Pen? Quill? What tools were used to write the oracle bone inscriptions during the Shang Dynasty?

A scholar who can translate oracle bones is awesome.

The ancient oracle bone inscription is really a great achievement for mankind.

Where there is writing, there is a pen, but the style is different, and it may be carved out of stone.

When carving oracle bone inscriptions in sacrifices, carving knives are mainly used; However, in normal times, it is mainly used to write on the simple calf.

Some scholars speculate that the merchant's writing tools were carving knives, and the writing materials were tortoise shells and animal bones. Actually, this is a misconception. In fact, the writing tools of merchants were mainly brushes, and the writing materials were mainly brochures.

Yin Hui research shows that during the Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, Chinese mainly used brushes to write. Although only oracle bone inscriptions we can see today are abundantly available to show that the daily writing of the Shang Dynasty was not "sword and pen writing", but the same as the writing written on bamboo slips or wood chips after the Qin and Han dynasties. Unfortunately, because the writing materials and calligraphy could not be preserved for a long time, only the oracle bone inscription engraved on the hard cloth bone was preserved, witnessing the existence of the Shang Dynasty (about 1600 BC - about 1046 BC) for more than 500 years.

I guess I used a knife to scratch it, but there is also a brush that can be used.

The history of the evolution of oracle bones is really revered by our contemporaries.

They were first carved on bamboo plaques, and later on stone with their important documents and contents, which have been passed down to this day.

The oracle bone script has developed to the point where there is a script called a strict system.

The oracle bone inscription is a script engraved on tortoise shells and animal bones during the Yin Shang period. Most of the oracle bone inscriptions were unearthed in Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province, and were first discovered in 1898. After 1928, after many excavations, more than 100,000 pieces have been unearthed, mainly engraved divination and divination records.

The total number of words is about 4,600 words, and the number of literate characters is more than 1,700 words. The structure of the text has tended to be combined from a single body, and it basically has the construction rules of the Chinese characters of pictograms, signifiers, meanings, pretenses, transfers, and morphophonics.

Before the oracle bone inscription, was there still a script in our country? The earliest oracle bone inscriptions date from 1300 BC. Judging from the archaeological materials, before the oracle bone inscription, there were many immature writing symbols in China.

In the 30s, some symbols were found in the Longshan culture pottery excavated in Chengziya, Zhangqiu County, Shandong. There are also text symbols on the Xi'an Banpo painted pottery, it is composed of geometric lines depicted, most of them are relatively simple, Guo Moruo said that the symbols on the Banpo painted pottery have the nature of words.

Symbols were also found on the pottery of Dawenkou culture in Shandong, and some of the symbols were painted with colors. These symbols are depicted in prominent places on the surface of the pottery. Some symbols resemble the sun or moon rising from a mountain.

In addition, symbols have been found on the pottery of the Majiayao culture in Qinghai, the early Shang Dynasty culture in Zhengzhou and the middle Shang Dynasty culture in Hebei.

Some of these symbols are combined with the pattern, and some are clearly different from the painted pottery ornamentation, although these symbols are simple, sporadic, and have no certain law, but they are the prototype of Chinese characters, and it can be said that the birth of Chinese characters has a history of at least five or six thousand years. Therefore, the oracle bone script can only be said to be the oldest and more mature script in China, and it cannot be said to be the earliest script in China.

Tao Wen is the earliest prototype of Chinese writing.

In the prehistoric and early history of China, before the emergence of Chinese characters, the symbol that most resembled writing was Taowen. There are many materials that have been unearthed in Taowen, but it is not as long as the oracle bone inscription, with only a single symbol. From the Neolithic period to the late Shang Dynasty, the earliest pottery inscriptions that have been unearthed are Banpo pottery, about 4800-4300 BC.

In addition, during the Dawenkou culture, Longshan culture, and Liangzhu culture, there were also pottery texts.

The hieroglyphs of "pen" have appeared in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, which resemble a person holding a pen in his hand. Shang Dynasty pottery and oracle bones retain the divination written in ink, Henan Anyang Yinxu unearthed pottery shards have a "ritual" word, the pen is clear, the thickness is decent, and only with an elastic brush, can achieve such an artistic effect.