殷卜辭賓字考辨

A Study on the Character ''Bin'' in Oracle Bone Inscriptions

甲骨卜辭賓字有構件相似之「□」、「□」共二十五形，皆从「□」，「□」下或有「□」、「□」、「□」、「□」等部件，亦偶見「□」部於其中，諸形彼此糾結。筆者嘗試重新梳理各形，透過字形的演變、字義的考察，觀察諸形之間的關係，得出以下結論：一、殷卜辭中「□」、「□」二形有別。「□」字多用於名詞，如作動詞亦有其特殊的句型結構；「□」皆為動詞，用於熟語「王賓」卜辭中，或偶有「王賓」刻為「□」形者，從二形比例來看，應視為缺刻，不應視為通用。二、第一期中所見「□」形為最完整之字形，或省去「□」、「□」、「□」等部件，故出現許多異體字。第二期以後則固定作「□」形。三、多數無「□」部件之字多為私名，與賓字無涉。亦有少部分與賓字混同，亦能透過字義來區別。四、第一期「□」字，有女旁以卩旁替換之情況，從卜辭義來判斷，「□」、「□」等形字義無別，女、卩形旁通用。再由創意考察，推論二形通用之因在於賓字或與祭祀相關，故取其跪坐義。綜上，考釋文字必須兼顧「形、音、義」三者，考察其字形演變，並切合文字的創意，由此才能精確理解文獻之意義。

"There are twenty-five forms related to Bin（賓） in oracle bone inscriptions such as □ and □. They are all included in the category of □. Some will come with components such as □, □, □and □; sometimes □ will appear. These forms connect with one another. Thus, putting them together, this study observes the relationship between each form and exam the transformation of the forms and meanings of characters. My preliminary conclusion is as follows: First, in oracle bone inscriptions, □ and □ are two different forms. Words with □ are mostly nouns, except in some particular sentence structure where they serve as verbs. Words with □ on the contrary are all verbs. Taking the idiom ''Wang Bin'' as an example, we can see it uses □ but sometimes □ dose appear. From the ratio of the two forms' looks, it is more likely to be the result of the lack of carving strokes than an interchangeable usage. Second, among the inscriptions in the first period of the Wu Ding reign, □ is the most complete one. Because of deleting some components such as □, □, and □, some of the variant characters are produced. After the second period, □ becomes the fixed form. Third, most characters without □ are proper nouns, not necessarily related to ''Bin（賓）'' itself. Though a few of them could be mixed with ''Bin,'' the difference can easily be told via the meanings. Lastly, in the first period □'s radical components-nǚ（女）-would be substituted by jié（卩）. Judging from the meanings in oracle bone inscriptions, □ and □ share similar meanings; nǚ（女） and jié（卩） thus can be an interchangeable usage. By examining the creation of meanings, we can infer that this interchangeable usage is caused by the meaning of ''Bin（賓）,'' i.e. guests or that related to religious offering, which would be represented by the gesture of kneeling. To sum up, examining and explaining words should take ''forms, sounds and meanings'' into consideration. The transformation of the forms of characters should be reviewed carefully to see if it can match the creation of meanings of words. Only by doing so can the exact meanings of literature be genuinely understood."