Corpus Viewer
Root / 中國漢文 / clean / 商殷朝 / 花園庄(洹北) / 花园庄东地甲骨 / 英譯文 / HYZ 183.7.txt
Going to dance will be favorable; His Highness will be happy. 302 Er bu 二卜: I read this phrase in the same way I do when it occurs on 102: 二卜有求(咎), 唯見 “The second divination [crack] has fault; it has appeared.” Song Zhenhao (2010: 635-639) thinks phrases in the formula “number + bu 卜” refer to the number of shells or bones used to make the divination; Jao Tsung-I (1959: 65-70) lists examples of this formula that go up to six. Following Song’s interpretation the divination utterance would read, “Use two [shells] to di- vine (about)…” Shang diviners repeated divinations that were unsuccessful or required recerti- fication, and one of the divination formulas for doing so was “xi 習 + number + bu 卜” (Jao Tsung-I 1959: 66, Qiu Xigui 2012: I.425-426); in this formula, 二卜 also meant “second divina- tion”, and referred to a second divination crack in an earlier divination sequence. 303 言子興 is parallel with 言 “have words with/about Pou” (285). 204 | HYZ 183-HYZ 184