etamorphosis and the Shang State : Yi 異 and the Yi ding 異 [ fang 方 ] 鼎

Despite a long tradition of scholarship on Shang religion, a clear and comprehensive account of that religion has proven elusive. Many scholars have relied on written accounts from the much later Warring States and Han eras purporting to describe Shang beliefs and practices, and have been misled into describing the Shang religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and characterized by tension between inner court and outer court worship of ancestral and nature deities. Other scholars have generalized about the nature of divinity in Shang time and have recognized the position of the king who as one with Di was divine. Rather than act as an intermediary between the living and dead, the Shang king was divine and equivalent to Di. The present study follows research recognizing that the Shang king ruled over a state system which I label “institutionalized metamorphism”. By “institutionalized metamorphism” a belief is implied in the metamorphic power of the Shang king that allowed him identification with and to a certain extent control over numinous spirits.

ip on Shang religion, a clear and comprehensive y scholars have relied on written accounts from the rting to describe Shang beliefs and practices, and religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and and outer court worship of ancestral and nature t the nature of divinity in Shang time and have one with Di was divine.Rather than act as an Shang king was divine and equivalent to Di.The the Shang king ruled over a state system which I stitutionalized metamorphism" a belief is implied at allowed him identification with and to a certain morphism (yi); yiding = tetrapod ding; fangding eity ang religion, a clear and comprehensive account of have relied on written accounts from much later cribe Shang beliefs and practices, and have been ucratically institutionalized and characterized by ship of ancestral and nature deities (see e.g., Shima eightley 2000).Nevertheless, many scholars have "Mandate of Heaven" originated from the Shang and that Zhou and later reverence for the power of in (Chen 1937;Chang 1970;Hu 1959;Allan 2007).inscriptional data but few take a holistic approach elated data.Few scholars rely on Shang period d archaeological material.In order to more fully ly the belief in metamorphosis yi 異 and Shang will the view that the king possessed the power of smological Spirit of Shang.nizing that the Shang king rules over a state system metamorphism" (Childs-Johnson 2008, p. 51).By lied in the metamorphic power of the Shang king certain extent control over numinous spirits.By Despite a long tradition of scholarship on Shang religion, a clear and comprehensive account of that religion has proven elusive.Many scholars have relied on written accounts from much later Warring States and Han eras purporting to describe Shang beliefs and practices, and have been misled into describing Shang religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and characterized by tension between inner court and outer court worship of ancestral and nature deities (see e.g., Shima 1958;Akatsuka 1977;Chang 1970;Eno 2008;Keightley 2000).Nevertheless, many scholars have correctly observed that the Zhou concept of the "Mandate of Heaven" originated from the Shang belief in the power of the cosmological deity, Di, and that Zhou and later reverence for the power of ancestral spirits was based on rites of Shang origin (Chen 1937;Chang 1970;Hu 1959;Allan 2007).Many of these arguments in turn may be based on inscriptional data but few take a holistic approach in combining written information with other related data.Few scholars rely on Shang period inscriptional data in combination with visual and archaeological material.In order to more fully understand belief in a Shang setting, particularly the belief in metamorphosis yi 異 and Shang rulership, certain visual data will be reviewed, as will the view that the king possessed the power of yi 異 as a divine ruler allied with Di, the high Cosmological Spirit of Shang.
The present study also follows research recognizing that the Shang king rules over a state system which I have labeled elsewhere "institutionalized metamorphism" (Childs-Johnson 2008, p. 51).By "institutionalized metamorphism" a belief is implied in the metamorphic power of the Shang king that allowed him identification with and to a certain extent control over numinous spirits.
Despite a long tradition of scholarship on Shang religion, a clear and comprehensive account of that religion has proven elusive.Many scholars have relied on written accounts from much later Warring States and Han eras purporting to describe Shang beliefs and practices, and have been misled into describing Shang religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and characterized by tension between inner court and outer court worship of ancestral and nature deities (see e.g., Shima 1958;Akatsuka 1977;Chang 1970;Eno 2008;Keightley 2000).Nevertheless, many scholars have correctly observed that the Zhou concept of the "Mandate of Heaven" originated from the Shang belief in the power of the cosmological deity, Di, and that Zhou and later reverence for the power of ancestral spirits was based on rites of Shang origin (Chen 1937;Chang 1970;Hu 1959;Allan 2007).Many of these arguments in turn may be based on inscriptional data but few take a holistic approach in combining written information with other related data.Few scholars rely on Shang period inscriptional data in combination with visual and archaeological material.In order to more fully understand belief in a Shang setting, particularly the belief in metamorphosis yi 異 and Shang rulership, certain visual data will be reviewed, as will the view that the king possessed the power of yi 異 as a divine ruler allied with Di, the high Cosmological Spirit of Shang.
The present study also follows research recognizing that the Shang king rules over a state system which I have labeled elsewhere "institutionalized metamorphism" (Childs-Johnson 2008, p. 51).By "institutionalized metamorphism" a belief is implied in the metamorphic power of the Shang king that allowed him identification with and to a certain extent control over numinous spirits.By

鼎 鼎 鼎 in Shang and Western Zhou Time
The Shang king has been described as a shaman by many eminent late scholars, (see e.g., Chang 1983 andChen 1937).As outlined by the English historian Robert Hutton in 2001 (Hutton 2001), the best definition of "shamanism" is one which refers to "the indigenous religions of Siberia and neighboring parts of Asia," where the term originated (Paper 1995, p. 51) and where shamanic practice is ongoing.Although shamanism is a well-defined entity in the northern areas of China and Mongolia, and may also be in historic ancient China, there is no term for shaman or shamanism in Shang script that may unambiguously be understood as "shaman".It is preferred here to identify the terms that do exist in the context of contemporary belief systems as a prolegomena to the study of ancient Chinese "religion". 2 The most expedient pieces of data for belief systems in the Shang period are documented in art and script of this time.
The profound belief in the power of spirit metamorphosis, or yi 異, as known in bone inscriptions and in artistic representations of Shang date, continue during the subsequent Western Zhou period, and in the latter context signify what appears to be a smooth transition in terms of common belief in metamorphic power from one early Sinitic kingdom to another.The binding adhesive for this transition is the continued use during the Western Zhou for the hewen term yiding 異鼎 (= fangding 方鼎) to signify the ruler's power to rule as a divinity in the company of Di (later Tian) (Childs-Johnson 2008, 2013).Hewen refers to a binome, a combination of two graphs into one word.As reviewed below, the evidence for this continuity is documented by new inscriptional and archaeological data.The term yiding, identifiable as a fangding or square/rectangular (hereafter simplified to rectangular) ding with four legs, is not only documented by Shang period data but by what is entirely new, a Western Zhou period inscription and vessel from Dahezun, Shanxi.
During Shang time, oracle bone terms, such as yi 異 "to spiritually transform," and bin 賓 "to identify with a spirit(s)" document the royal prerogative of the Shang king (Childs-Johnson 2008).The primary artistic image and its variations on ritual bronzes and related Shang art document the same belief, the right of the king who may identify with Di and other divine spirits.This substratum of belief in metamorphic royal power is invested not only in the living king but in dead kings and Di.The realm that the Shang king oversees may thus be described as "a state of institutionalized metamorphism".The King ruled at the center 中商 (Shang at the Center) over a cosmological sifang 四方or four equal parts that extended outward in axial directions.The king was divine, one with Di, and one with sifang.His control was Machiavellian and peripatetic, relying on image, inspections, and tribute, and in particular on the spirit world, divination, and rites.In addition, it is noteworthy that the Shang royal ancestral cult grew out of a well-established cult of exorcism Da Yu 大禦, that became codified into a ritual program known as zhoujisi 周祭祀, or cyclical sacrificial rites (Childs-Johnson forthcoming).Although these rites were eventually terminated during the Western Zhou period, belief in the divinity of the ruler, and specifically his identification with Di (later Tian) remained steadfast in the politico-religious practice of Zhou rulership.
2 For a comprehensive review of the issues and terms associated with "shamanism" see Jordan Paper, whose study (1995), The Spirits are Drunk should be required reading for any student of Chinese religion, and in particular for clarification of terminology related to shamanism in and outside China.
The royal symbol of metamorphic power, yi 異, to be spirit-empowered, dominates Shang period art.The image is primarily a semi-human invested with wild animal attributes but to date may be specifically ascribed to only one mythic spirit power, Kui夔, the legendary founder of the Shang kingdom (see Figure 1  The significance of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's cosmological power to rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs joined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preconquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will be analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the tetrapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to rule in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a continuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, depending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal fangding and yiding were one and the same vessel.Rather than act as an ermediary between the living and dead, the Shang king was divine and equivalent to Di.The sent study follows research recognizing that the Shang king ruled over a state system which I el "institutionalized metamorphism".By "institutionalized metamorphism" a belief is implied the metamorphic power of the Shang king that allowed him identification with and to a certain ent control over numinous spirits.;Akatsuka 1977;Chang 1970;Eno 2008;Keightley 2000).Nevertheless, many scholars have ectly observed that the Zhou concept of the "Mandate of Heaven" originated from the Shang f in the power of the cosmological deity, Di, and that Zhou and later reverence for the power of stral spirits was based on rites of Shang origin (Chen 1937;Chang 1970;Hu 1959;Allan 2007).y of these arguments in turn may be based on inscriptional data but few take a holistic approach ombining written information with other related data.Few scholars rely on Shang period riptional data in combination with visual and archaeological material.In order to more fully erstand belief in a Shang setting, particularly the belief in metamorphosis yi 異 and Shang rship, certain visual data will be reviewed, as will the view that the king possessed the power of as a divine ruler allied with Di, the high Cosmological Spirit of Shang.The present study also follows research recognizing that the Shang king rules over a state system h I have labeled elsewhere "institutionalized metamorphism" (Childs-Johnson 2008, p. 51).By titutionalized metamorphism" a belief is implied in the metamorphic power of the Shang king allowed him identification with and to a certain extent control over numinous spirits.By The significance of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's cosmological power to rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs joined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preconquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will be analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the tetrapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to rule in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a continuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, depending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal fangding and yiding were one and the same vessel.(異鼎), the hewen (two graphs joined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and pre-conquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will be analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the tetrapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to rule in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a continuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, depending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal fangding and yiding were one and the same vessel.Bronze cast ding functioned as vessels used in flesh or meat sacrifices from Shang through Zhou periods.Corroborative data are plentiful.One such sacrificial piece of data appears in the Duke of Ba inscription itself.This graph, written [ ] is comprised of the meat 肉 and knife 刀 radicals, in addition to the generic dou 豆 for a vessel used in sacrifice.The sacrificial term is a reduction of the Shang bone inscriptional terms and ( )(將+鼎), to a hewen (binome combining two words into one graph).The latter is similarly composed of meat 肉 and knife 刀 radicals, in addition to a vessel, in this Shang case, the ding 鼎 vessel radical or the 俎 graph for meat cutting board.Both are variations of cut flesh offered in ding vessels, transcribed ( )(將+鼎), (Childs-Johnson 2013).The evidence from this vessel inscription thus agrees with the typical function of this vessel as one used in meat and flesh sacrifices.

