plain spoken.
page 356 note 2 Kuo here uses the expression 
ch'i wu, usually “vessels” or “implements”, but the context implies and his argument requires that phallic objects are meant.
page 360 note 2 For footnote see next page.
page 361 note 2 The second character is, according to Kanghsi, considered a variant of 
, and both to be read yü. But Wang Kuo-wei, followed by Kuo Mo-jo, has shown conclusively that the ancient sound was that of 
hou, to give birth to. See The Relics, Honan, JRAS., 01, 1921Google Scholar, where Wang's argument is given in full.
page 362 note 1 The author is silent as to the significance of this augment.
page 362 note 2 Thus becoming the character 
shê, the sacrifice to the Earth deity. Kuo ignores the phonetic difficulty arising from the disparity of sound between t'u and shê, which cannot surely have diverged from the same archaic sound.