Oracle bone

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Oracle bone
Orakelknochen.JPG
A Shang dynasty oracle bone from the Shanghai Museum
Chinese
Literal meaning Shells and bones
[show]Transcriptions
Oracle bones (Chinese: ; pinyin: jig) are pieces of ox scapula or turtle plastron, which were used
for pyromancy a form of divination in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty.
Scapulimancy is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for the divination; plastromancy if turtle
plastrons were used.

Diviners would submit questions to deities regarding future weather, crop planting, the fortunes of
members of the royal family, military endeavors, and other similar topics.[1] These questions were
carved onto the bone or shell in oracle bone script using a sharp tool. Intense heat was then applied
with a metal rod until the bone or shell cracked due to thermal expansion. The diviner would then
interpret the pattern of cracks and write the prognostication upon the piece as well.[1] By the Zhou
dynasty, cinnabar ink and brush had become the preferred writing method, resulting in fewer carved
inscriptions and often blank oracle bones being unearthed.

The oracle bones bear the earliest known significant corpus of ancient Chinese writing[a] and contain
important historical information such as the complete royal genealogy of the Shang dynasty.[b] When
they were discovered and deciphered in the early twentieth century, these records confirmed the
existence of the Shang, which some scholars had until then doubted.

Contents [hide]
1

Discovery

Official excavations

Dating

Shang divination

4.1

Materials

4.2

Preparation

4.3

Cracking and interpretation

Oracle bones at other sites

Archaeological evidence of pre-Anyang pyromancy

Post-Shang oracle bones

Notes

References

9.1

Works cited

10

External links

Discovery[edit]

Wang Yirong, Chinese politician and scholar, was the first to recognize the oracle bones as ancient
writing.
The Shang-dynasty oracle bones are thought to have been unearthed periodically by local farmers[2]
since as early as the Sui and Tang dynasties and perhaps starting as early as the Han dynasty,[3] but local
inhabitants did not realize what the bones were and generally reburied them.[4] During the 19th
century, villagers in the area digging in the fields discovered a number of bones and used them as
"dragon bones" (Chinese: ; pinyin: lng g), a reference to the traditional Chinese medicine practice
of grinding up Pleistocene fossils into tonics or poultices.[4][5] The turtle shell fragments were
prescribed for malaria,[c] while the other animal bones were used in powdered form to treat knife
wounds.[6]

In 1899, an antiques dealer from Shandong Province searching for Chinese bronzes in the area acquired
a number of oracle bones from locals, several of which he sold to Wang Yirong, the chancellor of the
Imperial Academy in Beijing.[7] Wang was a knowledgeable collector of Chinese bronzes and is believed
to be the first person in modern times to recognize the oracle bones' markings as ancient Chinese
writing similar to that on Zhou dynasty bronzes.[7] A legendary tale relates that Wang was sick with
malaria, and his scholar friend Liu E was visiting him and helped examine his medicine. They discovered,
before it was ground into powder, that it bore strange glyphs, which they, having studied the ancient
bronze inscriptions, recognized as ancient writing.[6] As X Yhu states:

"No one can know how many oracle bones, prior to 1899, were ground up by traditional Chinese
pharmacies and disappeared into peoples' stomachs."[6]

Oracle bone pit at Yinxu, Anyang

It is not known how Wang and Liu actually came across these "dragon bones", but Wang is credited with
being the first to recognize their significance.[6] Wang committed suicide in 1900 in connection with his
involvement in the Boxer Rebellion, and his son later sold the bones to friend Liu E, who published the
first book of rubbings of the oracle bone inscriptions in 1903.[7][8] News of the discovery of the oracle
bones spread quickly throughout China and among foreign collectors and scholars, and the market for
oracle bones exploded, though many collectors sought to keep the location of the bones' source a
secret.[7] Although scholars tried to find their source, antique dealers falsely claimed that the bones
came from Tangyin in Henan.[6] In 1908, scholar Luo Zhenyu discovered the source of the bones near
Anyang and realized that the area was the site of the last Shang dynasty capital.[7] Decades of
uncontrolled digs followed to fuel the antiques trade,[d] and many of these pieces eventually entered
collections in Europe, the US, Canada and Japan.[9] The first Western collector was the American Rev.
Frank H. Chalfant,[e] while Presbyterian minister James Mellon Menzies () (18851957) of
Canada bought the largest amount.[10] The Chinese still acknowledge the pioneering contribution of
Menzies as "the foremost western scholar of Yin-Shang culture and oracle bone inscriptions." His former
residence in Anyang was declared a "Protected Treasure" in 2004, and the James Mellon Menzies
Memorial Museum for Oracle Bone Studies was established.[11][12][13]

