Yuan character pattern

"爰" patterned dagger, bronze ware, Shang Dynasty (Yinxu Phase III). Total length 35.3 cm, inner length 11.8 cm, handle width 5.1 cm. Excavated from Tomb No. 269, Qijiazhuang, Yinxu, Anyang. Now in the collection of Henan Museum.

Bronze daggers can be divided into three categories according to the shape of the inner part, namely straight inner part, curved inner part and inner part. "爰" patterned daggers belong to curved inner part. The shape of "爰" patterned daggers is quite unique. From the perspective of the tip, the main dagger tips in the Shang Dynasty mainly include round tongue-shaped tips, pointed tongue-shaped tips and gui head-shaped tips. The tip of "爰" patterned dagger is very different from these popular dagger tips. The upper blade of the dagger tip is a smooth curve, and the lower blade is a straight line, which has some characteristics of the gui head-shaped tip.

Figure 1 Several popular dagger tips in the Shang Dynasty

Figure 2 The tip of "爰" dagger

The middle of the "爰" patterned dagger has a ridgeline-like ridge and no ridge. The Shang Dynasty was popular with straight handles. The upper blade of the "爰" dagger is slightly arched upward, the lower blade is concave inward, and the entire dagger is slightly curved downward. This is different from the popular dagger model at that time.

The dagger with the "爰" character pattern is consistent with the dagger unearthed from the M1 tomb of the early Western Zhou Dynasty in Baicaopao, Lingtai, Gansu.

The inner front part of the "爰" dagger is narrow, plain and without decoration, and the inner back part is a bird shape with a hollow hook beak and a crown. The two decorations are consistent, and there is the word "爰" on one side.

Compared with the popular daggers at that time, the "爰" character pattern dagger is exquisite in shape and large in size, but it is not a practical weapon, but a burial object. Regarding burial objects, "The Book of Rites: Tan Gong Xia" records: "Confucius said that those who are burial objects know that the way is lost, and they prepare things but cannot use them." From this sentence, we can know that burial objects are special burial objects, made to imitate practical objects, and basically do not have the function of practical objects. So why is the "爰" character pattern dagger considered a burial object? There are two reasons: First, the "爰"-patterned dagger is light in weight and long in length. The "爰"-patterned dagger is 34.5 cm long and weighs only 230 grams. A practical dagger from the same tomb is about 25.1 cm long and weighs about 370 grams. Compared with iron, bronze has poor toughness and ductility, which is what people call "brittle". When making daggers, it is necessary to maintain a certain balance between the hardness, toughness and ductility of bronze, so that such weapons can adapt to fierce close combat. Therefore, the length and thickness of bronze daggers cast from a certain mass of bronze must be controlled within a certain range before they can be used as weapons. Casting a dagger with a long appearance from a small mass of copper will inevitably make the dagger thinner as a whole, making the already poor toughness and ductility of bronze even worse. It will inevitably break if there is a slight collision, and it cannot be used in fierce close combat at all; second, the "爰"-patterned dagger has no upper and lower rails. The function of the guardrail is to fix the dagger and the shaft tightly together so that the dagger will not slip off during fierce fighting. The dagger with the “爰” pattern without the guardrail cannot do this.

According to current archaeological data, the phenomenon of bronze weapons being used as funerary objects in the Shang Dynasty appeared in the late Shang Dynasty. The earliest bronze weapon to be used as funerary objects was the dagger. Professor Guo Yanli of the School of History and Culture of Shaanxi Normal University believes that bronze daggers used as funerary objects first appeared in the tombs of people of lower social status. In the Shang Dynasty, copper materials were scarce, and the lower-class people had no choice but to use funerary daggers as burial objects. Later, the custom of burying funerary daggers with people of higher social status spread from the lower social status to the upper social status. The reason why the upper social status used funerary daggers in the tombs was related to the social fashion in the late Shang Dynasty.

The back half of the dagger with the “爰” pattern is a hollow bird with a hooked beak and a crown. The "Xuanniao" in the "Book of Songs: Ode to Shang" says: "The Xuanniao was sent by heaven to give birth to the Shang Dynasty." The "Records of the Grand Historian: The Book of Yin" records: "Yin Qi, his mother was Jian Di, the daughter of Yousuo clan, and the second concubine of Emperor Ku. The three of them were bathing when they saw the Xuanniao drop its egg. Jian Di swallowed it and became pregnant and gave birth to Qi." These two pieces of information prove that the Shang people regarded the Xuanniao as their ancestor. The bird pattern on bronze ware may have come from this. The "Yuan" dagger has a large crown and beak, a short body and tail, one side of the bird's body is decorated with cloud patterns, and the other side has a positive "Yuan" character on the bird's body. In addition to the bronze dagger, the tomb also has tripods, lei, jia, gui, gu, and jue. The excavators believe that "Yuan" is the name of the tomb owner or the emblem of the clan to which the tomb owner belongs[2].

Figure 3 The hollow hook-beaked and forked-crowned bird pattern on the back of the spear with the character “爰”

Figure 4 The character “爰” on the other side of the bird on the back of the spear with the character “爰”