What do bronzes and Oracle Bone Inscriptions symbolize?

The Shang Dynasty left many legacies to future generations, such as calendars, pottery, agricultural technology and Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The most important thing is bronzes.

Bronzes in Shang dynasty were widely used, with a wide variety, mature production technology and exquisite utensils. These are the main features of Shang bronzes.

The bronze smelting technology of Shang dynasty has reached a quite skilled level. At that time, the characteristics and properties of bronze alloys had been mastered, and objects with different uses had different alloy proportions.

According to chemical analysis, the alloy proportion of Simuwu Dafang Ding unearthed in Yin Ruins is: copper 84.77%, tin 1 1.64%, and lead 2.79%. This is the accumulation of long-term experience and an extraordinary creation.

Casting bronzes requires a series of technological procedures. In addition to mining and smelting, there are processes such as molding, molding, casting and trimming, and the division of labor is very fine. Thousands of large and small pottery patterns have been found in the ruins of Yin Ruins and Zhengzhou Mall, and the casting process is quite complicated.

There are many kinds of bronzes in Shang Dynasty. Common ritual vessels, wine vessels and utensils such as Ding, Wei, Gui, Yi, Yi, Zun, Bu, Yi, Jue, Jiao, Pan, Yu, etc. There are also musical instruments such as bronze bells and cymbals.

The decorations on the utensils are gorgeous and powerful, including gluttonous patterns, Kui Wen patterns, cicada patterns, Yun Leiwen patterns and Panlong patterns. , as well as a variety of special ornamentation indicating the purpose of the vessel. The shapes of some objects are completely similar to those of animals, such as elephant statues, rhinoceros statues, dragon and tiger statues, and four sheep statues, which are vivid and lifelike. Among them, large vessels, such as yangsi, are lifelike.

Bronze tools include axes, spears, knives, saws, chisels, drills and shovels. Compared with other utensils, the quantity is small. A large number of weapons such as Ge, spear, weapon, cymbal, knife and arrow were unearthed.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the earliest and most complete ancient script discovered by China. Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly refers to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, also known as "Yin Ruins Characters" and "Yin Qi", which are carved on the bones of tortoise shells and beasts in Shang Dynasty. /kloc-at the end of 0/9, it was discovered in the ruins of the capital of the Yin Dynasty (now Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan). Oracle Bone Inscriptions inherited Wen Tao's word-making method, which was in the late Shang Dynasty (before) in China.

During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a man named Wang, who was the highest institution of learning in imperial academy at that time (equivalent to the president). Once he saw a Chinese medicine called keel, and he felt very strange when he saw the words engraved on it. He looked through the dregs, but he didn't expect there to be a seemingly literal pattern on it. So he bought all the keels and found that there were similar patterns on each keel. He drew these strange patterns. After a long period of research, he was convinced that it was a kind of writing, and it was relatively perfect, and it should have come from the Shang Dynasty. Later, people discovered the place where the keel was unearthed-Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province, where a large number of keels were unearthed. Because these keels are mainly Oracle Bone Inscriptions of turtles and beasts, they are named "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". These Oracle Bone Inscriptions are basically the divination records of Shang rulers. The subject of studying it is called "Oracle bones".

Oracle Bone Inscriptions's contributions covered astronomy, calendar, meteorology, geography, country, lineage, family, figures, officials, conquest, prisons, agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, transportation, religion, sacrifice, diseases, fertility, humanities and disasters. They are extremely precious first-hand materials for studying the social history, culture and language of ancient China, especially the Shang Dynasty.