Early through Late Western Zhou Inscriptional Evidence for
Thus far, it is clear that the rectangular ding are used in meat sacrifices, are self-named (with some variation, such as liding for ding), that 釴 was a corruption of the term yi 異, and that tetrapod rectangular ding are known archaeologically from early through late Western Zhou time.These tetrapod square ding are nonetheless special when they are self-named yiding ( 異 鼎).Two additional groups of inscriptions of early Western Zhou date use the hewen yiding: one includes a set of four or more commissioned by a scribe named Da (probably of Shang origin and heritage) (see Figures 5 and 6).Scribe Da of Zuo cast a set of medium size tetrapod fangding in honor of a commemorative occasion that the scribe witnessed-the casting by the Duke (probably Duke of Zhou, also known as Da Bao, Grand Protector) of yiding honoring the founding Western Zhou kings, Cheng and Wu.The inscriptions and fangding, belonging to Zuoce Da 作册大 are illustrated below: B is the name of the vessel, written , as a rubbing, and , as a photograph (Wang 2018;Shanxi 2018).The graph is composed of three components, jin 金, ge 戈, and xing 行, of which ge is allegedly the sound element and jin and xing the signifier elements.Although Wang reads the graph as yi, not ge or jin 釴 (see Wang: footnote 11), and although 釴 may be documented by various textual references of the Han date, such as the Er Ya 尔雅, Hanyu Dazidian 漢大字典, Suoyin 索隐, and others, alongside their commentaries, the graph is clearly a corruption of the word yi 翼/異 in classical texts and Zhou inscriptions, as analyzed by (Zhang 1992) 3 .Zhang's interpretation is in turn supported by references to 異 in the Mozi, as translated by Sun Yirang 孙詒让 (Sun 2001), and quoted in Wang: text and notes 23-4).釴 is a corrupt loan graph for the word yi 翼(異), the same yi found in earlier Western Zhou and Shang inscriptions.Wang provides other obvious evidence that the yi graph B 釴 = 翼/異 does not refer to a gui ritual vessel as used in the archaeological report to label this two-handled rectangular bronze.Typologically, the vessel shape has nothing in common with the bronze gui vessel type; it is square (or rectangular; fang 方 is used for both rectangular and square shapes) with four sides in two parts, an upper basin and lower foot in addition to two side loop handles (Figure 2).None of the latter features characterize gui basins; inscribed and self-named gui vessels are more typically circular with a circular foot and a pair of opposing handles (a few exceptions include Kai Hou gui 楷侯簋 (Wu 2012 Mingtu 5129) and the Ya Chou gui (Wu 2012 Mingtu 3670 亚醜簋).For this and other reasons the vessel is not a gui.
Comparisons with the Duke of Ba vessel include three more or less contemporary ones dating to the middle and late phases of the Western Zhou through the Spring and Autumn periods (see Figure 3).All are similar in shape and may be used to date the Duke of Ba bronze: the Li Zhen fangli, an animal-footed fangli, and a fangliding from the Zhuangbai cache in Shaanxi (see Figure 3).These three vessels are not only similar in shape, date, and decor, but in function.The lower bellies of the four bronzes are hollow for purposes of heating the contents in the basin above.Three of the vessels have supporting legs in the form of birds or dragons; the latter are decorative attachments typifying the whimsical direction of decor during the middle phase of the Western Zhou period (see e.g., Childs-Johnson and Major forthcoming).The Dahezun vessel (Figure 2) typologically is easily read as a degenerate version of the three rectangular basins with four fanciful legs.The decor and legs of the Dahezun bronze, however, have been stripped away due to the simplification of the more artistic versions just discussed.The Duke of Ba bronze nonetheless retains their shape, with an upper body that is slightly rounded at its corners and the lower body that is rectangular.B is the name of the vessel, written , as a rubbing, and , as a photograph (Wang 2018;Shanxi 2018).The graph is composed of three components, jin 金, ge 戈, and xing 行, of which ge is allegedly the sound element and jin and xing the signifier elements.Although Wang reads the graph as yi, not ge or jin 釴 (see Wang: footnote 11), and although 釴 may be documented by various textual references of the Han date, such as the Er Ya 尔雅, Hanyu Dazidian 漢大字典, Suoyin 索隐, and others, alongside their commentaries, the graph is clearly a corruption of the word yi 翼/異 in classical texts and Zhou inscriptions, as analyzed by (Zhang 1992) 3 .Zhang's interpretation is in turn supported by references to 異 in the Mozi, as translated by Sun Yirang 孙詒让 (Sun 2001), and quoted in Wang: text and notes 23-4).釴 is a corrupt loan graph for the word yi 翼(異), the same yi found in earlier Western Zhou and Shang inscriptions.Wang provides other obvious evidence that the yi graph B 釴 = 翼/異 does not refer to a gui ritual vessel as used in the archaeological report to label this two-handled rectangular bronze.Typologically, the vessel shape has nothing in common with the bronze gui vessel type; it is square (or rectangular; fang 方 is used for both rectangular and square shapes) with four sides in two parts, an upper basin and lower foot in addition to two side loop handles (Figure 2).None of the latter features characterize gui basins; inscribed and self-named gui vessels are more typically circular with a circular foot and a pair of opposing handles (a few exceptions include Kai Hou gui 楷侯簋 (Wu 2012 Mingtu 5129) and the Ya Chou gui (Wu 2012 Mingtu 3670 亚醜簋).For this and other reasons the vessel is not a gui.
Comparisons with the Duke of Ba vessel include three more or less contemporary ones dating to the middle and late phases of the Western Zhou through the Spring and Autumn periods (see Figure 3).All are similar in shape and may be used to date the Duke of Ba bronze: the Li Zhen fangli, an animal-footed fangli, and a fangliding from the Zhuangbai cache in Shaanxi (see Figure 3).These three vessels are not only similar in shape, date, and decor, but in function.The lower bellies of the four bronzes are hollow for purposes of heating the contents in the basin above.Three of the vessels have supporting legs in the form of birds or dragons; the latter are decorative attachments typifying the whimsical direction of decor during the middle phase of the Western Zhou period (see e.g., Childs-Johnson and Major forthcoming).The Dahezun vessel (Figure 2) typologically is easily read as a degenerate version of the three rectangular basins with four fanciful legs.The decor and legs of the Dahezun bronze, however, have been stripped away due to the simplification of the more artistic versions just discussed.The Duke of Ba bronze nonetheless retains their shape, with an upper body that is slightly rounded at its corners and the lower body that is rectangular.Wang provides other obvious evidence that the yi graph B 釴 = 翼/異 does not refer to a gui ritual vessel as used in the archaeological report to label this two-handled rectangular bronze.Typologically, the vessel shape has nothing in common with the bronze gui vessel type; it is square (or rectangular; fang 方 is used for both rectangular and square shapes) with four sides in two parts, an upper basin and lower foot in addition to two side loop handles (Figure 2).None of the latter features characterize gui basins; inscribed and self-named gui vessels are more typically circular with a circular foot and a pair of opposing handles (a few exceptions include Kai Hou gui 楷侯簋 (Wu 2012 Mingtu 5129) and the Ya Chou gui (Wu 2012 Mingtu 3670 亚醜簋).For this and other reasons the vessel is not a gui.
Comparisons with the Duke of Ba vessel include three more or less contemporary ones dating to the middle and late phases of the Western Zhou through the Spring and Autumn periods (see Figure 3).All are similar in shape and may be used to date the Duke of Ba bronze: the Li Zhen fangli, an animal-footed fangli, and a fangliding from the Zhuangbai cache in Shaanxi (see Figure 3).These three vessels are not only similar in shape, date, and decor, but in function.The lower bellies of the four bronzes are hollow for purposes of heating the contents in the basin above.Three of the vessels have supporting legs in the form of birds or dragons; the latter are decorative attachments typifying the whimsical direction of decor during the middle phase of the Western Zhou period (see e.g., Childs-Johnson and Major forthcoming).The Dahezun vessel (Figure 2) typologically is easily read as a degenerate version of the three rectangular basins with four fanciful legs.The decor and legs of the Dahezun bronze, however, have been stripped away due to the simplification of the more artistic versions just discussed.The Duke of Ba bronze nonetheless retains their shape, with an upper body Wang provides other obvious evidence that the graph B釴 = 翼/異 does not refer to a gui ritual vessel as used in the archaeological report to label this two-handled rectangular bronze.Typologically, the vessel shape has nothing in common with the bronze gui vessel type; it is square (or rectangular; fang方 is used for both rectangular and square shapes) with four sides in two parts, an upper basin and lower foot in addition to two side loop handles (Figure 2).None of the latter features characterize gui basins; inscribed and self-named gui vessels are more typically circular with a circular foot and a pair of opposing handles (a few exceptions include Kai Hou gui 楷侯簋 (Wu 2012 Mingtu 5129) and the Ya Chou gui (Wu 2012 Mingtu 3670 亚醜簋).For this and other reasons the vessel is not a gui.
Comparisons with the Duke of Ba vessel include three more or less contemporary ones dating to the middle and late phases of the Western Zhou through the Spring and Autumn periods (see Figure 3).All are similar in shape and may be used to date the Duke of Ba bronze: the Li Zhen fangli, an animal-footed fangli, and a fangliding from the Zhuangbai cache in Shaanxi (see Figure 3).These three vessels are not only similar in shape, date, and decor, but in function.The lower bellies of the four bronzes are hollow for purposes of heating the contents in the basin above.Three of the vessels have supporting legs in the form of birds or dragons; the latter are decorative attachments typifying the whimsical direction of decor during the middle phase of the Western Zhou period (see e.g., Childs-Johnson and Major forthcoming).The Dahezun vessel (Figure 2) typologically is easily read as a degenerate version of the three rectangular basins with four fanciful legs.The decor and legs of the Dahezun bronze, however, have been stripped away due to the simplification of the more artistic versions just discussed.The Duke of Ba bronze nonetheless retains their shape, with an upper body that is slightly rounded at its corners and the lower body that is rectangular.Further comparisons indicate that these whimsical versions of tetrapod belong to the category of rectangular ding or fangding that are four-sided and four-legged.The inscription of the third bronze, excavated from the Zhuangbai cache in Zhouyuan, Shaanxi, is self-inscribed with the hewen , transcribed 鎘 or li (金 signifier + 鬲 sound/鎘).Li 鎘[ ] and ding 鼎 words are based on the ding vessel signifier.The two, li and ding are often interchangeable in function in that both are specifically designed for ritual meat sacrifices.The bronze vessel name li furthermore is rarely used for the name of the vessel (whether tripod or tetrapod) in ritual bronze vessel inscriptions.Various names for sacrifices involving the ding vessel, in addition, more frequently employ the graph for ding than for li (e.g., 鼐, 鼒, 鼏) whether the bronze vessel is a li or ding in shape.Ding is more typically used to name both tripod and tetrapod in inscriptions.Thus, it is apparent that this middle phase version of vessel during the Western Zhou is a ding with four legs.
One of the prototypes and earlier versions of this middle period Western Zhou tetrapod rectangular ding is inscribed with the name of the vessel, fangding 方鼎, meaning rectangular (or square) shaped four-legged ding (see Figure 4).Although this self-inscribed name is extremely rare during the Western Zhou period (and more typical of Han period texts), it is another piece of evidence that the four-legged rectangular bronze is a ding and the shape with four legs and four sides is the rectangular version of the ding.It may also be noted at this point that the fangding graph is typically characterized by a pair of multiple short prongs on its legs as opposed to the more standardized graph for ding vessel that has only four or less prongs (see Li 1965Li , p. 2333)).Further comparisons indicate that these whimsical versions of tetrapod belong of rectangular ding or fangding that are four-sided and four-legged.The inscripti bronze, excavated from the Zhuangbai cache in Zhouyuan, Shaanxi, is self-inscribed , transcribed 鎘 or li (金 signifier + 鬲 sound/鎘).Li 鎘[ ] and ding 鼎 words a ding vessel signifier.The two, li and ding are often interchangeable in function i specifically designed for ritual meat sacrifices.The bronze vessel name li furthermor for the name of the vessel (whether tripod or tetrapod) in ritual bronze vessel inscri names for sacrifices involving the ding vessel, in addition, more frequently employ the than for li (e.g., 鼐, 鼒, 鼏) whether the bronze vessel is a li or ding in shape.Ding is used to name both tripod and tetrapod in inscriptions.Thus, it is apparent that thi version of vessel during the Western Zhou is a ding with four legs.
One of the prototypes and earlier versions of this middle period Western rectangular ding is inscribed with the name of the vessel, fangding 方鼎, meaning square) shaped four-legged ding (see Figure 4).Although this self-inscribed name is during the Western Zhou period (and more typical of Han period texts), it is another p that the four-legged rectangular bronze is a ding and the shape with four legs and f rectangular version of the ding.It may also be noted at this point that the fangding gr characterized by a pair of multiple short prongs on its legs as opposed to the mor graph for ding vessel that has only four or less prongs (see Li 1965Li , p. 2333)).] and ding 鼎words are based on the ding vessel signifier.The two, li and ding are often interchangeable in function in that both are specifically designed for ritual meat sacrifices.The bronze vessel name li furthermore is rarely used for the name of the vessel (whether tripod or tetrapod) in ritual bronze vessel inscriptions.Various names for sacrifices involving the ding vessel, in addition, more frequently employ the graph for ding than for li (e.g., 鼐, 鼒, 鼏) whether the bronze vessel is a li or ding in shape.Ding is more typically used to name both tripod and tetrapod in inscriptions.Thus, it is apparent that this middle phase version of vessel during the Western Zhou is a ding with four legs.
One of the prototypes and earlier versions of this middle period Western Zhou tetrapod rectangular ding is inscribed with the name of the vessel, fangding 方鼎, meaning rectangular (or square) shaped four-legged ding (see Figure 4).Although this self-inscribed name is extremely rare during the Western Zhou period (and more typical of Han period texts), it is another piece of evidence that the four-legged rectangular bronze is a ding and the shape with four legs and four sides is the rectangular version of the ding.It may also be noted at this point that the fangding graph is typically characterized by a pair of multiple short prongs on its legs Further comparisons indicate that these whimsical versions of tetrapod belong to the category of rectangular ding or fangding that are four-sided and four-legged.The inscription of the third bronze, excavated from the Zhuangbai cache in Zhouyuan, Shaanxi, is self-inscribed with the hewen , transcribed 鎘 or li (金 signifier + 鬲 sound/鎘).Li 鎘[ ] and ding 鼎 words are based on the ding vessel signifier.The two, li and ding are often interchangeable in function in that both are specifically designed for ritual meat sacrifices.The bronze vessel name li furthermore is rarely used for the name of the vessel (whether tripod or tetrapod) in ritual bronze vessel inscriptions.Various names for sacrifices involving the ding vessel, in addition, more frequently employ the graph for ding than for li (e.g., 鼐, 鼒, 鼏) whether the bronze vessel is a li or ding in shape.Ding is more typically used to name both tripod and tetrapod in inscriptions.Thus, it is apparent that this middle phase version of vessel during the Western Zhou is a ding with four legs.
One of the prototypes and earlier versions of this middle period Western Zhou tetrapod rectangular ding is inscribed with the name of the vessel, fangding 方鼎, meaning rectangular (or square) shaped four-legged ding (see Figure 4).Although this self-inscribed name is extremely rare during the Western Zhou period (and more typical of Han period texts), it is another piece of evidence that the four-legged rectangular bronze is a ding and the shape with four legs and four sides is the rectangular version of the ding.It may also be noted at this point that the fangding graph is typically characterized by a pair of multiple short prongs on its legs as opposed to the more standardized graph for ding vessel that has only four or less prongs (see Li 1965Li , p. 2333)).Further comparisons indicate that these whimsical versions of tetrapod belong to the category of rectangular ding or fangding that are four-sided and four-legged.The inscription of the third bronze, excavated from the Zhuangbai cache in Zhouyuan, Shaanxi, is self-inscribed with the hewen , transcribed 鎘 or li (金 signifier + 鬲 sound/鎘).Li 鎘[ ] and ding 鼎 words are based on the ding vessel signifier.The two, li and ding are often interchangeable in function in that both are specifically designed for ritual meat sacrifices.The bronze vessel name li furthermore is rarely used for the name of the vessel (whether tripod or tetrapod) in ritual bronze vessel inscriptions.Various names for sacrifices involving the ding vessel, in addition, more frequently employ the graph for ding than for li (e.g., 鼐, 鼒, 鼏) whether the bronze vessel is a li or ding in shape.Ding is more typically used to name both tripod and tetrapod in inscriptions.Thus, it is apparent that this middle phase version of vessel during the Western Zhou is a ding with four legs.
One of the prototypes and earlier versions of this middle period Western Zhou tetrapod rectangular ding is inscribed with the name of the vessel, fangding 方鼎, meaning rectangular (or square) shaped four-legged ding (see Figure 4).Although this self-inscribed name is extremely rare during the Western Zhou period (and more typical of Han period texts), it is another piece of evidence that the four-legged rectangular bronze is a ding and the shape with four legs and four sides is the rectangular version of the ding.It may also be noted at this point that the fangding graph is typically characterized by a pair of multiple short prongs on its legs as opposed to the more standardized graph for ding vessel that has only four or less prongs (see Li 1965Li , p. 2333).(Li 1965(Li , p. 2333)).
rectangular version of the ding.It may also be noted at this point that the fangding graph is typically characterized by a pair of multiple short prongs on its legs as opposed to the more standardized graph for ding vessel that has only four or less prongs (see Li 1965Li , p. 2333)).Thus far, it is clear that the rectangular ding are used in meat sacrifices, are self-named (with some variation, such as liding for ding), that 釴 was a corruption of the term yi 異, and that tetrapod rectangular ding are known archaeologically from early through late Western Zhou time.These tetrapod square ding are nonetheless special when they are self-named yiding ( 異 鼎 ).Two additional groups of inscriptions of early Western Zhou date use the hewen yiding: one includes a set of four or more commissioned by a scribe named Da (probably of Shang origin and heritage) (see Figures 5 and 6).Scribe Da of Zuo cast a set of medium size tetrapod fangding in honor of a commemorative occasion that the scribe witnessed-the casting by the Duke (probably Duke of Zhou, also known as Da Bao, Grand Protector) of yiding honoring the founding Western Zhou kings, Cheng and Wu.The inscriptions and fangding, belonging to Zuoce Da 作册大 are illustrated below: ] is comprised of the meat 肉and knife 刀radicals, in addition to the generic dou 豆 for a vessel used in sacrifice.The sacrificial term is a reduction of the Thus far, it is clear that the rectangular ding are used in meat sacrifices, are self-named (with some variation, such as liding for ding), that 釴 was a corruption of the term yi 異, and that tetrapod rectangular ding are known archaeologically from early through late Western Zhou time.These tetrapod square ding are nonetheless special when they are self-named yiding ( 異 鼎 ).Two additional groups of inscriptions of early Western Zhou date use the hewen yiding: one includes a set of four or more commissioned by a scribe named Da (probably of Shang origin and heritage) (see Figures 5 and 6 Thus far, it is clear that the rectangular ding are used in meat sacrifices, are self-named (with some variation, such as liding for ding), that 釴 was a corruption of the term yi 異, and that tetrapod rectangular ding are known archaeologically from early through late Western Zhou time.These tetrapod square ding are nonetheless special when they are self-named yiding ( 異 鼎 ).Two additional groups of inscriptions of early Western Zhou date use the hewen yiding: one includes a set of four or more commissioned by a scribe named Da (probably of Shang origin and heritage) (see Figures 5 and 6 Thus far, it is clear that the rectangular ding are used in meat sacrifices, are self-named (with some variation, such as liding for ding), that 釴 was a corruption of the term yi 異, and that tetrapod rectangular ding are known archaeologically from early through late Western Zhou time.These tetrapod square ding are nonetheless special when they are self-named yiding ( 異 鼎).Two additional groups of inscriptions of early Western Zhou date use the hewen yiding: one includes a set of four or more commissioned by a scribe named Da (probably of Shang origin and heritage) (see Figures 5 and 6).Scribe Da of Zuo cast a set of medium size tetrapod fangding in honor of a commemorative occasion that the scribe witnessed-the casting by the Duke (probably Duke of Zhou, also known as Da Bao, Grand Protector) of yiding honoring the founding Western Zhou kings, Cheng and Wu.The inscriptions and fangding, belonging to Zuoce Da 作册大 are illustrated below: Thus far, it is clear that the rectangular ding are used in meat sacrifices, are self-named (with some variation, such as liding for ding), that 釴 was a corruption of the term yi 異, and that tetrapod rectangular ding are known archaeologically from early through late Western Zhou time.These tetrapod square ding are nonetheless special when they are self-named yiding ( 異 鼎).Two additional groups of inscriptions of early Western Zhou date use the hewen yiding: one includes a set of four or more commissioned by a scribe named Da (probably of Shang origin and heritage) (see Figures 5 and 6).Scribe Da of Zuo cast a set of medium size tetrapod fangding in honor of a commemorative occasion that the scribe witnessed-the casting by the Duke (probably Duke of Zhou, also known as Da Bao, Grand Protector) of yiding honoring the founding Western Zhou kings, Cheng and Wu.The inscriptions and fangding, belonging to Zuoce Da 作册大 are illustrated below: The significance of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's cosmological power to rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs joined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preconquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will be analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the tetrapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to rule in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a continuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, depending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal fangding and yiding were one and the same vessel.

