吉.原筮.元永貞.無咎.不寧方來.後夫凶.
Yuan 原: many old commentaries say that yuan should be read as zai 再, ‘again’. But this meaning of yuan is quite rare. The Shanghai Museum Manuscript has 备 (not to be read as the simplified character of bei 備) instead of yuan. It is an abbreviation of the character yuan 邍 which is a known loan character of 原 (see 戰國古文字典, p. 1014; 古文字詁林, vol. 2, p. 454-455 and the Multi-Function Chinese Character Database). This also narrows down the possible meanings of 原. Continue reading
利永貞.
Yong zhen 永貞: long-term (長久) divination:
戊寅卜
貞我永.
Crack-making on day 15, divines for my long-term prognosis.
(Heji 合集 248)
Several oracle bone inscriptions end with a character or phrase denoting the auspiciousness of the received oracle, like ji 吉 or da ji 大吉 (see for examples Heji 合集 27013, 27020, 27041, 27973, 28142, 28663). Sometimes we find the character yong 永 as such an end note, probably denoting an auspicious long-term divination (Heji 合集 6108 臼, 6527 臼, 6855 反, 10199 反, 17555 臼, 21381).
Favourable long-term divination.
