Introduction to oracle bone inscriptions
Oracle bone inscriptions mainly refer to the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin Ruins. They were carved (or written) on tortoise shells and animal bones by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty (14th to 11th century BC) for divination and recording. Writings on Bones. It is the oldest and most complete text among the ancient texts discovered in China.
Oracle bone script is an ancient Chinese writing. It is considered to be an early form of modern Chinese characters. It is sometimes considered to be one of the calligraphy styles of Chinese characters. It is also the oldest mature writing in China. Oracle bone inscriptions are also called deed inscriptions, tortoise shell inscriptions or tortoise shell and animal bone inscriptions. People in the Shang Dynasty used tortoise shells and animal bones for divination, and then carved the time of divination, the name of the diviner, and the things divined with a knife next to the divination. Some even carved the good or bad things that would come true in a certain number of days. However, the specific situation varies slightly depending on the stage of the oracle bones. Generally speaking, the inscriptions from the Wuding period are the most complete and are also the period with the largest number of extant ones. Scholars call this kind of record oracles, and this kind of writing is oracle bone inscriptions. The oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin Ruins are records of divination in the Yin Dynasty and are the earliest known mature writings in China. It is known as the earliest "archives library" in ancient China. At present, about 150,000 oracle bones and more than 4,500 single characters have been found. The contents recorded in these oracle bone inscriptions are extremely rich and involve many aspects of social life in the Shang Dynasty, including not only politics, military, culture, social customs, etc., but also science and technology such as astronomy, calendar, medicine, etc. Judging from the approximately 1,500 single characters that have been identified in oracle bone inscriptions, it already possesses the character creation methods of "pictogram, meaning, phonetic sound, reference, transfer, and pretense", demonstrating the unique charm of Chinese characters. Documents based on tortoise shells and animal bones from China's Shang Dynasty and early Western Zhou Dynasty (approximately 16th century BC to 10th century BC). It is the earliest known form of Chinese literature. The characters engraved on armor and bones were previously called deeds, oracle bone inscriptions, oracle inscriptions, tortoise edition inscriptions, Yinxu inscriptions, etc., and are now commonly known as oracle bone inscriptions. Due to superstition, the emperors of the Shang and Zhou dynasties used tortoise shells (the most common ones were tortoise shells) or animal bones (the most common ones were the ox shoulder blades) for divination. The omen results, verification status, etc.) were engraved on the oracle bones and kept as archival materials by the royal historian (see Oracle Bone Archives). In addition to the inscriptions on divination, there are also a few inscriptions on oracle bones to record events. The contents of the oracle bone documents involve astronomy, calendar, meteorology, geography, country, lineage, family, characters, officials, conquests, prisons, agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, transportation, religion, sacrifices, diseases, fertility, disasters, etc. It is extremely precious first-hand information for studying the social history, culture, and language of ancient China, especially the Shang Dynasty.
Characteristics of oracle bone inscriptions
Judging from the number and structure of fonts, oracle bone inscriptions have developed into a more rigorous system of writing. The "six books" principle of Chinese characters is reflected in oracle bone inscriptions. However, the traces of the original picture text are still quite obvious. Its main features:
(1) In terms of character structure, some pictographic characters only focus on highlighting the characteristics of the physical object, but the number of strokes, forward and backward are not uniform.
(2) Some ideographic characters in oracle bone inscriptions only require that the radicals be combined to have a clear meaning, but not fixed.
Therefore, there are many variant characters in oracle bone inscriptions, and some characters can have more than a dozen or even dozens of ways of writing.
(3) The shape of oracle bone inscriptions is often determined by the traditional or simplified version of the object represented. Some characters can occupy the position of several characters, and they can be long or short.
(4) Because the characters are carved on harder animal bones with a knife, the strokes are thinner and mostly square.
Because oracle bone inscriptions are carved with knives, and the knives can be sharp or blunt, and the bones can be thin or thick, hard or soft, so the strokes carved are of different thicknesses, and some are even as thin as hair. , the joints of the strokes are peeling off again, and they are thick and heavy. Structurally, the length and size are not certain, they may be sparse and intricate; or they may be densely layered and very solemn, so they can show a simple and varied infinite interest.
Although the oracle bone inscriptions vary in size and vary intricately, they already have a symmetrical and stable pattern.
Therefore, some people believe that Chinese calligraphy, strictly speaking, began with oracle bone inscriptions, because oracle bone inscriptions have already prepared the three elements of calligraphy, namely the use of pens, word knotting, and composition.