Wu Yue Scripts

范蠡曰：「王孫子，昔吾先君固周室之不成子也，故濱於東海之陂，黿鼉魚鱉之與處，而鼃黽之與同渚。余雖靦然而人面哉，吾猶禽獸也，又安知是諓諓者乎？」

Fig.1 - Statue of a Tattood, Short-Haired Man from the Yue Region, Zhejiang Museum, Hangzhou.

Wuyuescripts.com is a searchable database of inscriptions on artifacts associated with the late Spring and Autumn and early Warring States kingdoms of Wu 吳 (early 6th century BCE – early 5th century) and Yue 越 (Late 6th century – late 4th century). These inscriptions often written in the so-called “bird and insect script” 鳥蟲書 (certainly an anochronistic misnomer) are mostly found on bronze percussion instruments and weapons. In addition, other "bird script" inscriptions from the neighboring states of Chu, Song, Cai, Zeng, and Xu have also been included.

Most of the information on this site comes from existing print collections by Dong Chuping 董楚平, Cao Jinyan 曹錦炎, Shi Xiejie 施謝捷, and Dong Shan 董珊. All these sources have been cited for reference and can be found in the bibliography. The advantage of this digital format is that this database can be continually amended and expanded to include recently excavated inscriptions.

Moreover, this digital forum has the space to allow for dozens of photos of an object from many different angles and close up images of individual characters. High-resolution images and line drawings can supplement traditional rubbings for the study of epigraphy and orthography. In the future these epigraphic line drawings can be layered onto photos or rubbings, and damage and other information can be added or removed at will.

The goal of this site is to become a public collaborative forum where users may edit and modify entries by correcting mistakes or adding new information and images in order to keep up with recent archaeological discoveries. Until that time, please email any corrections or suggestions to wuyuescripts@gmail.com.

This database has been made possible in part by generous grants from the David N. Keightley Fellowship and Elvera Kwang Siam Lim Fellowship in Chinese Studies. Many of the photos on this site were taken on a trip through Jiangnan funded by the CIAC Research Travel Grant provided by the Association for Asian Studies.

This site is maintained by Benjamin Daniels, a PhD candidate in the History Department at UC Berkeley.