Doubtful Points of “Tao Gong”（陶觥）Inscription

Zhang Le

（East China Normal University）

Abstract:“Tao Gong”（陶觥）is a Shang Dynasty bronze.It has only recently been made public and the excavation of this bronze is unknown.There are a lot of doubtful points about this inscription.Firstly, according to the study of language materials at that time, the first sentence describes the fact that the“XiaoChen ”（小臣）was given“BaiGong”（百工）by the king, which is not reasonable.Secondly, the wording of the characters“Gui”（圭）“Bi”（璧）and“Zhang”（章）is not in accordance with their common form.Thirdly, “ShangZuGui”（上祖癸）is a word never seen before.Fourthly, the word“Si”（嗣）at the end of the inscription is difficult to understand, with the“inheritance”meaning to explain, unreasonable, and it is inconsistent with the use of the word“Si”（嗣）and the borrowing.In short, it's probably a forgery.

Keywords:“Tao Gong”（陶觥）; “Gui”（圭）; “Bi”（璧）; “Zhang”（章）; “Si”（嗣）

图一：陶觥盖铭摹本

图二：陶觥器铭摹本