Tell me how the oracle was discovered

There is also a famous antique dealer who has an indissoluble relationship with the discovery of the oracle bone inscription, his name is Fan Weiqing, a native of Weixian County, Shandong. In the summer of the 25th year of Guangxu, Wang Yirong, who lived at No. 11 Xila Hutong in Dong'an, Beijing, was infected with malaria and could not be cured for a long time. An old Chinese medicine doctor with advanced medical skills prescribed a prescription for Wang Yirong.

There was a medicine called "keel" on the prescription, which immediately attracted Wang Yirong's attention. After his family returned from the pharmacy, Wang Yirong personally checked and found fragments of "dragon bones" in traditional Chinese medicine, some of which were engraved with strange veins. He went to the pharmacy in person to tell the pharmacy owner that if there was another vendor to send a "keel", please introduce it on his behalf.

Not long after, Fan Weiqing, a famous antique dealer in Beijing, was introduced to the palace, and this time he brought twelve "dragon bones". This is when he went to Anyang and Tangyin in Henan to buy bronzes, but he did not get his wish. Hearing that the locals said that the "dragon bone" was a medicinal material, he collected twelve pieces by hand, and thought to himself:

It's not a wasted trip. Wang Yirong was very happy to see the oracle bone fragment engraved with words. He carefully studied the single formed "symbols" on each piece of oracle bone, and his brow furrowed.

He excitedly told the people present: This is an older Chinese script than Zhong Dingwen! Fan Weiqing suddenly realized at this time that this medicinal herb was a real antique.

So, Wang Yirong bought the twelve oracle bones with one or two taels of silver per word. and gave Fan Weiqing 600 taels of silver on the spot, instructing him to continue to buy a large number of them for himself. Immediately, he sent his family to the major pharmacies in the capital to buy all the carved oracle bones with a lot of money, so that the pawn was fine, and he did not hesitate to pour his family wealth, and he collected 1,500 pieces before his heroic martyrdom!

There was a man in the Qing Dynasty who was sick and went to the pharmacy to dispense medicine. When he got home and saw some strange drawings on a thing called a dragon bone, he was very intrigued, and he studied it carefully, and finally found that it was an ancient script. Because it is painted on it, it is called oracle bone inscription.

The discoverer of the oracle bone inscription was Wang Yirong at the end of the Qing Dynasty.

In the twenty-fifth year of Guangxu (1899), Wang Yirong, who was more than half a hundred years old, was suffering from malaria, and a famous old Chinese medicine doctor prescribed the "dragon bone" as a flavor medicine, but he found that these "dragon bones" of different sizes had many very regular symbols, much like ancient characters.

In order to be the first to be, he bought a large number of "keels". Wang Yirong: Yes"Keels" was repeatedly scrutinized, compared, and put together, and his profound knowledge of gold and stone made him quickly understand that these "keels" were tortoise shells and animal bones, and the symbols on them were carved with knives, and the cracks were caused by high temperature burning. In the end, Wang Yirong determined that these symbols engraved on oracle bones were a kind of writing, and that they predated the Jin script and seal script.

And Wang Yirong further traced the source, and finally found that most of these oracle bones were produced in Xiaoshangtun, Anyang County, Zhangde Prefecture, Henan, and then discovered the "Yin Ruins".

The significance of discovering the oracle:

The discovery of the oracle bone inscription is a beacon that illuminates Chinese civilization. The oracle bone inscription is not only a symbol of civilization and a symbol of culture, but also confirms the authenticity of a series of documents, including the "Records of the Historian", and advances the recorded history of Chinese civilization by nearly five centuries.

Among the world's four major ancient writing systems, only the ancient Chinese character system represented by the Yinxu oracle bone inscription has been inherited after thousands of years of evolution, writing a broad and profound history of Chinese civilization.

Hello dear! We're happy to answer your questions! The discovery process of the oracle:

In 1928, the year of the beginning of modern archaeology in China, Xiaotun Village in Anyang, a small village in the Central Plains that had been unknown for nearly a thousand years, the collision of time and place unveiled the mystery of the history of the Yin Shang Dynasty. The ruins of palaces and temples in a radius of several kilometers near Xiaotun Village, as well as a large number of unearthed oracle bones, opened an important prelude for people to understand oracle bones and study the culture of Yin Shang civilization.

During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Wang Yirong, an antique dealer and goldsmith, was the highest institution of learning at that time. Once he saw a Chinese medicine called a keel, and saw words engraved on it.

So he bought all the keels and took them down, and found that each keel had a similar pattern on it. He drew these strange patterns, and after a long period of research he was convinced that it was a kind of writing, and it was relatively perfect, and it should be from the Yin Shang period.

In 1899, the year before the new century, people found the place where the keel was unearthed - Xiaotun Village in Anyang, Henan, where a large number of keels were unearthed. Because these keels are mainly the oracle bones of turtles and beasts, they are named "oracle bones" by people. Fan Shouxuan first sold the keel to Wang Xiang, but Wang Xiang could not afford to buy it all, and the rest of Fan was brought to Beijing to sell to Wang Yirong.

