A Cryptic Message and a New Solution

Abstract

This defiant little inscription of three words has held its secret through twenty centuries. On the Bone relics of the Honan Find it is not uncommon, but in the inscribed Bronzes, even the oldest, it is not met. Brief and perhaps paltry as it may seem, it has not failed to engage the attention of Chinese spécialists without any very convincing conclusion. But on one point Chinese critics do concur. These small three-word entries are no part of the main scription of the oracular sentence. They stand isolated in place, and have no syntactic connection with the latter. Perhaps they were archivests' memoranda, or, as I suggest, the craftsman's directions to his finisher. They have none of the importance of the sentences, and their only interest now is that they have proved inscrutable. I, too, have joined in the quest and have, indeed, excogitated a conclusion acceptable to other students!