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丁丑卜才(在) (柚)子其(叀>助)舞戉若不用
子弜(勿) (叀>助)舞戉于之若用多万又(有)巛(災)引棘(戟)
Divined on Dingchou, at Xun: If our lord assists327 dancing (with) axes, (it) will be favorable. Not used.
Our lord ought not assist dancing with axes, for (in) that will be favorable. Used. The Many Dancers had a calamity drawing in a trident.328 325 An alternative is to read 女 as it is written, but in the plural— “women”, and meaning “women” of the house. For the graph 女as writing the word 母—and then as a rebus for the negative 毋, see 208.3. 326 Perhaps meaning “continue” to make test divinations about other people; see 339 and 441. A less likely alternative is to read the word as the name of a person. 327 is likely the ancestral form of zhuan 轉 “whorl”, to be read here as a phonetic loan for zhu 助 “assist” (Li Xueqin 2011: 2). It is an elaborated form of the modal copula hui 叀. This same graph occurs parallel with you 右 “assist” in the Western Zhou bronze inscription Lu Bo Dong gui 录伯冬簋 (JC 4302): 右闢四方,叀(助) 大命 “Aided in opening up the four quarters; assisted in extending the great command.” 328 I read ji 棘 “thorns” as a phonetic loan for ji 戟 “trident”. The choice of 棘 as a loan for 戟 was precisely because both had multiple branch protrusions that could stab (ci 刺). The defini- tion for 戟in the Shuowen jiezi says: 戟, 有枝兵也…《周禮》：戟，長丈六尺。讀若棘 “Ji is a branched weapon…The Zhou Li: ‘Ji, a long stick of six feet.’ Read like ji 棘”. This Eastern Han definition reveals an image association between 戟 “trident”, 枝 “branches” and 棘 “thorns”. According to the Da Dai Liji 大戴禮記 (“Xia Xiaozheng” 夏小正), performers called “Wan” 万 danced with weapons: 万也者, 干戚舞也 “Wan dance with shield and axe”; see 450.4 commen- tary. 218 | HYZ 208