Early through Late Western Zhou Inscriptional Evidence for Yiding
As recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.
(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2 Two additional groups of inscriptions of early Western Zhou date use the hewen yiding: one includes a set of four or more commissioned by a scribe named Da (probably of Shang origin and heritage) (see Figures 5  and 6).Scribe Da of Zuo cast a set of medium size tetrapod in honor of a commemorative occasion that the scribe witnessed-the casting by the Duke (probably Duke of Zhou, also known as Da Bao, Grand Protector) of yiding honoring the founding Western Zhou kings, Cheng and Wu.The inscriptions and fangding, belonging to Zuoce Da作册大 are illustrated below: tetrapod square ding are nonetheless special when they are self-named yiding ( 異 鼎 ).Two additional groups of inscriptions of early Western Zhou date use the hewen yiding: one includes a set of four or more commissioned by a scribe named Da (probably of Shang origin and heritage) (see Figures 5 and 6).Scribe Da of Zuo cast a set of medium size tetrapod fangding in honor of a commemorative occasion that the scribe witnessed-the casting by the Duke (probably Duke of Zhou, also known as Da Bao, Grand Protector) of yiding honoring the founding Western Zhou kings, Cheng and Wu.The inscriptions and fangding, belonging to Zuoce Da 作册大 are illustrated below:   In a second early Western Zhou bronze vessel inscription identified as the Tian Wang gui 天亡簋 (see Figure 7), yiding again appears to be used in reference to a major royal occasion and display of royal power.In this case Tian Wang, evidently a royal house member, witnessed and assisted King Wu in celebrating a major series of events, including the of the Great Feng Drum rite and a sail in the moated piyong, followed by sacrifice in the Tianshi (Hall of Tian/Heaven) and several further days of feasting and drumming (yihai to dingchou day).During what must have been a majestic display of power and spirit control, King Wu not only witnesses the descent of King Wen's spirit his plea that the spirit of King Wen accept King Wu's kingship and termination of the royal rites of The significance of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's cosmological power to rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs joined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preconquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will be analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the tetrapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to rule in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a continuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, depending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal fangding and yiding were one and the same vessel.

