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2 Qi 其 is a pictograph of a “basket” and the ancestral form of qi 箕. Shang scribes used this graph as a rebus to write a modal adverb. Classical commentary often glosses it as jiang 將, which is an adverb marking anticipated future action; see Zhang Yujin 2002: 51. Keightley (1999) ex- plains it: “The modal particle qi 其, which appears in a large number of oracle bone inscriptions, expressed uncertain expectancy; its precise meaning—which was related to the core meaning of expectation (qi 期) in its senses of volition, future hope, and future uncertainty—varied with the divination environment.” Serruys (1974) discovered that in two contrastive sentences (an antithet- ical pair) of which one is affirmative and the other is negative, the one with qi marked the unde- sirable evenint or action. Serruys (1982; cited in Takashima 2010: II.13) summarized his under- standing as, “to reconcile the use of qi marking the undesirable event or action, and the later use of qi for an optative (‘the hoped for and desired’), one can only assume a stage or context where qi expresses a more ambiguous and uncommitted outlook as far as the future outcome is concerned, expressed in verbs such as f.i. ‘to anticipate’, which according to circumstance can be shifted to a pejorative aspect: ‘be prepared for, be ready for’ (something undesirable and dreaded), but also in the course of the development of the language into the other direction, ‘anticipate’ in the sense of ‘hope for’…qi in certain conditions seems to denote a sense or uncertainty, unconcern or equal possibility, or even implying a marked probability.” 3 Yu Xingwu (2009: 276) reads the verb li 立as the ancestral form of li 蒞, and defines it as linli 臨 蒞 “supervise; attend”. I read it as the ancestral form of wei 位 “to take position, stand” (see Tunnan 341). Oracle bone inscriptions have the grammatical construction “以...立...” (Lead A and position (them) at B). See HYZ 50.1-2 and 312.3. 4 See Song Zhenhao (2010: 309-347) for a discussion of Shang roads. It is also possible to read 行as a verb, “to march”; see 211.1-2: 告行 “report the march” and 401.12: 呼行 “call out to march”. 5 弜 is an adverbial negative equal to wu 勿 (Serruys 1974: 37). HYZ 2 | 77