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[Divined] on Gui: Our lord dreamt. Our lord, in matters of good fortune, has [delay*].153 1 152 The verb wang 往in the Huayuanzhuang East divinations has two usages: 1) it most com- monly occurs in its primary meaning, as a verb “to go”, as in 子往田 “Our lord will go to hunt”; 2) in divinations about ancestor worship and rites, and particularly in combination with the word 禦 “exorcise, protect”, it appears to mean “to direct (to)” or “send off (to)”, as in 惠奠禦往 妣己 “It should be Dian’s exorcism that is directed (to/at) Ancestor Ji” (162), and 歲妣庚牝一, 子髀禦往 “Sacrifice (to) Ancestor Geng one cow; lord Bi’s exorcism will be sent off” (209); see too 302 + 344. Jao Tsung-I (2005: 21, cited previously in the commentary to HYZ 3.10) glosses 往 as xiang 向 “direct towards”. Yu Xingwu (2009: 154-160) reads 往in divinations like these as a phonetic loan for rang 禳 “exorcise, dispel”, and says it is a synonym of 禦. Huang Tianshu (2010: 100-107) reads yu wang 禦往 as a verb compound meaning “exorcise”. The problem with Huang’s interpretation is an example like 427 which separates the words: 往微禦癸子 “Send off/Direct Wei’s exorcism (to) Guizi”. 往 in this example takes a double object; the direct object ought to be the noun phrase “Wei’s exorcism”, and the indirect object is recipient of the exor- cism, Guizi. (The alternative reading, “Go to Wei (i.e. his current location) and perform exor- cism (to) Guizi” is also possible.) One of the prescriptive goals of divinations on the topic of performing exorcisms is trying to determine whether it is necessary to even do so, and assum- ing it is, to next determine which ancestor was thought to be causing harm or which ancestor could help aid the recovery of an illness or provide protection. 130 | HYZ 55