Oracle Bone Inscriptions
(1) The processed and scraped tortoise shells and animal bones are kept by the specially responsible fortune tellers. The fortune telling officials would inscribe on their edges a narrative text describing the origin and storage conditions of these oracle bones, which is called "note writings";
(2) When fortune telling, fortune telling officials used burning redbud trees The column cauterizes and drills the nest grooves, causing cracks in the shape of "divination" to appear on the front of the bone. These cracks are called "divination omens" and are the basis for inferring good or bad things in divination. Under the earlier oracle bone inscriptions, the numbers in the order in which the divination will proceed are engraved. This number is also called "Omen Sequence";
(3) The main part of the oracle bone inscriptions is the inscription, which means the end of the divination activity. Then record the progress and results of the divination activities. Most of them are engraved on the front of the oracle bones, and some are engraved on the back;
(4) Based on the heavenly stems (A, B, B, D, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui) and the earthly branches ( The stem and branch table composed of sixty stems and branches with matching names (Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai) can be said to be the earliest calendar in China.
In addition, there are some oracle bone inscriptions that were practiced by people who were learning to carve oracles at that time, which are called "Xi Ke" or "Xi Qi".
Most of the contents of the oracle bone inscriptions are records of divination by the Yin and Shang royal families. Most people in the Shang Dynasty were superstitious about ghosts and gods, and they had to ask for fortune-telling on big and small things. Some of the divination contents were about the weather, some were about farm harvests, and some were about illness and early birth of a child. Major events such as hunting, war, and sacrifices also required divination. . Therefore, the contents of oracle bone inscriptions can provide a vague understanding of the living conditions of the people of the Shang Dynasty, and can also learn about the historical development of the Shang Dynasty.
At the same time, the shapes of oracle bone inscriptions are very close to those of ancient buildings. It can be said that architectural records are also a major origin of oracle bone inscriptions. From the many glyphs related to architecture in oracle bone inscriptions, we can understand the structural form and development of ancient Chinese architecture.
The character "高" in oracle bone inscriptions. From its glyph shape, it can be inferred that there was already a building built on an earthen platform in the Shang Dynasty. The lower part should be regarded as a cellar dug into the earth platform. This is a construction method after the rise of private ownership and the emergence of families. The upper part can be seen as a building with both roof and walls. The emergence of the wall was a remarkable creation in ancient China. The indoor space enclosed by walls is much taller than that of the roof alone, which is in line with the meaning of "the tallest, the most respected".
The word "palace" in oracle bone inscriptions. It can be seen as a house with two (or more) indoor spaces under one large roof. This is a very elegant and tall building used exclusively by the ruling class.