The Chinese Character 'zhao' Inscribed on the Western Zhou Bronze Wares

The Chinese character 'zhao' inscribed on the bronze wares during the Western Zhou period, was interpreted by the Han scholars as a notional word, meaning beginning. They were not clear,however,that how it came about. A modern Chinese scholar,Yang Shuda,regarded it as a form word for pronunciation when it was placed at the head of a sentence. The present essay intends to show that the meaning of both parts forming the character, and ,is close to that of beginning as the Han scholars believed. So it functions as a notional word rather than a form one only for pronunciation. It did not appear until the early stage of the Western Zhou,for it is found among the inscriptions on the early Western Zhou's bronze wares,but not found among those on the oracle bones and tortoise shells belonging to the Shang period.