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.

A frontal standing figure with the head singled out by a stroke or dot; the crown of the head, hence heaven.

An adult seen from the front with arms and legs spread wide — size expressed by the whole human body.

Three separate specks of sand or grain; smallness rendered as scattered particles rather than an object.

A banner pole with streamers, planted at the middle of an encampment. 何尊 carries the earliest 中國.

One of the few purely abstract graphs: a short mark placed above a long baseline.

The mirror of 上 — a short mark below the baseline. The pair is the classic 指事 demonstration.

八 dividing over a mouth or enclosure — equal shares, hence the public interest and the ducal title.

An arrow 矢 flying beneath a target screen; the marksman becomes the enfeoffed lord.

人 with 白 as phonetic. Denotes the eldest brother and, by extension, a senior regional lord.

A hand 又 gathering bean plants; used in the 伯仲叔季 birth-order series for the third son.

A kneeling person with the mouth enlarged — the family member who speaks the prayers.

A cord wound in sequence round a stake; order of winding gives order of birth.

女 with 比 as phonetic; the standard designation for a deceased ancestress in sacrificial formulae.

An aged figure with streaming hair leaning on a staff. In dedications 文考 names the donor's late father.

女 plus a phonetic element; the clan name of the Zhou royal house, borne by its women.

羊 written above 女 — the clan name of the Qi ruling house, linked to the western Qiang herders.

女 plus 生; the clan name is reckoned through birth from the mother, which the graph records literally.

Origin disputed — possibly a hafted blade. In bronzes it marks the lineage branch below the 姓.

丰 as phonetic beside 邑; the settled territory belonging to a walled town.

或 — a halberd guarding a boundary — enclosed by walls 囗. The 何尊 line 宅茲中國 is its earliest attestation.

A raised granary or hall standing on piled earth; the elevated seat of government, hence capital.

A field densely dotted with sown grain; 口 was added later. The dynastic name of the Ji house.

Reading disputed — a tall stand surmounted by 辛. Used by the Shang of themselves and of their capital.

魚 above a vessel or mouth; state name of the Ji cadet line that later produced Confucius.

Three ears of grain standing level with one another; evenness, and the state name of the Jiang house.

Two arrows above a quiver or sun-disc; the northern state that dominated the Spring and Autumn league.

林 over 疋 as phonetic — a thicket. The southern kingdom whose bronzes favour ornate bird-script.

A pestle worked above grain 禾; the western state whose script became the standard 小篆.

Footprints circling a walled enclosure 韋 — patrolling, hence to guard. Also a Zhou state name.

奠 — a wine jar set down in offering — beside 邑; the state founded by a Zhou royal younger brother.

貝 with 易 as phonetic. The formula 王賜貝 records the royal gift that paid for the vessel itself.

Two hands passing a tray or boat between them; giving and receiving were one graph before 授 split off.

Hands lifted toward the sun. The set phrase 對揚王休 — extolling the king's beneficence — closes many dedications.

Two hands lowered over a stalk. 拜稽首 — bowing and touching the forehead to the ground — is the standard courtesy.

A hand holding a chisel against a standing block; in inscriptions it means to respond to a royal charge.

Hands seizing a boar with a tool; boldness. Appears in the humble formula 敢對揚天子休.

A kneeling figure in a helmet beside a striking hand; wariness before authority, hence reverence.

A foot in motion behind a retreating figure. 多友鼎 uses 追 for the pursuit of Xianyun raiders.

Movement 辵 with 正 as phonetic; a sanctioned campaign rather than a private raid.

A halberd 戈 cutting into a standing person — the graph is a decapitation, not a metaphor.

A figure bearing a heavy helmet or load; to be equal to a task, hence to subdue.

A hand closing on a bird beside 犬; the hunting yield, later extended to war captives.

Written 𣪘 in bronze — a food bowl 皀 with a hand or striker; the round grain vessel paired with 鼎.

般 as phonetic over 皿; the shallow basin that caught water poured from a 匜.

A drawing of the vessel itself: domed lid, narrow waist, swelling belly, ring foot.

A lidded bucket with a swing handle, used for the fermented millet ale offered to ancestors.

匚 with 也 as phonetic; the spouted ewer for pouring water over the hands before a rite.

A two-tier steamer: a 鬲 cauldron below, a perforated grate and basin above.

Three jade discs threaded on a single cord; the dot distinguishing it from 王 is a later addition.

A cowrie shell drawn mouth-outward. Strings of cowries are the unit in which royal gifts are counted.

Bamboo slips lashed by two horizontal cords — the oldest depiction of a Chinese book.

A bound 冊 raised on a stand or in two hands; a register kept for consultation, hence a canon.

A hand gripping a writing brush. 竹 was added later to give 筆.

A drum on its stand beside a hand holding a beater; the graph shows the instrument and the act at once.

An eye with the pupil marked, drawn horizontally; the upright orientation is a later convention.

The outer ear with its whorl. Severed ears were counted as battle tallies, which is why 取 shows a hand at one.

An open mouth. As a component it marks speech, eating, or an opening in a vessel.

A palm with five fingers splayed and a wrist below; the full form beside the abbreviated 又.

A right hand reduced to three fingers. It underlies 取, 受, 友 and most graphs of manual action.

A footprint with the toes marked; originally the foot, and the base element of 步, 征 and 辵.

Three peaks rising from a common base; boundary surveys in 散氏盤 use it to fix terrain features.

A central current with droplets thrown off to either side.

Flames tapering upward. Distinguishing it from 山 in early forms often depends on context alone.

A tree with branches above and roots below, drawn with deliberate symmetry.

A millet stalk whose ripe ear bends over at the top — the drooping head is the diagnostic stroke.

Droplets falling beneath a horizontal sky-line; the commonest weather graph in divination records.

A kneeling figure combing out long hair with both hands — compliance. Bronzes use 王若曰 to open a charge.

口 beside a short-tailed bird 隹, borrowed for the particle that opens dates: 唯王某年.

A foot above a groundline — to set out. The genitive particle is a phonetic loan on that verb.

A hand 又 grasping a slab of meat 肉; possession shown as physical holding.

An inverted calyx or root cluster, taken over as the general negative by phonetic loan.

Reading contested — perhaps a breast, perhaps a drawn cord. In bronzes it serves as a resumptive 'thereupon'.