The Yin Used the Jia: Names of Ancient Ritual Vessels

One line, three dynasties, one object: 爵，夏后氏以琖，殷以斝，周以爵 — for the cup called 爵, the house of Xia used the 琖, the Yin used the 斝, the Zhou used the 爵. Three words in the same slot, and the third word is the same as the name of the thing. The sentence never says what any of the three looked like. This is how the chapter, 明堂位, names vessels throughout: a word per dynasty, laid out in parallel lines, with no description attached.

Where the list comes from explains why one page can carry four dynasties at once. The chapter opens with the Duke of Zhou receiving the feudal lords in the Bright Hall and settling their positions. It tells how he held power for six years, 朝諸侯於明堂，制禮作樂，頒度量而天下大服, and then handed it back; how King Cheng, for his service, 封周公於曲阜 and ordered 魯公世世祀周公以天子之禮樂, the dukes of Lu to sacrifice to the Duke of Zhou for ever with the rites and music of a Son of Heaven. The chapter ends: 凡四代之服、器、官，魯兼用之 — the dress, vessels and offices of the four dynasties were all used by Lu together. The rows of names are the inventory of that privilege. It is a ritual book looking back at what Lu kept, not a Shang record.

One: one cup, three words

The same triad runs twice more, next to it: 灌尊，夏后氏以雞夷，殷以斝，周以黄目；其勺，夏后氏以龍勺，殷以疏勺，周以蒲勺. The 灌尊 is the vessel for the libation; the 勺 is the ladle. So 斝 appears twice on this page, and both times it is the answer to what the Yin used: once in the cup row, once in the libation-vessel row. The grammar is close to a formula — three dynasties, one pattern, one name per line, and never a form. Cup, libation vessel, ladle: each gets its row, and the reader gets a table, not three objects.

The other page puts 斝 in a different system. In the Zhouli the officer 司尊彝 has charge of 六尊、六彝, and one of the six 彝 is the 斝彝: 秋嘗、冬烝，祼用斝彝、黃彝，皆有舟. So in the Liji 斝 is the Yin word, and in the Zhouli the 斝彝 is one of the Zhou's six 彝. Whether the two are one vessel is stated nowhere; this article does not decide. What can be said is smaller: the word stands inside two systems of naming, and both pages use it as a name, not as a description.

Two: the six and the six

The Zhouli passage is a job description before it is a list. 司尊彝：掌六尊、六彝之位，詔其酌，辨其用與其實 — he has charge of the positions of the six 尊 and six 彝, directs their pouring, and distinguishes their uses and their contents. The same page gives his staff: 下士二人；府四人，史二人，胥二人，徒二十人. Two junior officers, four storekeepers, two scribes, two overseers, twenty labourers. That is the whole administrative frame the two pages supply for the vessels.

Then the schedule, where the names do their work: 春祠、夏礿，祼用雞彝、鳥彝，皆有舟。其朝踐用兩獻尊，其再獻用兩象尊，皆有舟……秋嘗、冬烝，祼用斝彝、黃彝，皆有舟。其朝獻用兩著尊，其饋獻用兩壺尊，皆有罍……凡四時之間祀、追享、朝享，祼用虎彝、蜼彝，皆有舟。其朝踐用兩大尊，其再獻用兩山尊，皆有罍. Count the names: the 彝 are 雞、鳥、斝、黃、虎、蜼, six; the 尊 are 獻、象、著、壺、大、山, also six. The opening sentence's 六尊、六彝 is not a round number — the lists add up to it. Each season uses two 彝 and four 尊 in pairs. Every 彝 is said to have 舟; of the 尊, the first pair has 舟 and the other four have 罍. Neither 舟 nor 罍 is explained on the page.

Three: row after row of names

The Liji chapter spreads this pattern over almost everything. 泰，有虞氏之尊也。山罍，夏后氏之尊也。著，殷尊也。犧、象，周尊也 — four dynasties, four 尊. 夏后氏之鼓足，殷楹鼓，周縣鼓. 俎，有虞氏以梡，夏后氏以嶡，殷以椇，周以房俎. 夏后氏以楬豆，殷玉豆，周獻豆. 鸞車，有虞氏之路也。鉤車，夏后氏之路也。大路，殷路也。乘路，周路也. 有虞氏之旂，夏后氏之綏，殷之大白，周之大赤. 夏后氏牲尚黑，殷白牡，周騂剛. 米廪，有虞氏之庠也。序，夏后氏之序也。瞽宗，殷學也。頖宫，周學也 — even the schools.

The rows with numbers follow the same grammar: 有虞（氏）之兩敦，夏后氏之四璉，殷之六瑚，周之八簋; 有虞氏官五十，夏后氏官百，殷二百，周三百. What a row gives is an equation: this word belongs to that dynasty. What it does not give is anything else — no height, no material, no use, no number of legs. Two, four, six and eight count the pieces in a set; fifty, a hundred, two hundred and three hundred count offices, not vessels. A reader who wants the shape of a 瑚 will not find it in that line.

Four: one ceremony, several rows at once

One passage on the same page does put the names back into a ceremony, and it is the passage that spoils the neat rows. For the summer sacrifice to the Duke of Zhou in the great temple: 牲用白牡，尊用犧、象、山罍，鬱尊用黄目，灌用玉瓚大圭，薦用玉豆、雕篹，爵用玉琖仍雕，加以璧散、璧角，俎用梡、嶡. Read against the rows, the vessels come from everywhere: 犧 and 象 are the Zhou 尊, 山罍 is the Xia 尊, 黄目 the Zhou libation vessel, 玉琖 the Xia cup, 梡 and 嶡 the stands of Yu and Xia. So the ceremony does not use the Yin set or the Zhou set. It uses several rows at once, and the page reports it without comment. The rows are for naming; the ceremony is for using; the two do not line up one to one.

Five: what the pages give, and do not

• No shapes. Height, material, profile, decoration, number of legs: not one line on either page. The words are names in a list, and nothing follows them.
• The Liji chapter is retrospective. It describes what the dukes of Lu were entitled to use, in a ritual book generally dated to the Han; 殷以斝 does not mean anyone in the Shang called a cup that. This article keeps the page at that distance.
• No naming of excavated bronzes. The 斝 here is not identified with any type of vessel dug from a Shang tomb; inscriptions are not used, since they are not among these sources; and no comparison with finds is drawn.
• The two pages do not explain each other. Whether the Liji's 斝 and the Zhouli's 斝彝 are one thing is left open, and this article does not close it.
• The numbers are kept as written: six and six, two-four-six-eight, fifty-a hundred-two hundred-three hundred, twenty labourers — no adding, averaging or converting.
• Lines kept apart: the article on bronze and jade counts one ding's weight and the vessel sets of a tomb; this one counts names. Nothing here about 禮器制度 or the evolution of rites across the three dynasties.

What is left is a vocabulary and a set of rows: some twenty words, sorted by dynasty, four to a row in places, three in others, and one ceremony that mixes the rows. The pages say which word belongs to which house, and how many pieces made a set. They do not say what any of it looked like. In a ritual book a name is enough for the rite, and not enough for a picture.

Related reading：Portents in Dress: The White Qia, the Embroidered Cap, and Two Ways of Writing One Thing · Ice: Cut in Winter, Given Out in Summer, and Used to Bathe the Dead · Caps of the Yin: Xu, Zhangfu, and the Names of Three Dynasties