Early through Late Western Zhou Inscriptional Evidence for Yiding
As recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.
(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2).The inscription reads: (異鼎), in the fourth month, second quarter of the month, jichou day, the Duke awarded Zuoce Da (Scribe Da of Zuo) a white horse.Da extolled the August Heavenly Governor Da Bao's (Great Protector's) grace [and] made for what he witnessed what must have been large-scale glossy tetrapod ding cast for Kings Cheng and Wu4 .
In a second early Western Zhou bronze vessel inscription identified as the Tian Wang gui 天亡簋 (see Figure 7), yiding again appears to be used in reference to a major royal occasion and display of royal power.In this case Tian Wang, evidently a royal house member, witnessed and assisted King Wu in celebrating a major series of events, including the performance of the Great Feng Drum rite and a sail in the moated piyong, followed by sacrifice in the Tianshi (Hall of Tian/Heaven) and several further days of feasting and drumming (yihai to dingchou day).During what must have been a majestic display of power and spirit control, King Wu not only witnesses the descent of King Wen's spirit but his plea that the spirit of King Wen accept King Wu's kingship and termination of the royal rites of Yin (Shang).The spirit of King Wen descends and decrees to Tian Wang: "[Tian] Wang has obtained the yiding (spirit empowered tetrapod ding(s)) and thereby restored the royal title Millie, Here are the less fuzzy versions of graphs to be replaced in the manuscript.
Previously corrected by author but not corrected by inhouse editors: 0. Insert on page 10 only, as follows: The hewen yiiding X ( ). Delete (異鼎)。 1. Replace with in 2 places used in manuscript.4. Please this for Figure 7 and enlarge both parts of Figure 7 to take up the whole area, not centered but spread out.
?"5 Many scholars simply do not translate the graph that follows 得, "to restore".The lower part of this graph is the ding 鼎graph.The upper part is indistinct yet was clearly marked by an additional element, here interpreted to be yi 異, as used in the hewen term yiding.Given the context of the inscription and the graphic representation of the ding vessel, translation of yiding The significance of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's cosmological power to rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs joined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preconquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will be analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the tetrapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to rule in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a continuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, depending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal fangding and yiding were one and the same vessel.4. Please this for Figure 7 and enlarge both parts of Figure 7 to take up the whole area, not centered but spread out.

Early through Late Western Zhou Inscriptional Evidence for Yiding
.