Official excavations[edit]
By the time of the establishment of the Institute of History and Philology headed by Fu Sinian at the
Academia Sinica in 1928, the source of the oracle bones had been traced back to modern Xiotn ()
village at Anyang in Henan Province. Official archaeological excavations in 19281937 led by Li Ji, the
father of Chinese archaeology,[14] discovered 20,000 oracle bone pieces, which now form the bulk of
the Academia Sinica's collection in Taiwan and constitute about 1/5 of the total discovered.[f] The
inscriptions on the oracle bones, once deciphered, turned out to be the records of the divinations
performed for or by the royal household. These, together with royal-sized tombs,[g] proved beyond a
doubt for the first time the existence of the Shang dynasty, which had recently been doubted, and the
location of its last capital, Yin. Today, Xiotn at Anyang is thus also known as the Ruins of Yin, or Yinxu.

The Jigwn hj () edited by Hu Houxuan, with its supplement edited by Peng Bangjiong, is
the most comprehensive catalogue of oracle bone framents. The 20 volumes contain reproductions of
over 55,000 fragments. A separate work contains transcriptions of the inscriptions into standard
characters.[15]

Dating[edit]
The vast majority of the inscribed oracle bones were found at Yin (modern Anyang), and date to the
reigns of the last nine kings of the Shang dynasty (c. 12001045 BCE).[16] The diviners named on the
bones have been assigned to five periods by Dong Zuobin:[17]

Period Kings

Common diviners

Qu , Bn , Zhng , Xun

Wu Ding[h]

II

Zu Geng, Zu Jia D , L , Xng , J , Yn , Ch

III

Lin Xin, Kang Ding

IV

Wu Yi, Wen Wu Ding

Di Yi, Di Xin

The kings were involved in divination in all periods, but in later periods most divinations were done
personally by the king.[18] The extant inscriptions are not evenly distributed across these periods, with
55% coming from period I and 31% from periods III and IV.[19] A few oracle bones date to the beginning
of the subsequent Zhou dynasty.

Shang divination[edit]
Since divination (-mancy) was by heat or fire (pyro-) and most often on plastrons or scapulae, the terms
pyromancy, plastromancy[i] and scapulimancy are often used for this process.

Materials[edit]

Ox scapula with a divination inscription from the Shang dynasty, dating to the reign of King Wu Ding
The oracle bones are mostly tortoise plastrons (ventral or belly shells, probably female[j]) and ox
scapulae (shoulder blades), although some are the carapace (dorsal or back shells) of tortoises, and a
few are ox rib bones,[k] scapulae of sheep, boars, horses and deer, and some other animal bones.[l] The
skulls of deer, oxen and humans have also been found with inscriptions on them,[m] although these are
very rare and appear to have been inscribed for record keeping or practice rather than for actual
divination;[n] in one case, inscribed deer antlers were reported, but Keightley (1978) reports that they
are fake.[o] Neolithic diviners in China had long been heating the bones of deer, sheep, pigs and cattle
for similar purposes; evidence for this in Liaoning has been found dating to the late fourth millennium
BCE.[20] However, over time, the use of ox bones increased, and use of tortoise shells does not appear
until early Shang culture. The earliest tortoise shells found that had been prepared for divinatory use
(i.e., with chiseled pits) date to the earliest Shang stratum at Erligang (Zhengzhou, Henan).[21] By the
end of the Erligang, the plastrons were numerous,[22] and at Anyang, scapulae and plastrons were used
in roughly equal numbers.[23] Due to the use of these shells in addition to bones, early references to the
oracle bone script often used the term "shell and bone script", but since tortoise shells are actually a
bony material, the more concise term "oracle bones" is applied to them as well.

The bones or shells were first sourced and then prepared for use. Their sourcing is significant because
some of them (especially many of the shells) are believed to have been presented as tribute to the

Shang, which is valuable information about diplomatic relations of the time. We know this because
notations were often made on them recording their provenance (e.g., tribute of how many shells from
where and on what date). For example, one notation records that "Qu () sent 250 (tortoise shells)",
identifying this as, perhaps, a statelet within the Shang sphere of influence.[24] These notations were
generally made on the back of the shell's bridge (called bridge notations), the lower carapace, or the
xiphiplastron (tail edge). Some shells may have been from locally raised tortoises, however.[p] Scapula
notations were near the socket or a lower edge. Some of these notations were not carved after being
written with a brush, proving (along with other evidence) the use of the writing brush in Shang times.
Scapulae are assumed to have generally come from the Shang's own livestock, perhaps those used in
ritual sacrifice, although there are records of cattle sent as tribute as well, including some recorded via
marginal notations.[25]

