File:JinwenShisongding.jpg

Part of a rubbing of bronze script engraved on the Song ding (颂鼎).^[1]

The text records the appointment of a man named Song (颂) as supervisor of the storehouses in Chengzhou, and is repeated on at least 3 tripod pots (鼎 dǐng), 5 tureens (簋 guǐ) and their lids, and 2 vases (壺 hú) and their lids.^[2] The full text is (with added punctuation):

唯三年五月既死霸，甲戌，

王在周康卲宮，旦，王格大
室，即立。宰弘右頌入門，立
中廷。尹氏受王命書。王呼
史虢生冊命頌。王曰：『頌，令
汝官司成周貯廿家，監司
新造貯，用宮御。錫汝玄衣
黻純，赤巿、朱璜、鑾旂、攸勒
用事。』頌拜稽首，受命冊，佩
以出。返入覲璋。頌敢對揚
天子丕顯魯休，用作朕皇
考龔叔、皇母龔姒寶尊鼎，
用追孝祈介康□、純右、通
祿永令，頌其萬年眉壽，

畯臣天子，靈終，子子孫孫寶用。

The original text indicates repetition of the characters 子 and 孫 in the last line using iteration marks. The text is dated the 5th month of the 3rd year of an unnamed king. Shaughnessy identifies the king as Xuan, implying a year of 825 BC.^[3]

The image is copied from an old Chinese book published before the Chinese copyright law was set up.

1. ↑ Song Tripod (Song Ding), August 26, 2009, The Palace Museum, Beijing.
2. ↑ Kern, Martin (2007), "The performance of writing in Western Zhou China", in The poetics of grammar and the metaphysics of sound and sign, S. La Porta and David Dean Shulman (eds.), BRILL, pp. 109–175, ISBN 978-90-04-15810-8. Discussion and images of the various versions on pp. 141–144.
3. ↑ Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1999), "Western Zhou history", in Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L., The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 292–351, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8. Translation on pp. 298–299.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it meets three requirements: it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days), it was first published before 1 March 1989 without copyright notice or before 1964 without copyright renewal or before the source country established copyright relations with the United States, it was in the public domain in its home country on the URAA date (January 1, 1996 for most countries). For background information, see the explanations on Non-U.S. copyrights. Note: This tag should not be used for sound recordings.