6
Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 8 of 12  these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's le, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs nown in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preivinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will e inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the econdly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a elief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal e one and the same vessel.hang religion, a clear and comprehensive rs have relied on written accounts from the describe Shang beliefs and practices, and as bureaucratically institutionalized and ter court worship of ancestral and nature ature of divinity in Shang time and have th Di was divine.Rather than act as an king was divine and equivalent to Di.The ang king ruled over a state system which I nalized metamorphism" a belief is implied ed him identification with and to a certain ism (yi); yiding = tetrapod ding; fangding gion, a clear and comprehensive account of elied on written accounts from much later hang beliefs and practices, and have been lly institutionalized and characterized by ancestral and nature deities (see e.g., Shima 2000).Nevertheless, many scholars have ate of Heaven" originated from the Shang t Zhou and later reverence for the power of n 1937; Chang 1970;Hu 1959;Allan 2007).tional data but few take a holistic approach data.Few scholars rely on Shang period aeological material.In order to more fully belief in metamorphosis yi 異 and Shang e view that the king possessed the power of cal Spirit of Shang.that the Shang king rules over a state system orphism" (Childs-Johnson 2008, p. 51).By the metamorphic power of the Shang king extent control over numinous spirits.By 4. Please this for Figure 7 and enlarge both parts of Figure 7 to take up the whole area, not centered but spread out.
("de yiding fu Millie, Here are the less fuzzy versions of graphs to be replaced in the manuscript. Previously corrected by author but not corrected by inhouse editors: 0. Insert on page 10 only, as follows: The hewen yiiding X ( ).Delete (異鼎)。 1. Replace with in 2 places used in manuscript.4. Please this for Figure 7 and enlarge both parts of Figure 7 to take up the whole area, not centered but spread out.
The purpose of holding a grand Xiang feast and Yi meat platter offering is to attract the dead king's spirit's descension.This happens and (Tian) Wang obtains the yiding to restore X Millie, Here are the less fuzzy versions of graphs to be replaced in the manuscript.
Previously corrected by author but not corrected by inhouse editors: 0. Insert on page 10 only, as follows: The hewen yiiding X ( ). Delete (異鼎)。 1. Replace with in 2 places used in manuscript.
2. 將+鼎 Please insert jiang 將 on top of ding 鼎 to read as one graph, a hewen.Place this joined graph at 2 places used in manuscript.將 鼎

center and clean if possible and insert at all 6 places
where used in manuscript.
4. Please this for Figure 7 and enlarge both parts of Figure 7 to take up the whole area, not centered but spread out.
-the title to the current ruling king (King Wu).The graph Millie, Here are the less fuzzy versions of graphs to be replaced in the manuscript.
Previously corrected by author but not corrected by inhouse editors: 0. Insert on page 10 only, as follows: The hewen yiiding X ( ).Delete (異鼎)。 1. Replace with in 2 places used in manuscript.
2. 將+鼎 Please insert jiang 將 on top of ding 鼎 to read as one graph, a hewen.Place this joined graph at 2 places used in manuscript.將 鼎

center and clean if possible and insert at all 6 places
where used in manuscript.
4. Please this for Figure 7 and enlarge both parts of Figure 7 to take up the whole area, not centered but spread out.
, although difficult to translate probably means something close to "royal title", as suggested by Hwang.
A similar context of recovering royal ding bronzes is repeated in the "Shi Fu 世俘 (Great Capture)" chapter of the Yi Zhoushu 逸周書 (Lost Book of Zhou), dating to the early Western Zhou period: Reproduced after (Hwang 1996, p. 146;Huang et al. 1995).

Shang Period Evidence for Yiding
Clearly the ding and more specifically the tetrapod fangding were all-important symbols of royal spirit power.As analyzed in an earlier article, "The Big Ding and "China" Power" (Childs-Johnson 2013), and in the book, The Meaning of the Graph Yi 異 and Its Implications for Shang Belief and Art (Childs-Johnson 2008), yi appears in Shang period oracle bone divinations with the same meaning as in the Western Zhou inscriptions.Yet, certain aspects are clearer in the context of the king's role as ruler.Not only does yi as in the binome yiding refer to a tetrapod ding but to a symbolically, metamorphically empowered tetrapod square ding (see Figure 8).The hewen yiding is not just a reference to a tetrapod ding but to a royally empowered tetrapod ding that guaranteed the king the royal right to rule as dictator over the sifang kingdom of Shang at the Center.The significance of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's smological power to rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs ined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and prenquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will e analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the trapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to le in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a ntinuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, epending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal ngding and yiding were one and the same vessel.

. Early through Late Western Zhou Inscriptional Evidence for Yiding
As recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes om the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of o. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)ave sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.
(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here s Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2 (異鼎), combines two graphs, yi 異 at the top and ding 鼎 at the bottom.In bone divinations yi serves variously but always in connection with power of Shang Di (Cosmological Spirit on High), dead king spirits, such as Fu Yi or others, and the ruling king (Childs-Johnson 2008).
The last bone inscription is all-important since specific spirits and individuals are named (Figure 8C,D).Although the hewen appears elsewhere yet often without context in bone inscriptions (Childs-Johnson 2008), here the divinatory inscriptions match the content of the bronze inscriptions.The yiding is only associated with kings and their dead predecessor spirits.Since the king and royal dead spirits were believed to be divine, the bestowal of an yiding from spirit Father Yi on the ruling king, Wu Ding, is significant as a symbol of continued divine rulership (see Childs-Johnson 2013).In the Heji 2274 inscription, although the two graphs are not written as a hewen (as an adjectival modifier of the ding), yi is used verbally, "to spirit empower" from one dead king spirit Fu Yi to another, the living king Wu Ding.The two other divinations of Western Zhou origin are also significant in concerning whether the subject, understood as the king, should "shou yiding" receive or be bestowed with the spirit empowered ding (yiding)" and whether the understood subject, the king (Western Zhou ruler) "should invoke a spirit(s) with the newly [cast] yiding".Western Zhou kings evidently followed Shang precedent for an initial period after their conquest before reverting to their preference for honoring their own founding kings, King Wen, King Cheng, and King Wu with ancestral rites.The addition of the fu 父 father radical to the side of the ding in the yiding hewen in the Heji 2274 inscription may be interpreted as a signifier of the fu father generation of the Shang royal lineage, a symbolic reference to the maintenance of Shang royal power.For other uses of yi異 in bone inscriptions see Childs-Johnson 2008.
dictator over the sifang kingdom of Shang at the Center.
As analyzed the hewen yiding (異鼎), combines two graphs, yi 異 at the top and ding 鼎 at the bottom.In bone divinations yi serves variously but always in connection with power of Shang Di (Cosmological Spirit on High), dead king spirits, such as Fu Yi or others, and the ruling king (Childs-Johnson 2008).The hewen " (異鼎) yiding" graph in late Shang and pre-Conquest Zhou bone inscriptions from Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan, and Zhouyuan, Shaanxi.Sources: (Heji 1978(Heji -1982(Heji , 1999a) 31000 (left); (Wang 1984): Figure 14, H11:87 (center); (Heji 1978(Heji -1982(Heji , 1999b)) The last bone inscription is all-important since specific spirits and individuals are named (Figure 8C,D).Although the hewen appears elsewhere yet often without context in bone inscriptions (Childs-Johnson 2008), here the divinatory inscriptions match the content of the bronze inscriptions.The yiding is only associated with kings and their dead predecessor spirits.Since the king and royal dead spirits were believed to be divine, the bestowal of an yiding from spirit Father Yi on the ruling king, Wu Ding, is significant as a symbol of continued divine rulership (see Childs-Johnson 2013).In the Heji 2274 inscription, although the two graphs are not written as a hewen (as an adjectival modifier of The significance of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's cosmological power to rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs joined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preconquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will be analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the tetrapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to rule in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a continuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, depending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal fangding and yiding were one and the same vessel.4. Please this for Figure 7 and enlarge both parts of Figure 7 to take up the whole area, not centered but spread out.

Early through Late Western Zhou Inscriptional Evidence for Yiding
) " graph in late Shang and pre-Conquest Zhou bone inscriptions from Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan, and Zhouyuan, Shaanxi.Sources: (Heji 1978(Heji -1982(Heji , 1999) 31000 (left); (Wang 1984): Figure 14, H11:87 (center); (Heji 1978(Heji -1982(Heji , 1999)) The significance of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's cosmological power to rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs joined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preconquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will be analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the tetrapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to rule in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a continuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, depending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal fangding and yiding were one and the same vessel.ave been misled into describing the Shang religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and aracterized by tension between inner court and outer court worship of ancestral and nature eities.Other scholars have generalized about the nature of divinity in Shang time and have cognized the position of the king who as one with Di was divine.Rather than act as an termediary between the living and dead, the Shang king was divine and equivalent to Di.The resent study follows research recognizing that the Shang king ruled over a state system which I bel "institutionalized metamorphism".By "institutionalized metamorphism" a belief is implied the metamorphic power of the Shang king that allowed him identification with and to a certain xtent control over numinous spirits.eywords: Shang religion; belief system; metamorphism (yi); yiding = tetrapod ding; fangding essel; royal power symbols; Shang state; Kui deity Despite a long tradition of scholarship on Shang religion, a clear and comprehensive account of t religion has proven elusive.Many scholars have relied on written accounts from much later rring States and Han eras purporting to describe Shang beliefs and practices, and have been sled into describing Shang religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and characterized by sion between inner court and outer court worship of ancestral and nature deities (see e.g., Shima 8;Akatsuka 1977;Chang 1970;Eno 2008;Keightley 2000).Nevertheless, many scholars have rectly observed that the Zhou concept of the "Mandate of Heaven" originated from the Shang ief in the power of the cosmological deity, Di, and that Zhou and later reverence for the power of cestral spirits was based on rites of Shang origin (Chen 1937;Chang 1970;Hu 1959;Allan 2007).ny of these arguments in turn may be based on inscriptional data but few take a holistic approach combining written information with other related data.Few scholars rely on Shang period criptional data in combination with visual and archaeological material.In order to more fully derstand belief in a Shang setting, particularly the belief in metamorphosis yi 異 and Shang ership, certain visual data will be reviewed, as will the view that the king possessed the power of 異 as a divine ruler allied with Di, the high Cosmological Spirit of Shang.

Early through Late Western Zhou Inscriptional Evidence for Yiding
The present study also follows research recognizing that the Shang king rules over a state system ich I have labeled elsewhere "institutionalized metamorphism" (Childs-Johnson 2008, p. 51).By stitutionalized metamorphism" a belief is implied in the metamorphic power of the Shang king t allowed him identification with and to a certain extent control over numinous spirits.By of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preu divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will ese inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the d secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to d apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal ere one and the same vessel.The significance of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's cosmological power to rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs joined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preconquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will be analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the tetrapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to rule in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a continuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, depending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal fangding and yiding were one and the same vessel.

