The difference between Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the earliest mature Chinese character we can see, which mainly refers to the characters carved on tortoise shells or animal bones by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty in China. Here I bring you the difference between Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen. I hope you like it!

Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen

The earliest writing appeared in Shang Dynasty.

At that time, people respected ghosts and gods and divined when things happened. They carved Oracle Bone Inscriptions on the plane of tortoise shells and animal bones, and painted it red for good luck and black for danger. These words are all carved with a knife. The big characters are about an inch square, and the small characters are like grains, either complicated or simple, which is very delicate.

It slept for thousands of years and was not discovered until the 25th year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (1899). It was discovered in a village in Wuli, northwest of Anyang City, Henan Province, which is the old capital of Shang Dynasty (20th monarch Pan Geng). Because the reservoir burst, many Oracle bones were washed away. People thought it was a keel and used it as a medicine to treat diseases. The following year, a businessman named Wang became interested in these Oracle bones. He rushed to Henan to collect a lot and took it back to study. Later, Liu E continued to collect more than 5000 pieces. Therefore, some scholars named it "Oracle Bone Inscriptions".

Ancient philologists have studied more than ten thousand characters of 10, and found that the structure of Oracle Bone Inscriptions has changed from single to combined, and with pictophonetic characters, it is quite mature. Among more than 4,600 Oracle inscriptions, 1700 has been recognized.

Later than Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Jin Wen, also known as Zhong Dingwen, appeared. Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the bronze age, with the tripod as the representative ritual vessel and the bell as the representative musical instrument. "Zhong Ding" was synonymous with bronze ware. Therefore, Zhong Dingwen or inscriptions on bronze refers to inscriptions cast or carved on bronzes.

The content of inscriptions on bronze is a record of activities or events such as offering sacrifices, giving orders, imperial edicts, campaigns, hunting and covenants. All these reflect the social life at that time. The inscriptions on bronze inscriptions are neat and elegant, simple and heavy. Compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, they are more colorful. Bronze inscriptions are basically printed. These characters were discovered in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, when someone sent a tripod excavated in Fenyang to the palace, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty named it Ding Yuan (formerly 1 16). Later, Jin Wen made one discovery after another. Ouyang Xiu and Zhao Mingcheng were scholars in Song Dynasty. They were both good at writing, studying and recording inscriptions on bronze.

The Mao inscription in the casting is very representative, with 32 lines and 497 words, which is the earliest bronze inscription unearthed. Mao's inscription is rigorous in structure, thin, smooth, even and neat, and it is a fine work in the bronze inscription. In addition, the inscription of Dahepan is also a masterpiece of bronze inscriptions.

What's the difference between Jin Wen and Oracle Bone Inscriptions?

Bronze inscriptions appeared in Shang Dynasty. Jin Wen and Oracle Bone Inscriptions belong to the same writing system. Jinwen is the successor of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and quite a few of them even kept earlier words than Oracle Bone Inscriptions. There are more characters used in bronze inscriptions than in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, especially pictophonetic characters, which fully embodies the principle of word formation of pictophonetic characters. At the same time, the strokes of bronze inscriptions are obviously reduced, and the writing is more concise and standardized than that of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which also embodies the development principle of Chinese characters from complexity to simplicity.

The difference between Jinwen and Oracle Bone Inscriptions can be seen from the following points:

Judging from the evolution of characters, Oracle Bone Inscriptions's hieroglyphics are complicated, while the inscriptions on bronze are relatively simple. The pictographic strokes in Oracle Bone Inscriptions are randomly increased, and there are more variant characters, while the inscriptions on bronze are more consistent. Judging from the use of tools, Oracle Bone Inscriptions carved tortoise shells and animal bones with a knife, and his strokes were very thin, so it was impossible to have a fat pen with ink balls, and it was difficult to turn around when changing directions. Usually he has to start writing again, and it's square. The inscriptions on bronzes are mainly cast by a model, so even if the strokes are thin, they will become thick and fat, and the turning point will be round and muddy without edges and corners. The different materials, tools and carving methods determine the different styles of bronze inscriptions and oracle calligraphy.

The warring States period was a divided situation. The inscriptions on bronze inscriptions in this period have a strong local color, and their strokes and structures are very different from those in the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period. The inscriptions on the Yi wares in Zhongding are difficult to identify.