The Decipherment of the Character 送 in Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions
This paper identifies the character 送 in early excavated documents.From a visual perspective,the characters found in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions commonly deciphered as yí 遗"to lose,drop"or wèi 遗"to present"can be categorized into two types.The first type is written(速),which definitely should be interpreted as 遗,while the other type is strictly transcribed as(遺),similar to the graphic forms of(遗)and 遗,but is never used for the word {遗 } in the context of"omission"or"loss".Therefore,the usual decipherment and interpretation of(遺)can be questioned.Based on the visual clues and contextual evidence,this paper proposes that(遺)is the written form of character sòng 送"present,send,escort"in the Western Zhou.In Western Zhou bronze inscriptions,it is used to convey the meanings of giving or presenting as well as sending or escorting.The elucidation of the character 送 in this study accounts for the apparent absence of the word {送} in early excavated documents hitherto and provides a more comprehensive understanding of its graphic origin and development.
Western Zhou bronze inscriptionscharacter 送character 遗
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