Preparation[edit]

Holes drilled into an oracle bone

The bones or shells were cleaned of meat and then prepared by sawing, scraping, smoothing and even
polishing to create convenient, flat surfaces.[q][r] The predominance of scapulae and later of plastrons is
also thought to be related to their convenience as large, flat surfaces needing minimal preparation.
There is also speculation that only female tortoise shells were used, as these are significantly less
concave.[26] Pits or hollows were then drilled or chiseled partway through the bone or shell in orderly
series. At least one such drill has been unearthed at Erligang, exactly matching the pits in size and
shape.[27] The shape of these pits evolved over time and is an important indicator for dating the oracle
bones within various sub-periods in the Shang dynasty. The shape and depth also helped determine the
nature of the crack that would appear. The number of pits per bone or shell varied widely.

Cracking and interpretation[edit]

In this Shang dynasty oracle bone (which is incomplete), a diviner asks the Shang king if there would be
misfortune over the next ten days; the king replied that he had consulted the ancestor Xiaojia in a
worship ceremony.
Divinations were typically carried out for the Shang kings in the presence of a diviner. A very few oracle
bones were used in divination by other members of the royal family or nobles close to the king. By the
latest periods, the Shang kings took over the role of diviner personally.[28]

During a divination session, the shell or bone was anointed with blood,[29] and in an inscription section
called the "preface", the date was recorded using the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, and the
diviner name was noted. Next, the topic of divination (called the "charge") was posed,[s] such as
whether a particular ancestor was causing a king's toothache. The divination charges were often

directed at ancestors, whom the ancient Chinese revered and worshiped, as well as natural powers and
D (), the highest god in the Shang society. A wide variety of topics were asked, essentially anything of
concern to the royal house of Shang, from illness, birth and death, to weather,[30] warfare, agriculture,
tribute and so on. One of the most common topics was whether performing rituals in a certain manner
would be satisfactory.[t]

An intense heat source[u] was then inserted in a pit until it cracked. Due to the shape of the pit, the
front side of the bone cracked in a rough shape. The character (pinyin: b or p; Old Chinese:
*puk; "to divine") may be a pictogram of such a crack; the reading of the character may also be an
onomatopoeia for the cracking. A number of cracks were typically made in one session, sometimes on
more than one bone, and these were typically numbered. The diviner in charge of the ceremony read
the cracks to learn the answer to the divination. How exactly the cracks were interpreted is not known.
The topic of divination was raised multiple times, and often in different ways, such as in the negative, or
by changing the date being divined about. One oracle bone might be used for one session or for
many,[v] and one session could be recorded on a number of bones. The divined answer was sometimes
then marked either "auspicious" or "inauspicious", and the king occasionally added a "prognostication",
his reading on the nature of the omen.[31] On very rare occasions, the actual outcome was later added
to the bone in what is known as a "verification".[31] A complete record of all the above elements is rare;
most bones contain just the date, diviner and topic of divination,[31] and many remained uninscribed
after the divination.[32]

The uninscribed divination is thought to have been brush-written with ink or cinnabar on the oracle
bones or accompanying documents, as a few of the oracle bones found still bear their brush-written
divinations without carving,[w] while some have been found partially carved. After use, shells and bones
used ritually were buried in separate pits (some for shells only; others for scapulae only),[x] in groups of
up to hundreds or even thousands (one pit unearthed in 1936 contained over 17,000 pieces along with a
human skeleton).[33]

Oracle bones at other sites[edit]

A few inscribed oracle bones have been unearthed in the Zhuyun, the original political center of the
Zhou in Shaanxi, in Zhengzhou, Henan, and in Daxinzhuang, Jinan, Shandong. Some bones from the
Zhouyuan are believed to be contemporaneous with the reign of Di Xin, the last Shang king.[34]

Four inscribed bones have been found at Zhengzhou: three with numbers 310, 311 and 312 in the Hebu
corpus, and one containing a single character. HB 310, which contained two brief divinations, has been
lost, but is recorded in a rubbing and two photographs. HB 311 and 312 each contain a short sentence.
HB 312 was found in an upper layer of the Erligang culture. The rest were found accidentally in river
management earthworks, and so lack archaeological context. Pei Mingxiang argued that they predated

the Anyang site. Takashima, referring to character forms and syntax, argues that they were
contemporaneous with the reign of Wu Ding.[35]