Early through Late Western Zhou Inscriptional Evidence for Yiding
As recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.
(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2 Rather than act as an ing and dead, the Shang king was divine and equivalent to Di.The h recognizing that the Shang king ruled over a state system which I orphism".By "institutionalized metamorphism" a belief is implied the Shang king that allowed him identification with and to a certain spirits.).Nevertheless, many scholars have ou concept of the "Mandate of Heaven" originated from the Shang ological deity, Di, and that Zhou and later reverence for the power of rites of Shang origin (Chen 1937;Chang 1970;Hu 1959;Allan 2007).n may be based on inscriptional data but few take a holistic approach tion with other related data.Few scholars rely on Shang period ion with visual and archaeological material.In order to more fully setting, particularly the belief in metamorphosis yi 異 and Shang ill be reviewed, as will the view that the king possessed the power of th Di, the high Cosmological Spirit of Shang.ows research recognizing that the Shang king rules over a state system "institutionalized metamorphism" (Childs-Johnson 2008, p. 51).By m" a belief is implied in the metamorphic power of the Shang king n with and to a certain extent control over numinous spirits.By The significance of these yi or metamorphic power images is directly allied with the king's cosmological power to rule, as revealed in a related term, yiding (異鼎), the hewen (two graphs joined into one graph) known in a variety of early inscriptional contexts including Shang and preconquest Western Zhou divinatory inscriptions and Western Zhou bronze vessel inscriptions.As will be analyzed below, these inscriptional contexts corroborate that yiding refers specifically to the tetrapod fangding, and secondly to a fangding with yi spirit power, the basis of a king's power to rule in Shang time and apparently also in Western Zhou time.The types of data that exhibit a continuation of Shang belief in these symbolic attributes are both archaeological and paleographic, depending on extant or excavated fangding and their inscriptions.As will become clear, royal fangding and yiding were one and the same vessel.the ding), yi is used verbally, "to spirit empower" from one dead king spirit Fu Yi to another, the living king Wu Ding.The two other divinations of Western Zhou origin are also significant in concerning whether the subject, understood as the king, should "shou yiding" receive or be bestowed with the spirit empowered ding (yiding)" and whether the understood subject, the king (Western Zhou ruler) "should invoke a spirit(s) with the newly [cast] yiding".Western Zhou kings evidently followed Shang precedent for an initial period after their conquest before reverting to their preference for honoring their own founding kings, King Wen, King Cheng, and King Wu with ancestral rites.What is significant is that yi 異, yiding (異鼎), and related cognates, wei 畏(威), weiyi 畏異, and gui 鬼 in Shang bone inscriptions take their meaning from the same root, , spirit power or spirit mask.

Early through Late Western Zhou Inscriptional Evidence for Yiding
Although wei is not generously represented in bone inscriptions, its identity and appearance undoubtedly led directly to the frequent use of wei and weiyi in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions 7 .As identified by Karlgren, wei 畏 (no.573) is pronounced iwer/jwei and gui is pronounced kwei/kjwei (Karlgren: no.569)."Gui 鬼 means spirit, ghost, demon (Shi)… and [t]he graph is a drawing."The wei 畏 "graph shows a demon (see no 569a-c above [gui [鬼]) holding an object of which is uncertain."Yi (Karlgren no 954), pronounced "giag/i/yi", shows a "[…]graph of a human figure with raised hands and a head like that of a demon (see Karlgren no 569 above)".The three graphs are based on a similar graphic for mask, and thus the three yi 異, gui 鬼 and wei 畏 are cognates.
Although in my 1995 and later articles on metamorphism I did not advance my hypotheses as far as claiming that gui 鬼 ancestral daemon spirits were one and the same as one who possesses daemonic power or yi, metamorphic power, this is almost certainly the case during the Shang era.Daemonic powers can go both ways, positively and negatively.The signifier (mask morpheme) shared between oracle bone graphs for gui, wei, and yi may be traced to a mask and its underlying connotations of fear and awe, from Shang through to Han time (Childs-Johnson 1995).Although what westerners view as a mask may be skewed by the abundant examples from pre-literate societies in Mongolia stretching across Siberia and into North America, early China clearly entertained this physical and religious concept.As maintained, the remnant examples of wood sculptures of tigers and related daemonic images carved in wood that overlay the tops of several of the royal tombs at Xibeigang were undoubtedly involved in some type of exorcistic and spirit identity context at the time of death, perhaps presided over by the living (successive) king (Childs-Johnson 2013).
The pictorial data from Late Neolithic Jade Age China strongly supports what must have been a widespread use of the mask and its imagery to identify with the spirit realm (see, for example, Fang Xiangming's opinion that the excavated Lingjiatan jade diagrammatic cosmological plaque and tortoise were designed together to form a mask on the corpse of the deceased, Fang 2013, pp. 8-10).Certainly the turquoise and jade inlaid shroud covering the burial of an Erlitou aristocrat corpse makes a similar suggestion of transformational power.Perhaps the cosmological images of semihuman animal zoomorphs served as "helpers" in the sense as once postulated by K.C Chang (1983).Although these symbols do not appear to be "helpers" in the "shamanic sense," they were power symbols with which the king identified and advertised his right as a divinity on earth.
Relevant to our current argument is the evidence that yiding and yi are specifically associated with royal power in Shang bone inscriptions.The subjects of yi are in all cases limited to dead rulers, Although wei is not generously represented in bone inscriptions, its identity and appearance undoubtedly led directly to the frequent use of wei and weiyi in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions 8 .As identified by Karlgren, wei 畏 (no.573) is pronounced iwer/jwei and gui is pronounced kwei/kjwei (Karlgren: no.569)."Gui 鬼 means spirit, ghost, demon (Shi) . . .and [t]he graph is a drawing."The wei 畏 "graph shows a demon (see no 569a-c above [gui [鬼]) holding an object of which is uncertain."Yi (Karlgren no 954), pronounced "giag/i/yi", shows a "[ . . .]graph of a human figure with raised hands and a head like that of a demon (see Karlgren no 569 above)".The three graphs are based on a similar graphic for mask, and thus the three yi 異, gui 鬼 and wei 畏 are cognates.
Although in my 1995 and later articles on metamorphism I did not advance my hypotheses as far as claiming that gui 鬼 ancestral daemon spirits were one and the same as one who possesses daemonic power or yi, metamorphic power, this is almost certainly the case during the Shang era.Daemonic powers can go both ways, positively and negatively.The signifier Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 10 of 12 the ding), yi is used verbally, "to spirit empower" from one dead king spirit Fu Yi to another, the living king Wu Ding.The two other divinations of Western Zhou origin are also significant in concerning whether the subject, understood as the king, should "shou yiding" receive or be bestowed with the spirit empowered ding (yiding)" and whether the understood subject, the king (Western Zhou ruler) "should invoke a spirit(s) with the newly [cast] yiding".Western Zhou kings evidently followed Shang precedent for an initial period after their conquest before reverting to their preference for honoring their own founding kings, King Wen, King Cheng, and King Wu with ancestral rites.The addition of the fu 父 father radical to the side of the ding in the yiding hewen in the Heji 2274 inscription may be interpreted as a signifier of the fu father generation of the Shang royal lineage, a symbolic reference to the maintenance of Shang royal power.For other uses of yi 異 in bone inscriptions see Childs-Johnson 2008.
What is significant is that yi 異, yiding (異鼎), and related cognates, wei 畏(威), weiyi 畏異, and gui 鬼 in Shang bone inscriptions take their meaning from the same root, , spirit power or spirit mask.
Although wei is not generously represented in bone inscriptions, its identity and appearance undoubtedly led directly to the frequent use of wei and weiyi in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions 7 .As identified by Karlgren, wei 畏 (no.573) is pronounced iwer/jwei and gui is pronounced kwei/kjwei (Karlgren: no.569)."Gui 鬼 means spirit, ghost, demon (Shi)… and [t]he graph is a drawing."The wei 畏 "graph shows a demon (see no 569a-c above [gui [鬼]) holding an object of which is uncertain."Yi (Karlgren no 954), pronounced "giag/i/yi", shows a "[…]graph of a human figure with raised hands and a head like that of a demon (see Karlgren no 569 above)".The three graphs are based on a similar graphic for mask, and thus the three yi 異, gui 鬼 and wei 畏 are cognates.
Although in my 1995 and later articles on metamorphism I did not advance my hypotheses as far as claiming that gui 鬼 ancestral daemon spirits were one and the same as one who possesses daemonic power or yi, metamorphic power, this is almost certainly the case during the Shang era.Daemonic powers can go both ways, positively and negatively.The signifier (mask morpheme) shared between oracle bone graphs for gui, wei, and yi may be traced to a mask and its underlying connotations of fear and awe  connotations of fear and awe, from Shang through to Han time (Childs-Johnson 1995).Although what westerners view as a mask may be skewed by the abundant examples from pre-literate societies in Mongolia stretching across Siberia and into North America, early China clearly entertained this physical and religious concept.As maintained, the remnant examples of wood sculptures of tigers and related daemonic images carved in wood that overlay the tops of several of the royal tombs at Xibeigang were undoubtedly involved in some type of exorcistic and spirit identity context at the time of death, perhaps presided over by the living (successive) king (Childs-Johnson 2013).
The pictorial data from Late Neolithic Jade Age China strongly supports what must have been a widespread use of the mask and its imagery to identify with the spirit realm (see, for example, Fang Xiangming's opinion that the excavated Lingjiatan jade diagrammatic cosmological plaque and tortoise were designed together to form a mask on the corpse of the deceased, Fang 2013, pp. 8-10).Certainly the turquoise and jade inlaid shroud covering the burial of an Erlitou aristocrat corpse makes a similar suggestion of transformational power.Perhaps the cosmological images of semi-human animal zoomorphs served as "helpers" in the sense as once postulated by K.C Chang (1983).Although these symbols do not appear to be "helpers" in the "shamanic sense," they were power symbols with which the king identified and advertised his right as a divinity on earth.
Relevant to our current argument is the evidence that yiding and yi are specifically associated with royal power in Shang bone inscriptions.The subjects of yi are in all cases limited to dead rulers, Di (the Cosmological Power on High), and the living ruler (see Figure above with inscriptions).The king was a living apotheosis of the daemonic realm of Di and dead rulers of the Shang lineage.Although we cannot call the king a mediator, as one may in identifying the powers of shamans in Siberian and related cultures, the king was clearly the pivot of spirit control during the Shang era.The major symbol of this power is the investment of the Shang king with the yiding or tetrapod fangding.The most telling inscription appears in Figure 8C above where it is queried whether the dead king spirit, Fu Yi (father of Wu Ding) would or would not bestow the power of the yiding on his son, the next in line to be king.
Funding: No outside funding was provided for this study.

