由曾公求(從田)編鐘銘文錯亂看製銘時所用的寫本 [On the Use of Manuscripts in Chunqiu Period Inscription Making, as Indicated by the Garbled Inscription on the Lord of Zeng's Chime]

Among the 34 bells recently unearthed from the mid-seventh century BCE tomb M190 at the ancient state of Zeng cemetery in Zaoshulin 棗樹林, Suizhou, one set of bells bears an inscription that is garbled in such a peculiar fashion that allows for a detailed reconstruction of material properties of the underlying auxiliary manuscript from which the craftsmen copied the text of inscription during its production process. In this paper, I argue that this manuscript originally comprised of 22-23 wooden or bamboo boards with 10-15 characters each, written in columns of 5 characters in length, and that it was reused for laying out the inscription on several sets of bells. Before each reuse, the text of the manuscript was subject to minor adjustments and sometimes even corrections. A comparison reveals that the basic rationale behind the production and use of such auxiliary manuscripts in the 7^th century BCE southern state of Zeng was remarkably similar to that of the Late Western Zhou (late 9^th early 8^th centuries BCE), suggesting a high degree of continuity in this particular aspect of the inscription-making tradition across time and space.