LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

The inscription cast under the handle of the present jue, read from top to bottom and right to left, may be transcribed as Fu Gui Zhou Yin (父癸舟尹). The first two characters, Fu Gui (父癸), are generally understood as an honorific title, in which Gui is a personal name, while Fu means father or ancestor, denoting a term of respect. The following two characters, Zhou Yin (舟尹), are comparatively uncommon. According to Cao Dazhi in Zuhui Neihan yu Shangdai de Guojia Jiegou (Clan Emblems and the Nature of the Shang State Structure), both Zhou and Yin may have functioned as clan signs. The character yin is generally associated with governance or official authority. It often served as a generic administrative designation which, when combined with another graph, could indicate a more specific sphere of responsibility. The character Zhou may be interpreted as an official connected with boats and waterways; together with Yin, these two characters may be understood as a form of “Maritime Official.”

The arrangement of the characters Zhou and Yin on the present jue is particularly unusual. Although Zhou and Yin frequently appear together, the more common configuration is Yin Zhou (尹舟), with Yin above and Zhou below. Yin Zhou Jinwen Jicheng, vol. 14, Beijing, 1984, no. 8967, notes that such combination may even be interpreted as a single graph. Bronze jue bearing the characters Yin Zhou include one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, inscribed Yin Zhou Fu Ding (尹舟父丁), and another in the Palace Museum, Beijing, inscribed Yin Zhou Fu Ji (尹舟父己). Unlike these single-line inscriptions, the present inscription is arranged in two columns. Moreover, whereas the two comparative vessels are decorated only with thin raised bowstring bands, the present jue is cast with taotie masks, making it a particularly distinctive and rare example.