Oracle Bone Inscriptions was written in Shang Dynasty, mainly on tortoise shells and animal bones. There are some hieroglyphics related to education in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which record the educational activities and contents of Shang Dynasty.
Oracle Bone Inscriptions, also known as "Wen Qi", "Oracle Bone Inscriptions", "Yin Ruins" or "tortoise shell and animal bones", is the earliest mature writing system discovered in China so far, the source of Chinese characters and the root vein of Chinese excellent traditional culture. The remains of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the early Shang Dynasty were mainly found in Zhengzhou Mall, and the Yin Ruins in Anyang were the representative in the late Shang Dynasty.
Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the most important writing in the late Shang Dynasty. Archaeological findings show that there are a large number of Oracle bones here, totaling more than100000 pieces. The content is mainly the divination records of the Shang royal family, and you can also see the clan emblems of many national tribes. Oracle Bone Inscriptions has about 4,000 words, which reflects the basic composition of the writing symbol system.
Compared with the stereotyped symbol system of ancient Chinese characters established in Shuo Wen Jie Zi, Oracle Bone Inscriptions already has many types of Chinese character configurations, including the "four shapes" in the traditional "Six Books", namely pictographic, ideographic, knowing and pictophonetic characters, which shows that in the late Shang Dynasty, the Chinese characters represented by Oracle Bone Inscriptions have basically established the configuration mode and the configuration system has gradually matured.
Development history of Oracle Bone Inscriptions
Oracle Bone Inscriptions, named after being engraved on tortoise shell bones, is a book trace circulated in Shang Dynasty. The content is an Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which records the 270-year migration from Pan Geng to Zhou Wang, and is the earliest book trace. Yin merchants have three characteristics, namely, believing in history, drinking alcohol and worshiping ghosts and gods; Because of this, these tortoise shells, which decided many things such as fishing, conquest and agriculture, can be rediscovered in later generations and become important materials for studying China characters.
In Shang dynasty, the pen and ink were excellent, and the calligraphy was thin and sharp because of engraving, which had the interest of a blade. Influenced by the rise and fall of writing style, it can be roughly divided into five periods, which are introduced below.
In the late Shang Dynasty, Pan Geng moved from Yin, which lasted about 273 years and experienced 8 dynasties 12 kings. Oracle Bone Inscriptions in this period should also be divided into early and late periods. There are different opinions on the study of the chronology of Oracle bones in Shang Dynasty. At present, Dong Zuobin's five-paragraph theory based on ten standards, such as lineage, appellation and chastity, is mainly adopted.