What are there in Oracle Bone Inscriptions?

What are there in Oracle Bone Inscriptions?

There are about 4,500 characters found in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and about 2,000 characters have been interpreted so far.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is an ancient Chinese character in China, also known as "Wen Qi", "Oracle Bone Inscriptions", "Yin Ruins" or "tortoise shell and animal bones". It is the earliest mature Chinese character we can see at present, which mainly refers to the characters carved on tortoise shells or animal bones by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty in China. It is the earliest known written carrier of Shang Dynasty in China and East Asia. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is one of the characteristics of Taoism in China.

It was first discovered by villagers in Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province. They didn't know it was an ancient relic at that time. It is only used as a "keel" for treating all diseases. Many tortoise shells and animal bones engraved with Oracle Bone Inscriptions were ground into powder, wasting many extremely precious cultural relics. Later, in the 25th year of Guangxu reign (1899), Wang Yu, an official and epigraphist in the late Qing Dynasty, discovered Oracle Bone Inscriptions from the Oracle bones unearthed in Anyang, Henan. Xiaotun Village, northwest of Anyang City, is the ruins of Yin Ruins and the ruins of Guodu in the late Shang Dynasty. Over the past century, more than 54,600 pieces of Oracle bones/KLOC-0 have been unearthed in the local area through archaeological excavations. In addition, Oracle Bone Inscriptions also appeared in other parts of Henan and Shaanxi, from the late Shang Dynasty (about 1300 BC) to the Spring and Autumn Period.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions has a symmetrical and stable pattern. Prepare three elements of calligraphy, namely, using a pen, finishing words and composing music. Judging from the number and structure of fonts, Oracle Bone Inscriptions has developed into a more rigorous and systematic writing. The "six-character" principle of Chinese characters is reflected in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. However, the traces of the original pictures and words are still obvious, and the meaning of pictographs is also obvious.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions's contents mainly include:

(1) The processed and scraped tortoise shells and animal bones should be kept by special diviners. The fortune teller carved notes on their edges to explain the origin and storage of these Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which is called "note inscription";

(2) During divination, the diviner cauterizes the drill socket with the burning bauhinia wood pillar, so that the front end of the fracture is "divination". This kind of cracking is called "divination", which is the basis for inferring good or bad fortune in divination. In the early days of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, there were numbers engraved with divination order, also called "trillion order";

(3) The main part of Oracle Bone Inscriptions is Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which is the inscription that records the progress and results of divination after the divination. Most of them are engraved on the front of Oracle bones, and some are engraved on the back;

(4) Sixty branches are named after Tiangan (A, B, C, D, E, Ji, G, Xin, Man and Ghost) and Dizhi (Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai).

In addition, some people in Oracle Bone Inscriptions learned to carve Oracle Bone Inscriptions and practiced carving works at that time. They were called "Xi Carving" or "Xi Qi".

Most of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's contents are the records of divination by the royal family in Shang Dynasty. Most people in Shang dynasty were superstitious about ghosts and gods, and they had to ask questions about big and small issues. Some divination is about the weather, some is about the harvest of farming, some is about diseases and premature birth, and there are hunting, fighting, sacrifice and other important things to ask! Therefore, Oracle Bone Inscriptions's content can provide a glimpse of people's life and the historical development of Shang Dynasty.

At the same time, the shape of Oracle Bone Inscriptions is very close to that of ancient buildings. It can be said that architectural records are also a major source of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. From the glyphs of many buildings in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, we can know the structural form and development of ancient buildings in China.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions's word "Gao". It can be inferred from its glyph that there was a building built on the earthen platform in the Shang Dynasty. The lower part of it should be regarded as a cellar dug in the earthen platform, which is a way of building after the rise of private ownership and the emergence of families. Its upper part can be regarded as a building with both roofs and walls. The appearance of the Great Wall is a great creation in ancient China. The indoor space enclosed by the wall is much higher than that enclosed by the roof only, which coincides with the meaning of "the highest person, the honorable person".

The word "Gong" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. It can be considered as a house with two (or more) indoor spaces under the roof of a big house. This is a very exquisite high-rise building for the use of the ruling class.