Conflicts of Interest:
There are no conflicts of interest.
As recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it 唯正月王 [ jiang 將 + 鼎= ]于氐, 大奏。王赐霸伯贝十朋。霸伯用作宝 B， 其万年孙子 = 其永宝。" * I would like to thank Professor Han Ding 韩鼎 for bringing this article by Wang Ziyang to my

ywords:
Shang religion; belief system; metamorphism (yi); yiding = tetrapod ding; fangding sel; royal power symbols; Shang state; Kui deity Despite a long tradition of scholarship on Shang religion, a clear and comprehensive account of religion has proven elusive.Many scholars have relied on written accounts from much later ring States and Han eras purporting to describe Shang beliefs and practices, and have been ed into describing Shang religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and characterized by ion between inner court and outer court worship of ancestral and nature deities (see e.g., Shima
As recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it 唯正月王 [ jiang 將 + 鼎= ]于氐, 大奏。王赐霸伯贝十朋。霸伯用作宝 B， 其万年孙子 = 其永宝。" * I would like to thank Professor Han Ding 韩鼎 for bringing this article by Wang Ziyang to my attention.
YidingAs recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di氐, [at the time of] Da Qin大奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it唯正月王 from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it 唯正月王 [ jiang 將 + 鼎= ]于氐, 大奏。王赐霸伯贝十朋。霸伯用作宝 B， 其万年孙子 = 其永宝。" * I would like to thank Professor Han Ding 韩鼎 for bringing this article by Wang Ziyang to my attention.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Four identical Zuoce Da small tetrapod ding preserved at the Royal Palace Museum, Taiwan (two in the top row), Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (lower left), and the Hermitage

,
as a photograph(Wang 2018; Shanxi 2018).The graph is composed of three components, jin金, ge戈, and xing行, of which ge is allegedly the sound element and jin and xing the signifier elements.Although Wang reads the graph as yi, not ge or jin 釴 (see Wang: footnote 11), and although釴 may be documented by various textual references of Han date, such as the Er Ya尔雅, Hanyu Dazidian 漢大字典, Suoyin索隐, and others, alongside their commentaries, the graph is clearly a corruption of the word yi 翼/異 in classical texts and Zhou inscriptions, as analyzed by Yachu Zhang (1992) 3 .Zhang's interpretation is in turn supported by references to 異 in the Mozi, as translated by Sun Yirang孙詒让(Sun 2001), and quoted in(Wang 2018: text and notes 23-4).釴 is a corrupt loan graph for the word yi翼(異), the same yi found in earlier Western Zhou and Shang inscriptions.

Religions 2019 ,
10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 4 of 12 B is the name of the vessel, written , as a rubbing, and , as a photograph (Wang 2018; Shanxi 2018).The graph is composed of three components, jin 金, ge 戈, and xing 行, of which ge is allegedly the sound element and jin and xing the signifier elements.Although Wang reads the graph as yi, not ge or jin 釴 (see Wang: footnote 11), and although 釴 may be documented by various textual references of the Han date, such as the Er Ya 尔雅, Hanyu Dazidian 漢大字典, Suoyin 索隐, and others, alongside their commentaries, the graph is clearly a corruption of the word yi 翼/異 in classical texts and Zhou inscriptions, as analyzed by (Zhang 1992) 3 .Zhang's interpretation is in turn supported by references to 異 in the Mozi, as translated by Sun Yirang 孙詒让 (Sun 2001), and quoted in Wang: text and notes 23-4).釴 is a corrupt loan graph for the word yi 翼(異), the same yi found in earlier Western Zhou and Shang inscriptions.

Figure 3 .Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Three examples of the fangding (yiding, also called fangli) of late Western Zhou date: (A,B) Li Zhen fangli季真方鬲 and (B) Animal-footed fangli.Reproduced from Shang Zhou Yiqi Tongkao, xia: 97-98; (C) Human guarding gate fangding.Reproduced from (Zhouyuan 2016): color plate 64.Further comparisons indicate that these whimsical versions of tetrapod belong to the category of rectangular ding or fangding that are four-sided and four-legged.The inscription of the third bronze, excavated from the Zhuangbai cache in Zhouyuan, Shaanxi, is self-inscribed with the hewen

Figure 4 .
Figure 4.One of a pair of Shi Yi fangding.Shaanxi volume: Figure 154, page 13

Figure 4 .
Figure 4.One of a pair of Shi Yi fangding.Shaanxi volume: Figure 154, page 135.Bronze cast ding functioned as vessels used in flesh or meat sacrifices from Shang through Zhou periods.Corroborative data are plentiful.One such sacrificial piece of data appears in the Duke of Ba inscription itself.This graph, written

[
Millie, Here are the less fuzzy versions of graphs to be replaced in the manuscript.Previously corrected by author but not corrected by inhouse editors: 0. Insert on page 10 only, as follows: The hewen yiiding X ().Delete (異鼎)。 1. Replace with in 2 places used in manuscript.2. 將+鼎 Please insert jiang 將 on top of ding 鼎 to read as one graph, a hewen.Place this joined graph at 2 places used in manuscript.將 鼎 3. center and clean if possible and insert at all 6 places where used in manuscript.4.Please this for Figure7and enlarge both parts of Figure7to take up the whole area, not centered but spread out.
Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 6 of 12 Bronze cast ding functioned as vessels used in flesh or meat sacrifices from Shang through Zhou periods.Corroborative data are plentiful.One such sacrificial piece of data appears in the Duke of Ba inscription itself.This graph, written [ ] is comprised of the meat 肉 and knife 刀 radicals, in addition to the generic dou 豆 for a vessel used in sacrifice.The sacrificial term is a reduction of the Shang bone inscriptional terms and ( )(將+鼎), to a hewen (binome combining two words into one graph).The latter is similarly composed of meat 肉 and knife 刀 radicals, in addition to a vessel, in this Shang case, the ding 鼎 vessel radical or the 俎 graph for meat cutting board.Both are variations of cut flesh offered in ding vessels, transcribed ( )(將+鼎), (Childs-Johnson 2013).The evidence from this vessel inscription thus agrees with the typical function of this vessel as one used in meat and flesh sacrifices.
). Scribe Da of Zuo cast a set of medium size tetrapod fangding in honor of a commemorative occasion that the scribe witnessed-the casting by the Duke (probably Duke of Zhou, also known as Da Bao, Grand Protector) of yiding honoring the founding Western Zhou kings, Cheng and Wu.The inscriptions and fangding, belonging to Zuoce Da 作册大 are illustrated below: and Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 6 of 12 Bronze cast ding functioned as vessels used in flesh or meat sacrifices from Shang through Zhou periods.Corroborative data are plentiful.One such sacrificial piece of data appears in the Duke of Ba inscription itself.This graph, written [ ] is comprised of the meat 肉 and knife 刀 radicals, in addition to the generic dou 豆 for a vessel used in sacrifice.The sacrificial term is a reduction of the Shang bone inscriptional terms and ( )(將+鼎), to a hewen (binome combining two words into one graph).The latter is similarly composed of meat 肉 and knife 刀 radicals, in addition to a vessel, in this Shang case, the ding 鼎 vessel radical or the 俎 graph for meat cutting board.Both are variations of cut flesh offered in ding vessels, transcribed ( )(將+鼎), (Childs-Johnson 2013).The evidence from this vessel inscription thus agrees with the typical function of this vessel as one used in meat and flesh sacrifices.
). Scribe Da of Zuo cast a set of medium size tetrapod fangding in honor of a commemorative occasion that the scribe witnessed-the casting by the Duke (probably Duke of Zhou, also known as Da Bao, Grand Protector) of yiding honoring the founding Western Zhou kings, Cheng and Wu.The inscriptions and fangding, belonging to Zuoce Da 作册大 are illustrated below: ( Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 6 of 12 Bronze cast ding functioned as vessels used in flesh or meat sacrifices from Shang through Zhou periods.Corroborative data are plentiful.One such sacrificial piece of data appears in the Duke of Ba inscription itself.This graph, written [ ] is comprised of the meat 肉 and knife 刀 radicals, in addition to the generic dou 豆 for a vessel used in sacrifice.The sacrificial term is a reduction of the Shang bone inscriptional terms and ( )(將+鼎), to a hewen (binome combining two words into one graph).The latter is similarly composed of meat 肉 and knife 刀 radicals, in addition to a vessel, in this Shang case, the ding 鼎 vessel radical or the 俎 graph for meat cutting board.Both are variations of cut flesh offered in ding vessels, transcribed ( )(將+鼎), (Childs-Johnson 2013).The evidence from this vessel inscription thus agrees with the typical function of this vessel as one used in meat and flesh sacrifices.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Four identical Zuoce Da small tetrapod ding preserved at the Royal Palace Museum, Taiwan (two in the top row), Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (lower left), and the Hermitage

