What are the early classics like?

The basic condition for the generation of ancient books is to have mature characters. Among all kinds of sayings about the generation of Chinese characters, the ancient saying "Cangjie made characters" was popular. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" said: "Xi Zhong is a car, a book, Hou Ji is a crop, a prisoner, and Kunwu is a pottery and a city. These six people did a good job. " The "book" here refers to words. Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty further said: "Cang Xie, the history of the Yellow Emperor, has a foresight of the hoof tracks of birds and animals, and knows the differences, so he makes a book first." "At the beginning of Cang Xie's writing, Gai Yi was like a hieroglyph, so it was called writing. Later, the form and sound complemented each other and were called words. " ("Introduction to Shuowen Jiezi") is just a legend, not necessarily credible. Words have never been created by individuals, and there is also a process in which words are produced. Of course, it is undeniable that an individual will play a more important role in the production of words. "The Secret of Xunzi" said: "There were many good books in ancient times, which were handed down by Cang Xie alone. "Xunzi thinks that there are many people who like to write in ancient times, but they have not been handed down. Cang Xie's words have been handed down because he unified them. This is probably more in line with historical facts. Some hieroglyphs appeared in the late Dawenkou culture in China (about 2800~ 2500 BC), which may be the pioneers of the original characters. It is speculated that China's Chinese characters entered the formation stage in 2500 BC, but they are still immature primitive Chinese characters. At present, the earliest known Chinese characters are a large number of Oracle Bone Inscriptions found in Anyang, Henan.

Anyang, Henan Province is the ruins of the capital city in the late Shang Dynasty. The Oracle Bone Inscriptions unearthed here is engraved with words and is called Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Oracle bones refer to the tortoise's abdominal shell, carapace and shoulder blades of cattle, and sometimes the shoulder blades of sheep, pigs or deer are used. Most of these Oracle Bone Inscriptions are relics of divination of the Yin people. In the Yin and Shang Dynasties, primitive religions that worshipped ancestors and natural gods occupied a dominant position in ideology. Therefore, when the Yin people have difficulties or carry out major activities, they should ask people to divine and burn tortoise shells and animal bones to predict the good or bad events. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a record of divination, which provides rich materials for future generations to study ancient culture.

The words on a piece of Oracle bones range from a few to dozens to more than a hundred words. The contents of these oracles are very extensive, involving conquest, hunting, animal husbandry, farming, sacrifices and disasters, diseases, meteorology, geography and so on. It fully reflects the socio-economic history, political history, ideological history and scientific history of the Shang Dynasty. From the site excavation, the Yin people stored some Oracle bones in an orderly way, some in a cellar, and there was a dynasty Oracle Bone Inscriptions, indicating that Cheng and Shi, who were engaged in note-taking at that time, kept Oracle Bone Inscriptions as a file for future reference after recording divination. These accumulated Oracle Bone Inscriptions can provide a series of archival materials.

In archaeological excavations, it was also found that Oracle Bone Inscriptions recorded in Oracle bones was compiled. For example, the words "three volumes, three volumes" are recorded on the divination abdominal armor unearthed in pit YHl27, Xiaotun Village, Anyang, indicating that this batch of tortoise shells was originally assembled in nine editions. Mr. Dong Zuobin said in the article "Speculation on Tortoise Shell in Shang Dynasty" that once when he was sorting out the unearthed Oracle bones, he found two tortoises stuck together. When he opened them, he saw the words "Book Six" in the upper right corner of the tortoise shell, and there was a hole in the tip of the tortoise shell, and the hole was broken. Based on this discovery, Dong Shi concluded that this armor is a version of the book, and its holes are used for knitting.

The records and traces of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's books show that these archival materials have basically possessed the three elements that constitute ancient books. This shows that in the middle and late Shang Dynasty, China's early classics had been produced.

In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the royal family of Zhou forcibly moved the Yin adherents to Chengzhou near Luoyang for supervision, and the Tu family of Shangshu recorded Zhou Gong's lectures to Yin people. In this imperial edict, the Duke of Zhou explained that the destruction of Yin in the Western Zhou Dynasty was a fate, just like the destruction of Xia in the Shang Dynasty, so there was no need to complain and resist. One of them said, "Only you know, but the ancestors of the Yin people have records, and the Yin people changed their lives in summer." Duke of Zhou particularly emphasized that Yin's ancestors recorded the deeds of Yin Shang destroying Xia. According to this material, it is speculated that there were ancient books in the early Shang Dynasty, and the words "Dian" and "Shu" also appeared in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, but they were not confirmed by archaeological materials. The Shang dynasty began in the late 7th century BC/kloc-0, and the Wuding period of Shang dynasty was about 1250 BC. Because there were "book records" in the early Shang Dynasty, and there were traces of book records in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Wuding, the early book records can be set between BC 1600 and BC 1250.