Bronze Inscription Glyph Query

A large axe blade resting edge-down — the instrument of capital punishment, hence royal authority.

A bundled sacrificial frame; used for the high god before it named a human sovereign.

Three-legged ritual cauldron with two upright handles, drawn in full profile.

Two hands offering a bound fowl; the generic word for ritual vessels in dedications.

Two hands raising a wine jar — the act of offering, later the vessel type itself.

Spouted drinking vessel held by a hand; the same graph became a rank of nobility.

Horse in profile with eye, mane and four legs still clearly pictorial.

Frontal ox head reduced to horns and muzzle — the classic head-only abbreviation.

Head of a ram with curled horns; distinguishes from 牛 only by horn direction.

Elephant with trunk raised — evidence that elephants ranged into the Yellow River basin.

Tiger with open jaws and striped body, tail curling upward.

Fish drawn vertically with fins and tail; strokes later straightened into 田-plus-火.

Standing bird with crest; Eastern Zhou scribes elaborated it into 鳥書 bird script.

Chariot seen from above: axle, box and two wheels. Shang forms show both wheels, Zhou forms one.

Dagger-axe with the blade set at right angles to the shaft.

Unstrung bow in profile, the double curve preserved into the seal script.

Arrow with head, shaft and fletching — the top stroke is the point, not a person.

金 signific plus 童 phonetic; the graph postdates the vessels it names.

Two ingots beside a smelting mould — 'metal', and by extension bronze itself.

示 altar plus 且 ancestral tablet; earlier Shang forms write 且 alone.

A hand grasping a stone axe — the adult male who wields the tool.

Kneeling woman with two dots marking the breasts; 女 plus nursing marks.

Infant with large head and swaddled body, arms free.

子 plus 系 silk thread — the descending line of descent. Ubiquitous in 子孫永寶用.

Standing person seen from the side, arm hanging forward.

Kneeling figure with crossed arms, the posture of formal attendance.

A downcast eye — the servant who does not meet the lord's gaze.

An eye pierced by a blade; many read it as the blinded captive turned labourer.

A hand holding a tally-holder; the scribe who keeps the record.

Formulaic in dedications: X 作寶尊彝 — 'X made this treasured ritual vessel'.

Roof over cowries, jade and a 缶 phonetic — treasure stored in the house.

A swimmer in a current; 'long, perpetual' as in 永寶用 'treasure and use forever'.

A wooden bucket or slatted pail; grammaticalised early into 'use, employ'.

An ancestral shrine on a mound — offering food to the spirits.

示 altar plus 巳 phonetic. Shang dates count years as 祀, 'sacrificial cycles'.

A person carrying ripe grain: one harvest, hence one year.

Crescent moon with an inner stroke, distinguishing it from 夕 evening.

Sun disc with a central dot; the outline squared off as bronze casting standardised.

Cultivated fields divided by paths; central to Zhou land-transfer inscriptions.

A walled enclosure above a kneeling person — settlement with inhabitants.

Military commander and, later, teacher; a common Zhou official title.

Mouth issuing an order under a roof; the key term of 天命 heavenly mandate.

彳 road, 直 straight eye and 心 heart: to walk straight — Zhou political virtue.

A child supporting an elder; the graph is already fully abstract in Zhou bronzes.

Blood in a basin under the moon — the covenant sworn between states.

Seal of office. Warring States forms vary wildly between the six regional scripts.

貝 cowrie signific — coin legends are the main Eastern Zhou source for this graph.

State name written with 阜 mound plus 東; the Qi 陳 lineage's dedications use it constantly.