Dawan News "There is Yan Ruyu in the book, and there is a golden house in the book" may not be a joke. The reporter learned from the interview that on January 11, the Chinese Character Museum released the "Second Batch of Oracle Bone Interpretation Outstanding Achievements Award List", and five scholars from Fudan University, Jilin University, Tsinghua University and other universities will receive 100,000 and 50,000 related awards respectively. In fact, the Chinese Character Museum once issued a "reward order" to the public - "100,000 yuan for deciphering an oracle bone inscription", and a researcher was awarded 100,000 yuan for the first time. The reporter learned that there are still more than 2,000 oracle words that have not been deciphered, and relevant institutions also encourage oracle researchers to use cloud computing, big data and other modern technical means to combine with traditional research methods to form original research results.
More than 2,000 words remain undeciphered
The oracle bone inscription is an ancient Chinese script, also known as "Qiwen", "Oracle Bone Buci", "Yinxu Script" or "Tortoiseshell Beast Bone Inscription". It was first found by the villagers of Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province, when they did not know that this was an ancient relic, only used as a medicinal material "dragon bone" to cure all diseases, and ground many tortoiseshell animal bones engraved with oracle bone inscriptions into powder, wasting many extremely valuable cultural relics, and later, Wang Yirong, an official of the late Qing Dynasty and a scholar of gold and stone, found the location of the oracle bone inscription from the oracle bone from Anyang, Henan Province when he was cured in the 25th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1899). 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 parts of Henan and Shaanxi, dating from the late Shang period (about 1300 BC) to the Spring and Autumn Period.
The reporter learned that Professor Huang Dekuan, director of the Chinese Character Museum and director of the Center for the Research and Protection of Unearthed Documents of Tsinghua University, revealed in 2018 when he was in an interview with CCTV's "Let's Talk" program that there are currently less than 4,000 oracle bone words, less than half of which can really be recognized, and more than 2,000 oracle bone words are not recognized and have not been deciphered.
As early as 2016, the Museum of Chinese Characters issued an announcement on the collection and selection of outstanding achievements in oracle bone interpretation, saying that with the consent of the National Philosophy and Social Science Planning Office, in order to fully mobilize the enthusiasm and creativity of oracle bone researchers at home and abroad, solve the bottleneck problem currently faced by oracle bone interpretation, and promote new substantive progress in oracle bone interpretation, the Chinese Character Museum will organize and implement a special award plan for oracle bone interpretation achievements from now on, and openly solicit outstanding achievements at home and abroad and reward them.
Among them, 100,000 yuan will be awarded for the research results of deciphering the uninterpreted oracle bone inscriptions and approved by the expert committee, and 50,000 yuan will be awarded for the research results of new interpretations of the disputed oracle bone inscriptions and approved by the expert committee. The research results of the deciphered uninterpreted oracle bone inscriptions and appraised by the expert committee can be recognized as undertaking one annual project of the National Social Science Fund after being reviewed by the National Philosophy and Social Science Planning Office.
A new batch of outstanding achievements were awarded
In June 2018, the first batch of winners of Oracle Bone Interpretation Outstanding Achievements were announced. According to the "Announcement on the Solicitation and Selection of Outstanding Achievements in Oracle Bone Interpretation", after the evaluation of the Oracle Interpretation Expert Committee and social publicity, one of the first first prizes in the list of outstanding achievements in Oracle Bone Interpretation was awarded 100,000 yuan for the first time for the demonstration report submitted by researcher Jiang Yubin.
In response to this conclusion, Jiang Yubin, after years of research and interpretation, said that the word "tun" used in the oracle bone inscription and Jin inscription before the name of some Fang countries should be interpreted as the stupid word "stupid". For example, "Tunyifang" should be interpreted as "Yifang of turmoil". He believes that at that time, in the vicinity of the Shang Kingdom, there were many Fang countries. Some Fang states did not accept the rule of the Shang Dynasty and raised troops to cause rebellion, so they were called "stupid parties" and were requisitioned. After this interpretation, the text was read through at once, and the efficiency of the use of materials reflecting the tribal relationship between the dynasty and the Fang State was also improved.
After six years, the Museum of Chinese Characters has released the list for the second time. The reporter learned that on January 11, the second batch of winners of the outstanding achievements in oracle bone interpretation was announced. According to the "Announcement on the Reward for Soliciting and Selecting the Second Batch of Outstanding Achievements in Oracle Bone Interpretation", after the evaluation and social publicity of the Oracle Bone Interpretation Expert Committee, the list of winners of the second batch of outstanding achievements in Oracle Bone Interpretation is as follows: 2 first prizes, namely the interpretation article submitted by Chen Jian of Fudan University, "The Interpretation of the "Radical" Character Variant of the Oracle Bone Golden Inscription - Another Case of Interpretation of the Characters According to the Differences in the Divination Group", and the interpretation article "The Examination of the "Tai" of the "Servant Tai" Seen in the Unearthed Documents" submitted by Zhou Zhongbing of Jilin University. The three second prizes were the explanatory essay submitted by Wang Ziyang of Tsinghua University, "The Old Interpretation of the Oracle Bone Jinwen "Zhu" Character Should Be Reinterpreted as "Li"", the explanatory essay submitted by Xie Mingwen of Fudan University, "On a Variant of "Yang" - Also Speaking of the Character "Gui"" submitted by Xie Mingwen of Fudan University, and the explanatory essay "Interpreting the Character "觴" in the Oracle Bone Inscription submitted by Li Chuntao of Jilin University.
On January 11, the relevant staff of the Chinese Character Museum confirmed to reporters that the two authors of the first prize will receive a reward of 100,000 yuan, and the three authors of the second prize will also receive a reward of 50,000 yuan.
Encourage the use of modern technical means to conduct research
As paleographers often say, "Reading an ancient text is like discovering a new continent." As the oldest mature written language of the Chinese dynastic period, the oracle bone inscription records information about China's politics, economy, and culture more than 3,000 years ago. Some scholars say that even a successful crackdown on an oracle bone inscription is of great significance to historical research.
The reporter noted that relevant institutions also encourage Oracle researchers to use modern technical means such as cloud computing and big data to combine with traditional research methods to form original research results. The relevant staff of the Chinese Character Museum told the Dawan News reporter that there are currently more than 100,000 pieces of oracle bone inscriptions, and when the manpower is exhausted, the efficiency and time can be saved with the help of big data technology, which is used to sort out the interpretation and conjugation, but at present, the two batches of award-winning achievements have not yet used relevant technical means. However, there are already scholars in China who are using new technologies to do related research, and some results have come out.
Relevant staff told reporters that the words that have not been interpreted at present include a large number of words such as place names, personal names, or appear very rarely on oracle bone tablets. The purpose of the award program for the interpretation of oracle bones was launched to promote the decipherment of uninterpreted oracle bones.
Dawan News reporter Chen Mu
Edited by Xu Haiyan