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528 The graph is composed of geng 庚 + 又 “right hand”. It occurs outside of the HYZ OBI in a divination sequence about music and in combination with flutes (yue 籥) and another type of drum (HJ 30693). The “Yi Ji”益稷chapter of the Shangshu says, 下管鼗鼓 “Below, there are flutes and hand-drums.” Lin Yun (2018: 12-16) says 庚is a pictograph of a hand-drum. 529 This three-graph inscription is written on the lower edge of the right bridge on the shell’s recto side. It is not near any divination crack. Inscriptions like these are usually event nota- tions. I understand Geng 庚as a date, and xian (read jian) 咸 + shao 邵as a verb + object con- struction. The base image in the composition of the graph 咸is an axe. (It is related etymologi- cally to xu 戌, yue 戉 “axe”, and sui 歲/gui 劌“stab, cut”.) The “mouth” 口component under 戌 in 咸indicates not to read it as a noun, “axe”, but in this case as a verb with a meaning that is related to a main characteristic of it, namely, to use the axe > to harm/kill. (A more common adverbial usage of 咸, “finish”, is a derivative.) 咸meaning “kill” occurs in the “Shi fu” 世俘 chapter of the Yi Zhou shu 逸周書in the phrase 咸劉商王紂 “killed the Shang king Zhou”; Zhu Youzeng’s 朱右曾commentary says 咸means jue 絕 “to cut off > put an end to”. “Shao” refers to the enemy Shao recorded elsewhere; see 237, 262, 275+517 and 449. HYZ 406-407 | 337