“Bird Script” on Ancient Chinese Swords

W. Perceval Yetts

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00075651

“Bird Script” on Ancient Chinese Swords

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

W. Perceval Yetts

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Hsü Shên in his postface to the Shuo wên gives a list of eight styles of script practised in the Ch'in period. The fourth of these is called ch'ung shu and a note is added by Hsü Ch'ieh one of the editors of the revised text which was published in a.d. 986 at the emperor's command. He remarks that the term is equivalent to niao shu “bird script”, so called because the tops of the characters represent bird forms. There is, however, tangible evidence that this fanciful variety of writing was in vogue earlier than the Ch'in period.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 66 , Issue 3 , July 1934 , pp. 547 - 552

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00075651 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1934

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^{page 547 note 1} See, for instance, the inscriptions on a bell and a dagger-axe both of the Chou period, in Chou chin wên ts'un, i, 45 v°–47, and vi, 15, respectively. This is the collection of photo-lithographed reproductions of inked-squeezes taken from inscribed bronzes and published in 1921 by Tsou An . It is a reprint of parts which had appeared in the bi-monthly magazine of art and archaeology I shu ts'ung pien Shanghai, 1916–1920.

^{page 549 note 1} See Legge, , Chinese Classics (1865–1895), v, 460, 464, 545, 549–551, 561, 565, 719, 721, 722, 820, 821Google Scholar.

^{page 549 note 2} See Chavannes, , Mémoires Mstorigues, iv (1901), 15, 16Google Scholar.

^{page 549 note 3} This dagger is often alluded to as “Fish's Bowels” , because it was hidden inside a grilled fish by the man who murdered Prince Liao of Wu in 515 b.c., at the instigation of the Prince's cousin, a claimant to the throne. A picture of the assassin serving the fish at a feast, and thus gaining access to the Prince, in spite of a numerous bodyguard, occurs among the Shan-tung reliefs of the second century a.d. See Chavannes, , Mission archéologique (1909 and 1913), pp. 154Google Scholar, 155, and fig. 75. It is narrated in the Shih chi, where the adroitness of Chi Tzῠ in reconciling his principles with the exigencies of the situation is explained. See Chavannes, , Mémoires historiques, iv, 20Google Scholar, 21. Wang's poem is included in the collection Yü yang jê ching hua lu (1700), ii, 14 r°Google Scholar.