The first person to study oracle bone inscriptions was Wang Yirong.
Wang Yirong (1845-1900), also known as Zhengru and Liansheng, was originally from Yunnan and a native of Fushan County, Shandong Province (now Fushan District, Yantai City). He is upright by nature and is known as the "Eastern Monster". A modern epigrapher, connoisseur and calligrapher in China, he was the first person to discover and collect oracle bone inscriptions. In the sixth year of Guangxu's reign, he became a Jinshi and was awarded Hanlin editorship. The third is to offer wine to the Imperial College. In the Gengzi year, the Boxers attacked Beijing and Tianjin and were appointed minister of regiment training in the capital.
Wang Yirong is extensively involved in book history and is fond of epigraphy. He has written "The Preserved Stones of Han Dynasty", "Selected Ancient Springs", "The Preserved Stones of the Southern and Northern Dynasties", "Fushan Epigraphy and Stone Chronicles", etc. He has close exchanges with connoisseurs and scholars such as Weng Tonghe, Xu He, Pan Zuyin, Wu Dacheng, Luo Zhenyu, and Liu E. He was good at calligraphy and was deeply appreciated by Cixi. Cixi used the brush to paint and ordered Wang Yirong to write a memorial.
Wang Yirong’s writing achievements
Wang Yirong’s initial judgment on oracle bone inscriptions was confirmed by subsequent research. Wang Yirong has an in-depth study of ancient Chinese cultural relics. Through his hands, the Yin Ruins oracle bone inscriptions have been transformed from "dragon bones" into precious ancient cultural research materials, avoiding the bad luck of being continued to be used as "medicinal materials" and being destroyed. Wang Yirong made an indelible contribution to the protection and promotion of my country's ancient cultural heritage and the establishment of oracle bone science.
The discovery of oracle bone inscriptions not only marks that China has nearly four thousand years of written history, but also provides extremely valuable information for studying the history of the Shang Dynasty. The discovery of oracle bone inscriptions directly led to the excavation of the Yin Ruins in Anyang. Its importance is comparable to the discovery of the Troy ruins in ancient Greece, and formed two completely new disciplines: oracle bone inscriptions and Yin and Shang archaeology.