The Shang Dynasty was an era when oracle bone inscriptions were popular. And how did this oracle bone inscriptions form and evolve? ! Therefore, before talking about Shang Dynasty calligraphy, let us first talk about the origin of Chinese characters.
Regarding the origin of Chinese characters, there are generally three types in history, namely the theory of Cangjie creating characters, the theory of knotting ropes to record events and the theory of starting a written document.
Cangjie created characters, he was born with the ability to write, and he received a picture of the river to record characters. Therefore, he did not know the changes in the world, looked up at the curve of Kuixing, looked down at the tortoises and bird feathers, and palmed the mountains and rivers to create characters. , the sky is like raindrops, ghosts are crying at night, and dragons are hiding ("Spring and Autumn Wei·Yuan Mingbao"). It sounds quite scary, so Cangjie's creation of characters is just a legend, but it is credible that there are people like Cangjie or Cangjie himself who standardized the writing to a certain extent.
The idea of ??tying knots to record events does not seem very credible, because knotting and writing are two different things. How can it be developed into writing? So, no!
It's not like I'm trying to steal the camera.
So, how did writing come about? One of the more popular theories now is the carved symbols and original pictures on pottery. Because these symbols and pictures can be found in similar characters in later oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, many scholars now believe that this is a source of Chinese characters.
In this long history, as time goes by, the ancestors’ ability to grasp these symbols and pictures becomes stronger and richer, until the oracle bone inscriptions were formed in the Shang Dynasty. We have no way of knowing who standardized and organized the text. Well, after rambling for a long time without explaining why, let’s get back to the topic - calligraphy of the Shang Dynasty.
Shang Dynasty calligraphy includes oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions and scattered ink, stone and jade calligraphy. Let’s take a look at the spectacular oracle bone inscriptions first.
Oracle bone inscriptions, also known as oracle bones, are texts carved on tortoise shells and animal bones to record divination contents. The oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty are the most representative (the later Western Zhou Dynasty also had oracle bones, but very few). In addition to the Yinxu Xiaotun, the oracle bone inscriptions were unearthed in Daxinzhuang, Jinan, which was unearthed in 2003. Of course, there are other places where the oracle bone inscriptions were unearthed. As a Jinan person, I remember the most famous Yinxu and our Daxinzhuang. Jinan is fine.
Let’s first introduce the carrier of oracle bone inscriptions: Armor refers to the tortoise shell, which is divided into plastron and carapace. The plastron is mostly used for divination; bones include cattle, sheep, pigs, and tigers. Deer and other animal bones are mainly used for divination, and the shoulder blades of cattle are mainly used for divination. I won’t describe the divination process because I have never seen it with my own eyes, but only read it in books. I am not clear about this divination process. In addition, such legends can easily mislead everyone, so if you have any knowledge about this, You can do your own research if you are interested.
The number of words in a complete oracle varies from nearly a hundred to three or four, usually around two or three. Its content usually consists of narrative, fortune-telling, fortune-telling, and experience. It is composed of words, but there are only a few that have all four items, and generally there is no test word. In addition to the oracle inscriptions, there are also some inscriptions to record events (such as Jiazi table, sacrificial table, four wind names, and records of tribute from tortoise shells and collection of animal bones, etc.) and Xi Ke (the inscriptions usually practiced on tortoise shells).
Bronze inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty can be roughly divided into two categories: one is a small number of works based on words, usually called clan emblem inscriptions. The other type is the inscriptions on writing instruments and achievements with coherent diction and increasing length. There are not many longer inscriptions from the Shang Dynasty, and they are all from a later date. So we all talk about the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty and the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Ink, including Zhu Shu and Mo Shu. Two of the ink marks from the Shang Dynasty were left on oracle bones, but they were written but not engraved. From this we can know that some oracle bone inscriptions were written first and then engraved. In addition, there are also ink or vermilion handwriting left on jade and pottery fragments. Although not many of these have been unearthed, they are the earliest relics of brushes and ink. It can be guessed that brushes existed as early as the Shang Dynasty.
Due to the small number of works carved on stone and jade, we will not describe them again.