‘率’ has only one shape in Yin-Shang scripts. However, from the early to middle Western Zhou Dynasty, there appear several other variants with components of ‘止’, ‘彳’, ‘’, ‘’, ‘行’, ‘’, respectively: ‘’, ‘’, ‘’. In the Chu bamboo slips, ‘’ with the component of ‘’ is common, and there also exists ‘’ with that of ‘行’. Based on these observations, this article demonstrates that, in bronze inscriptions and Chu bamboo slips, ‘’ and its provincial variants all together express the meaning of military leadership, which is supported by consistent data from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the Warring States Period. From the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the four dots in ‘率’ begin to be omitted or interchanged with ‘行’ and ‘止’. However, ‘’, ‘’ and other variants are all active verbs denoting ‘to lead’ and ‘to command’ in a war. Looking at ‘率’ found in Chu bamboo slips makes it clear that its main shape is ‘’ which is also used as an active verb denoting ‘to lead’. From its shape and meaning, it is seen to be equivalent to ‘’ in Jinwen and Shuowen. All the abovementioned character shapes containing ‘止’ are, in fact, variants of ‘’. However, the characters of ‘’ and ‘’, which only contain ‘行’ and lack ‘止’, have a different meaning in Jinwen and Chu bamboo slips from those containing the radical of ‘止’ such as ‘’ and ‘’. The former is passive verbs denoting ‘to be led’ and ‘to follow’. This group of variants is equivalent to ‘率’ in the pre-Qin period, which seems to be a consistent rule in the pre-Qin script.