Figure 5 .Figure 1 .
Figure 5. Four identical Zuoce Da small tetrapod ding preserved at the Royal Palace Museum, Taiwan (two in the top row), Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (lower left), and the Hermitage ).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it 唯正月王 [ jiang 將 + 鼎= ]于氐, 大奏。王赐霸伯贝十朋。霸伯用作宝 B， 其万年孙子 = 其永宝。" * I would like to thank Professor Han Ding 韩鼎 for bringing this article by Wang Ziyang to my attention.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Four identical Zuoce Da small tetrapod ding preserved at the Royal Palace Museum, Taiwan (two in the top row), Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (lower left), and the Hermitage

2.
將+鼎 Please insert jiang 將 on top of ding 鼎 to read as one graph, a hewen.Place this joined graph at 2 places used in manuscript.將 鼎 3. center and clean if possible and insert at all 6 placeswhere used in manuscript.
As recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it 唯正月王 [ jiang 將 + 鼎= ]于氐, 大奏。王赐霸伯贝十朋。霸伯用作宝 B， 其万年孙子 = 其永宝。" * I would like to thank Professor Han Ding 韩鼎 for bringing this article by Wang Ziyang to my attention.is appropriate.王降亡得異鼎復 Millie, Here are the less fuzzy versions of graphs to be replaced in the manuscript.Previously corrected by author but not corrected by inhouse editors: 0. Insert on page 10 only, as follows: The hewen yiiding X ( ).Delete (異鼎)。 1. Replace with in 2 places used in manuscript.2. 將+鼎 Please insert jiang 將 on top of ding 鼎 to read as one graph, a hewen.Place this joined graph at 2 places used in manuscript.將 鼎 3. center and clean if possible and insert at all 6 placeswhere used in manuscript.

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. Tian Wang gui inscription and translation (right) and a detail showing the use of "得 (得 異鼎)復 ("de yiding fu ?)" or "obtaining the yiding and restoring [the royal] title (?))" on the left.The purpose of holding a grand Xiang feast and Yi meat platter offering is to attract the dead king's spirit's descension.This happens and (Tian) Wang obtains the yiding to restore X( )-the title to the current ruling king (King Wu).The graph , although difficult to translate probably means something close to "royal title", as suggested by Hwang.)A similar context of recovering royal ding bronzes is repeated in the "Shi Fu 世俘 (Great Capture)" chapter of the Yi Zhoushu 逸周書 (Lost Book of Zhou), dating to the early Western Zhou period: On the xinhai (day 48) [the Zhou] presented the captured royal ding [flesh and meat offering bronze vessels) of the Yin [Shang] kings.King Wu then with spirit-empowered awesomeness (yi) displayed his gui jade insignia and codice(?), in announcing (this achievement) to Shang Di (Cosmological Power on High) in the Heavenly Temple[…]

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. Tian Wang gui inscription and translation (right) and a detail showing the use of "得

estern
Zhou Inscriptional Evidence for Yiding d by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes ed burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of estern Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)te about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription..org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).* the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2).The inscription reads: he King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 ance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever (得 www.mdpi.com/journal/religionsState: Yi 異 and the Yi USA; echildsjohnson@gmail.com; d: 3 February 2019

2.
將+鼎 Please insert jiang 將 on top of ding 鼎 to read as one graph, a hewen.Place this joined graph at 2 places used in manuscript.if possible and insert at all 6 places where used in manuscript.
).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it 唯正月王 [ jiang 將 + 鼎= ]于氐, 大奏。王赐霸伯贝十朋。霸伯用作宝 B， 其万年孙子 = 其永宝。" * I would like to thank Professor Han Ding 韩鼎 for bringing this article by Wang Ziyang to my ttention.

Figure 8 .Figure 1 .
Figure 8. (A-D) The hewen yiding " As recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it 唯正月王 [ jiang 將 + 鼎= ]于氐, 大奏。王赐霸伯贝十朋。霸伯用作宝 B， 其万年孙子 = 其永宝。" * I would like to thank Professor Han Ding 韩鼎 for bringing this article by Wang Ziyang to my attention.( Millie, Here are the less fuzzy versions of graphs to be replaced in the manuscript.Previously corrected by author but not corrected by inhouse editors: 0. Insert on page 10 only, as follows: The hewen yiiding X ( ).Delete (異鼎)。 1. Replace with in 2 places used in manuscript.2. 將+鼎 Please insert jiang 將 on top of ding 鼎 to read as one graph, a hewen.Place this joined graph at 2 places used in manuscript.將 鼎 3. center and clean if possible and insert at all 6 placeswhere used in manuscript.
As recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it 唯正月王 [ jiang 將 + 鼎= ]于氐, 大奏。王赐霸伯贝十朋。霸伯用作宝 B， 其万年孙子 = 其永宝。" * I would like to thank Professor Han Ding 韩鼎 for bringing this article by Wang Ziyang to my attention.igions 2019, 10, x; doi: FOR PEER REVIEW www.mdpi.com/journal/religions 鼎)), 祝 The bone was cracked: should [X] invoke X spirit with the new yiding?(B) [ . . .] should perhaps [X] receive/bestow the yiding 其受 figures with arms raised.(A) Yi 異 graph; (B) Displayed yi image, implified displayed yi image.
).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it 唯正月王 [ jiang 將 + 鼎= ]于氐, 大奏。王赐霸伯贝十朋。霸伯用作宝 B， 其万年孙子 = 其永宝。" * I would like to thank Professor Han Ding 韩鼎 for bringing this article by Wang Ziyang to my attention.( VIEW www.mdpi.com/journal/religionsition of scholarship on Shang religion, a clear and comprehensive oven elusive.Many scholars have relied on written accounts from the d Han eras purporting to describe Shang beliefs and practices, and ibing the Shang religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and een inner court and outer court worship of ancestral and nature generalized about the nature of divinity in Shang time and have he king who as one with Di was divine.
elief system; metamorphism (yi); yiding = tetrapod ding; fangding hang state; Kui deity scholarship on Shang religion, a clear and comprehensive account of e.Many scholars have relied on written accounts from much later purporting to describe Shang beliefs and practices, and have been religion as bureaucratically institutionalized and characterized by d outer court worship of ancestral and nature deities (see e.g., Shima 970; Eno 2008; Keightley 2000
As recently analyzed by Wang Ziyang, several graphs cited in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the newly discovered burial M1017 at Dahekou cemetery in Yicheng, Shanxi ("Excavation of No. 1017 Tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty Graveyard in Dahekou, Shanxi," Kaogu xuebao 2018.1)have sparked lively debate about the function of the ritual bronze vessel and its inscription.(http://www.xianqin.org/blog/archives/9917.html?from=timeline&isappinstalled=02018).*One in particular is the middle Western Zhou, Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) fanggui 霸伯方簋 (read here as Ba Bo (Duke of Ba) yi (fang)ding 霸伯異鼎) (see Figure 2).The inscription reads: "In the first month the King carried out meat sacrifice [at] Di 氐, [at the time of] Da Qin 大 奏 (a Great Performance?).The King awarded Duke of Ba 10 strings of cowries which the Duke of Ba used to make a precious B (name of a vessel).May sons and grandsons forever treasure it 唯正月王 [ jiang 將 + 鼎= ]于氐, 大奏。王赐霸伯贝十朋。霸伯用作宝 B， 其万年孙子 = 其永宝。" * I would like to thank Professor Han Ding 韩鼎 for bringing this article by Wang Ziyang to my attention.(異鼎), and related cognates, wei 畏(威), weiyi 畏異, and gui 鬼 in Shang bone inscriptions take their meaning from the same root, Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 10 of 12 The addition of the fu 父 father radical to the side of the ding in the yiding hewen in the Heji 2274 inscription may be interpreted as a signifier of the fu father generation of the Shang royal lineage, a symbolic reference to the maintenance of Shang royal power.For other uses of yi 異 in bone inscriptions see Childs-Johnson 2008.

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See Childs-Johnson 1995 note 17 and page 86 where it is stated "[…] the Han term for spirit [魌] qi, can be traced to and identified as a phonetic loan for the mask radical in this verb of invocation [ ] and in the graph for guitou ghost[…]"See Childs-Johnson 1995 note 17 and page 86 where it is stated "[…] the Han term for spirit [魌] qi, can be traced to and identified as a phonetic loan for the mask radical in this verb of invocation.For the cognate wei, see in the same article (Childs-Johnson 1995, the section titled "The Cognate , spirit power or spirit mask. 7 , from Shang through to Han time (Childs-Johnson 1995).Although what westerners view as a mask may be skewed by the abundant examples from pre-literate societies in Mongolia stretching across Siberia and into North America, early China clearly entertained this physical and religious concept.As maintained, the remnant examples of wood sculptures of tigers and related daemonic images carved in wood that overlay the tops of several of the royal tombs at Xibeigang were undoubtedly involved in some type of exorcistic and spirit identity context at the time of death, perhaps presided over by the living (successive) king (Childs-Johnson 2013).

(
mask morpheme) shared between oracle bone graphs for gui, wei, and yi may be traced to a mask and its underlying 7 See Childs-Johnson 1995 note 17 and page 86 where it is stated "[ . . .] the Han term for spirit[魌] qi, can be traced to and identified as a phonetic loan for the mask radical in this verb of invocation [ ] and in the graph for guitou ghost[ . . .]". See also the section titled "The Equivalence of Guitou (ghost head) and Qitou (masked invoker)" on pages 88-90).8For the cognate wei, see in the same article (Childs-Johnson 1995, the section titled "The Cognate Wei 畏 Meaning Supernatural Majesty," pp.90-91.).