近年来随着田野考古资料的日益丰富,学术界关于我国古代车制与车马器的专题研究方兴未艾,成果琳琅满目。目前学者们对常见车马器(诸如軎、辖、毂、銮、轭、衡、踵、镳、衔、当卢、马冠、节约等)的定名与用途基本达成共识,但对有些发现数量较少的车马器仍然存在歧见或并未识别出来。有鉴于此,笔者不揣谫陋,浅谈商周时期三类形制比较特殊的御马器,并与欧亚草原和近东地区发现的同类器作简要比较,或将有助于加深对它们的认识。
This paper observed three kinds of horse-controlling devices in special shapes emerged in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and made comparative study on them with their counterparts found in the Eurasia Steppes and Near East. The study shows that the zhuice ,錣策 (spiked whip) was used to stimulate the horse to advance quickly, the dingchibiao 钉齿镳 (nailed cheekpiece) was used to guide the horse to the expected direction and the dixian 镝衔 (prick- led mouthpiece) was used to control the speed of the horse and to stop it at will. The zhuice in the late Shang Dynasty of China and the New Kingdom of Egypt were similar in shape, function and other aspects, but the former had a barb protruding diagonally which could be used to stab forward and to beat sideway, and could be used by both the chariot drivers and the cavalrymen, implying that horseback riding has appeared in the Central Plains in the late Shang Dynasty. The mouthpiece with nails on the two sides was actually the combination of the cheekpiece and the mouthpiece; it could effectively control the speed of the horse, but the nails could not freely move, and therefore could not play its intended role on controlling the direction of the advancing of the horse. To overcome this, at about the same time, the nails on the mouthpiece was separated, and the U-shaped cheekpiece with nai|s was de- signed; or the nails were moved to the inner sides of the common cheekpiece to strengthen the direction control of the horse. The nailed cheekpiece emerged in China hundreds of years later than in the Eurasia Steppes and the Near East, and the nailed cheekpieces made of bone and horn have not been seen in China, while the nailed mouthpiece in the late Shang Dynasty of China was also not seen in the Eurasia Steppes and the Near East. In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, nails were added to the common jointed mouthpieces and the dizian was made; in later times, the joints became more and more and each joint became smaller and smaller, and the large and sparse