殷墟卜辭舊所謂「㲹」字，我曾釋讀為「皆」；與之相聯繫的舊所謂「眢」字，我曾釋讀為「睫（兼）」。現在看來，後者應從釋讀為「總」之新說，且可明確係與前者為對立關係。據此將所謂「㲹」改讀為「徧／遍」，其字應理解作弁冕之「弁」的繁形。據一些特殊辭例，所謂「㲹」之讀法亦可用「辨」字統一，其詞兼具「周徧／遍」與「分辨」兩義。

In my earlier work, I interpreted the form 㲹, found in oracle bone inscriptions from Yinxu, as representing the word {皆} jie (“universally”). I also identified a related form, conventionally transcribed as 眢, as the character [睫] jie (“eyelash”), which I argued was borrowed to denote the word {兼} jian (“altogether”). Recent scholarship, however, suggests that this latter form should instead be read as {總} zong (“comprehensively and jointly”). In this paper, I adopt this revised interpretation and further propose that the word denoted by 㲹 stands in clear semantic contrast to { 總}. This observation leads me to a new reading of 㲹 as {徧/遍} bian (“comprehensively and sequentially”). Moreover, I suggest that 㲹 is a graphic elaboration of the character [弁] bian (“headdress”), which, in certain specialized contexts, can also be read as 辨 bian (“respectively” or “individually”).

甲骨文;尋詞推字;㲹;遍;弁

Oracle bone inscriptions; deciphering characters by identifying words;ji(㲹); bian(遍); bian(弁)