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 Oracle Script is an ancient script carved on tortoise shells or animal bones. Having emerged during the Shang Dynasty (BC 1600-1000), Oracle Script is considered the oldest script in China.
During the Shang Dynasty, the ancients reckoned the natural elements as the exertion of some mystical power. When there were floods, drought, lightening and thunder, or some big events, like royal hunts, journeys and military campaigns, through divination, ancients would predict the future by "reading" the messages of nature. The divination performer first drilled holes on tortoise shell or a piece of bull scapula, then put it over fire. Since the shell or bone would crack irregularly under heat, the diviner could supposedly interpret these cracks as good or bad omen. All the dates and results of the divination were written down on the shells or animal bones, which became the earliest historical document with writing symbols.
In 1899, a mandarin of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD) found in his doctor's prescription a kind of medicine called dragon bone. When he studied it, he noticed that it actually was a tortoise shell with some odd pictures carved on it. The mandarin then sent his men to collect dragon bones in all herbal medicine shops and had them examined by historians. Finally, over four thousand different Chinese characters were found on these bones and shells, which had been used to record divination facts. These special dragon bones are now referred to as oracle bones.
Now, over 100,000 pieces of oracle shells or bones have been unearthed from the ruins of the Shang Dynasty at Anyang in Henan Province, which was the latter capital of Shang Dynasty 3,000 years ago. Though smaller in number, additional discoveries of oracle script in Shangcheng in the neighborhood of Zhengzhou offer valuable insights into the study of the Shang Dynasty. |
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