Why study Oracle Bone Inscriptions?

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a relatively mature writing, not the embryonic form of writing. The pictures and symbols used by ancient humans are the embryonic form of words.

The reason why people study Oracle Bone Inscriptions is to understand people's living conditions and the development of civilization at that time.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is one of the Chinese characters, and it is also the oldest mature character in China. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is also called Wen Qi, tortoise shell or tortoise shell animal bone. After divination with tortoise shell and animal bones, Shang people used knives to engrave the divination time, the names of the diviners and the things they divined, and some even engraved the good and bad luck that came true a few days later. However, the specific situation varies with the stage of Oracle bones. Generally speaking, the inscriptions in Wuding period are the most complete and the most abundant in existence. Scholars call this kind of record Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and this kind of writing is Oracle Bone Inscriptions. A large number of Oracle bones with Oracle Bone Inscriptions were unearthed in Yin Ruins, all of which have the basic structure of Chinese characters. A large number of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and inscriptions not only recorded the political, economic, military, meteorological and divination situation at that time, but also marked the maturity of the writing. The picture shows Oracle Bone Inscriptions carved on the tortoise shell.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is mainly found in Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province. Up to now, there are about 654.38+054,000 written Oracle bones unearthed. Among them, there are more than 97,600 pieces in Chinese mainland, more than 30,200 pieces in Taiwan Province Province, 89 pieces in Hong Kong, and more than 26,700 pieces have been scattered overseas to Japan, the United States, Britain, Canada, France, the former Soviet Union, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and other countries 12 due to war and commercial factors. Among them, when the Japanese invaded China, they systematically excavated in Yin Ruins, so they collected the most, with more than 12000 pieces. At present, more than 500 scholars in the world specialize in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and have published more than 2,000 monographs.

Shang and Zhou Dynasties were very superstitious. Kings in Shang and Zhou Dynasties often used Oracle Bone Inscriptions to predict good or bad luck, and engraved the things, time and results of divination on it, so Oracle Bone Inscriptions was also called Oracle bones. It covers politics, economy, military affairs, climate, culture and many other aspects, and is an important material for studying the history at that time.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions has about 4,500 words, about one third of which have been interpreted. According to research, pictographic characters, demonstrative characters, knowing characters and pictophonetic characters are used in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. In the application of word meaning, we can clearly see the method of metonymy. Pictophonetic characters account for about 25%. Today, pictophonetic characters account for about 90%.

Harmony in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a symbol of the maturity of Chinese characters. Like cuneiform and hieroglyphics, it belongs to ideograph, and it is also the predecessor of the only ideograph used in the world at present. Its writing materials are generally tortoise bones, shoulder blades of cattle, and can also be engraved on walls, wood products, stone tools and so on. , with a knife, Zhu Shu, Mo Shu. China existed for a long time in ancient times. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, Chinese characters were separated from Oracle Bone Inscriptions and gradually lost their recognition, but they were generally sold to drug dealers as "keels" for medicinal purposes. It was not until 1899 (twenty-five years of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty) that it was accidentally discovered by epigraphist Wang and verified as a relic of Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

In the early years of the Republic of China, the collected Oracle Bone Inscriptions was divided into five periods: Wuding era in Pan Geng, Zujia era in Zu Geng, Bingxin Kangding era, Wuyi Wen Ding era and the first emperor Di Xin era. After studying Oracle bone inscriptions, Guo Moruo thinks that Oracle bone inscriptions need at least 1500 years from the initial stage to maturity.