Guo Shuofu Fu

Guo Shuofu Fu, late Western Zhou Dynasty, total height 19, mouth length 25.2, mouth width 30.6, belly depth 5.8 cm. Excavated in the Guo State Cemetery in Sanmenxia City, Henan Province in 1989. Now in the Guo State Museum in Sanmenxia City.

Guo Shuofu Fu is made of two square plates of the same shape. Take the body as an example, it has an open mouth, a flat inner folded edge, a pointed lip, and a straight oblique wall that is narrowed down. There is a pair of dragon head ears on both sides of the belly wall. The dragon sticks out its tongue and bends down in a semi-circular shape. The dragon head's two horns are only indicated by shallow engravings. It has a flat bottom and a nearly semicircular notch in the middle of each of the four sides of the ring foot. The outer edge of the mouth and the ring foot are decorated with a circle of C-shaped flat eye stealing curved patterns, and each belly wall is decorated with a group of S-shaped double-headed dragon patterns facing back. The bottom of the vessel has an inscription with three lines and seventeen characters (including two repeated characters), arranged vertically from left to right: "Guo Shuofu made the Lu Fu, and his ten thousand years of harvest will be treasured and enjoyed forever by his descendants." A broken copper sheet with an inscription was cast above the first character. The shape of the lid is the same as the body of the vessel, with the only difference being a set of variant S-shaped convex eye-shaped curved patterns on the top of the handle. The content, style and number of characters of the inscription on the bottom of the lid are the same as those on the bottom of the vessel, except that the character after "万" is "年"[1]. (Figure 1, Figure 2)

Figure 1 Inscription on Guo Shuofu Fu Fu

Figure 2 Line drawing of Guo Shuofu Fu Fu

The character "硕" in the inscription is generally written as 石. "The Book of Changes: Jian" says: "往蹇來硕." Jiao Xun's note: "硕,就是石也". "Zhuangzi: External Things" says: "无石师而能言". "典解文" says: "无硕师而能言". "Shuowen" records: "Shuo means big head, and it is pronounced like Yeshi." "Han Shu Lüli Zhi" records: "Shi means big." It can be seen that the word "Shuo" and the word "Shi" are homophones, so Guo Shuofu is Guo Shifu. "Zhou Yu•Zheng Yu" records that Shi Bo said: "Guo Shifu is a flatterer and cunning person, and he was established as a minister." Wei Zhao's note: "Shifu is the name of the Lord of Guo." "Shiji•Zhou Benji" says: "King You made Guo Shifu a minister, and he was in charge of affairs, and the people all resented him. Shifu was a flatterer, good at flattery and profit, and the king used him." It can be seen that Guo Shifu was a minister of King You of Zhou and a prominent figure in charge of government.

The word "簠" is written in the inscription on the cover of Guo Shuofu's簠 and in the inscription on the vessel. This writing method is only seen in bronze inscriptions.

Judging from the inscription, the bronze簠 was a ritual vessel made by Guo Shuofu for himself. The Guo Shuofu Fu was unearthed in Sanmenxia, ​​which provides important clues for studying when the Guo State moved eastward and the starting age of the Guo State cemetery.