Many divination results on Oracle bones are wrong. What did businessmen think of this result at that time?

The simple procedure of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's divination in Shang Dynasty was: the soothsayer confided to God what he wanted to do, and then burned Oracle Bone Inscriptions to get a "omen". Then Zhen people make judgments according to the "signs". If Shang Zhouwang participated in this divination, Shang Zhouwang would draw the final conclusion according to the "omen" and the judgment of Zhen people; If the Shang king did not participate in this divination, the Zhen people's judgment will be the final opinion, and the Zhen people will report the results to the Shang king. Moreover, in the divination activities of the Shang Dynasty, especially in most cases in the early Yin Dynasty, the Shang king did not participate in the specific divination affairs, and the Zhen people were always in charge.

According to the process of divination, we find that Zhen people have a great right to speak in divination. What is the source of this right to speak? In the late Shang dynasty, it was probably entrusted by the king of Shang dynasty; However, the early stage was probably caused by the tradition of aristocratic participation in politics, which inevitably led to the power struggle between Shang Wang and Zhen people. Judging from the existing Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the situation that the Shang King failed the divination test mostly appeared in the early Shang Dynasty, which shows that this phenomenon is a manifestation of political struggle.

In the late Shang Dynasty, Oracle Bone Inscriptions occupied the word (the judgment of "omen") and the word of verification was missing. One kind of understanding is that Wang Shang and Ren Zhen won the political struggle, and basically controlled the Ren Zhen Group, thus monopolizing the final interpretation right. If you don't check it, you can't record it in Oracle bones, which is "the taboo of the honorable person"; Another explanation is that Zhen people lost the right to engrave their opinions on Oracle bones, but only recorded them on other carriers; In addition, some scholars put forward the idea of conspicuous Oracle, that is, omitting the word occupation and only engraving the final testimony of the Shang king, so as to strengthen the authority of the Shang king with mysticism.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions divination is a form of theocratic rule in Shang Dynasty, but it is not the only theocratic decision-making method, and it is often called divination. However, the relationship between divination and divination is complicated. On the one hand, we found the physical evidence of the combination of divination and divination, on the other hand, the literature records hold that "divination does not attack each other" In the Tang Dynasty, Kong Ying Da put forward: "Major events and minor events have their own merits, which can not be attributed to minor events, but also to major events; Second, bad luck, can't repeat the same mistakes. If you are unlucky, you can't repeat the same mistakes. "