The vast majority of oracle bone inscriptions were found in Yinxu, Anyang City, Henan Province, China. Archaeologists have carried out many investigations and excavations, and have generally clarified the scope and layout of Yin Ruins. In the vicinity of the palace, two oracle bone archives and the ruins of handicraft workshops such as copper casting, jade making, bone making, and pottery were discovered.

On June 12, 1936, an oracle bone pit was excavated in the north palace area of Xiaotun Village, and 17,096 pieces of oracle bones with words were preserved, recording many activities of the Shang King Wuding period, it seems that this is the oracle bone archive of the Wuding royal family, and the excavation of this batch of oracle bone pieces is of extremely valuable value for the study of the social politics, culture and life of the Wuding period.

The oracle bone inscription was discovered in 1898 by Wang Yirong, an antique dealer, goldsmith and scholar. Wang Yirong found a pattern that looked like words on the traditional Chinese medicine called keel, so he bought all the keels and found that each keel had a similar pattern, and he was sure that this was a kind of writing, and it was relatively perfect.

Later, people found the place where the keel was unearthed, Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan, where a large number of keels were unearthed. Because these keels are mainly the oracle bones of turtles and beasts, they are named "oracle bones" by people, and the discipline that studies them is called "oracle bones". Xiaotun Village in the northwest of Anyang City is the site of the national capital in the late Shang Dynasty"Yin Ruins"location.

Over the past 100 years, more than 154,600 oracle bones have been unearthed through archaeological excavations and other means. In addition, oracle bone inscriptions also appeared in other regions of Henan and Shaanxi, and the age extended from the late Shang period to the Spring and Autumn Period.

Oracle, with a symmetrical, stable pattern. The three elements of calligraphy are the use of the pen, the knot, and the chapter. Judging from the number of fonts and the way they are structured, oracle bone inscriptions have developed to a more rigorous and systematic script.

The principle of the six books of Chinese characters is reflected in the oracle bone inscriptions. However, the traces of the original pictorial text are still relatively obvious, and the pictographic meaning is also relatively obvious.

The oracle bone inscription was discovered by Wang Yirong. In the sixth year of Guangxu, Wang Yirong was a jinshi. In the ninth year of Guangxu, he was promoted to the editor of the Hanlin Academy.

After that, Wang Yirong made steady progress in his career until he entered the South Study in the twentieth year of Guangxu and was promoted to the priest of the country. This Guozi priest wine is equivalent to today's president of Tsinghua University and Peking University and minister of education, which can be described as a high authority and respect. So people at that time called him "Taixue Shi".

And it was precisely because he was rich in learning five cars and had a strong interest in Jinshi that he discovered the existence of oracles.

Follow-up

In the twenty-fifth year of Guangxu, Wang Yirong fell ill. In the process of grasping the medicine, he found a "keel" medicinal material. Because he himself was proficient in medicine, he carefully studied this "dragon bone" that he had never seen before.

As a result, he discovered that there were some mysterious fonts and strange symbols on the "dragon bone". Wang Yirong drew the symbols on the "dragon bone", and after a long period of research, he came to the conclusion that this is likely to be the script of the Yin Shang period.

He was overjoyed by this discovery, and immediately spent a lot of money on the oracle bone with the letter, and he broke the bank. By the spring of the 26th year of Guangxu, Wang Yirong had collected a total of 1,508 oracle bones.

1. In the twenty-fifth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1899), one day, Wang Yirong, the priest of Guozijian (Guozijian is the highest institution of learning in the country, and the sacrificial wine is equivalent to the president of today's university), suffered from malaria and asked the doctor to come to see him. After Wang Yirong waited for the person who grabbed the medicine to come back, he picked up the keel ** Pei state, and suddenly found that there were some traces of knife carvings on the "keel", and then carefully observed, these knife marks were painted with strong meaning, but they were not pictures. After preliminary thinking and analysis, he believes that these traces may be the words left by the ancients.

2. Wang Yirong is an expert in the study of ancient cultural relics and ancient characters, digging in the oak he immediately sent someone to buy all the "dragon bones" in the pharmacy, after careful research, finally found that these "dragon bones" are all tortoise shells and animal armor judgment, the words on the oracle bones are the original patterns and symbols on the basis of the development of words, and most of these words are "divination", is the Shang Dynasty slave owners and nobles to their ancestors or ghosts and gods divination or sacrifice records. Later generations called these characters "oracle bone inscriptions", and this is how the oracle bone inscriptions were discovered.

3. Originally, they were first unearthed in the northwest of Anyang, Henan Province, "Yin Ruins", which was the location of the capital of the Shang Dynasty and was discovered by local farmers as early as the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1898). The peasants thought it was a "keel" that could cure diseases, so they sold it to pharmacies. At that time, Wang Yirong once searched for oracle bone inscriptions with two taels of silver per word, and the oracle bone inscriptions were valued by the world.