Uncover the tip of the iceberg
The oracle bone is the earliest complete system of Chinese civilization, which has been recognized by successive generations as appearing in the Yin Shang period, and whether there are physical relics for thousands of years is only a legend and has been difficult to see.
Until the end of the Qing Dynasty in the city of Beijing in 1899, a Qing government official GuoziJianjiu (official name, equivalent to today's Minister of Education) found the oracle bone fragments engraved with writing by chance, and began to collect a large number of them, thus attracting the attention of the world, and some scholars began to study. Who were the people who first discovered and collected the Oracle fragments as mentioned above? How did the Oracle study unfold? See below.
The original discoverer: Wang Yirong
He was a Chinese Qing Dynasty epigrapher, collector and calligrapher, the first to discover and collect oracle bones, and was well versed in medicine.
In 1899, Wang Yirong, who was working in Beijing, happened to see a medicinal material called a dragon bone when buying medicine, which was engraved with graphic text, so he conducted a preliminary study and confirmed it to be an oracle bone. In the paleography world, it's like unveiling the tip of an iceberg, with some believing, some wondering, and some waiting to see what follows.
However, in 1900, when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded the capital, Cixi fled with the Guangxu Emperor, but Wang Yirong, who was also the minister of training in the Beijing Division, was loyal to his duties and did not leave, and the whole family committed suicide and martyrdom, showing a magnificent patriotic integrity. But oracle research was also interrupted.
Successor investigator: Liu Hu
Liu Hu is a well-known name, he is Liu Hu who created "The Journey of the Old Remnant". He made deep friends with Wang Yirong, took over the oracle bone fragments collected by Wang Yirong during his lifetime, and successively acquired more than 5,000 pieces, becoming a famous collector of early excavated oracle bones.
Liu Hu continued to study it and wrote China's first book on oracle bones, "Iron Cloud Hidden Turtle". This work had a profound influence on later researchers. But he was unfortunately convicted and exiled to the frontier by the Qing government, and the oracle bone research was once again interrupted. This work was then undertaken by his children's relatives Luo Zhenyu, which led to the Oracle Four!
Everbright: Four great people
During the period of the Republic of China, the academic community has successively appeared the four masters who have made the greatest achievements in the study of oracle bones, namely Luo Zhenyu (No. Xuetang), Wang Guowei (No. Guantang), Dong Zuobin (Ziyantang), and Guo Moruo (Zidingtang), who have made outstanding contributions in this field, known as the Four Halls of Oracle Bones.
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name
age
Major contributions
Luo Zhenyu
1866-1940
The founder of Oracle research, collecting a total of nearly 20,000 oracle bones; explaining a large number of words, opening the study of oracle bone classification;
Kingdom Dimension
1877-1927
The founder of the new historiography, he used the oracle bone to study history, involving the lineage, place names, ethnic groups, and systems of the Yin shang;
Dong Zuobin
1895-1963
Guided the excavation of Yin Ruins, the founder of field archaeology, founded the oracle bone theory;
Guo Moruo
1892-1978
The culmination of Oracle research, he has pushed his research to the pinnacle, and is the author of "Ancient Society in the Confession"
The first of the four: Luo Zhenyu
Luo Zhenyu is a scholar of oracle bone epigrapher, historian, educator, agronomist, publisher, collector, edition bibliographer, Dunhuang scholar, historical archivist, calligrapher and calligraphy historian in modern Chinese academic history. He began collecting oracle bones from 1906, including a total of nearly 20,000 pieces taken over from Liu Hu, continuing his study of ancient texts and writing the Yin Ruins Book Deed, and he was the founder of oracle bone science.
The second of the four people: Wang Guowei
Wang Guowei was a student of Luo Zhenyu. In 1917, Wang Guowei opened the peak of oracle osteology research. Based on the study of oracle bones, he wrote the book "Examination of the First Princes and First Kings Seen in the Yin Bu Ci", which examined the lineage of the previous kings of the Yin Shang Dynasty. It is known as a work of great academic value in the 19 years since the discovery of Oracle. Guo Moruo once commented that he was the founder of the new historiography. He studied the ancient philology based on oracle bone scripts side by side with ancient history, making full use of the latest oracle bone materials to examine the history of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, place names, ethnic groups, and canonical systems.
The third of the four people: Dong Zuobin
Dong Zuobin studied under Wang Guowei. In October 1928, Dong Zuobin came to Anyang and participated in the first scientific excavation of Yin Ruins in the history of Chinese cultural relics and archaeology presided over by the Nationalist government at that time. From 1928 to 1937, Dong Zuobin participated in the guiding excavation work many times, laying the foundation of China's field archaeology and cultivating a large number of archaeology experts. His 1933 study of oracle bone dating is recognized as an epoch-making masterpiece in the history of Chinese oracle bones. His greatest contribution to oracle osteology was the establishment of the oracle bone dating system, which sorted out the time vein of the collected oracle bone objects and divided it into five periods, which meant that the history of the oracle bone script for hundreds of years of Yin Shang was studied.
The fourth of the four people: Guo Moruo
Guo Moruo is a modern writer, historian, archaeologist, and member of the Communist Party of China. In February 1928, after the defeat of the Great Revolution, he lived in Japan to avoid being arrested by the Kuomintang government. During his stay, he applied Marx's materialist historical perspective to study ancient Chinese history and oracle bones. On August 1, 1929, his book "Research on Oracle Bone Script" was officially completed. Until around the founding of the People's Republic of China, Guo Moruo pushed oracle bone research to the peak. In the 1980s, he presided over the compilation of the large Oracle monograph "Oracle Bone Collection".
What exactly did Oracle record?
Ancient people were very superstitious. Rulers will perform divination whenever they encounter a major event that requires a decision to predict the auspiciousness of the event. The materials used in divination are mainly turtle shells and cow bones. Oracle bones are mostly records made on oracle bones after divination. In addition, the oracle bone also records the situation of celestial phenomena, climate, names of animals and plants, military wars, sacrificial activities, ethnic distribution, and geography of mountains and rivers. In this way, the oracle bone became the first source for studying the social history and language of the ancient Chinese period, especially the Shang Dynasty, and its precious materials.
Write at the end
The above four scholars are all masters in the field of oracle bone academic research, and they (including Wang Yirong and Liu Yan, etc.) have resolutely taken over the banner of inheriting and promoting traditional culture when the Chinese nation was facing peril at the end of the Qing Dynasty and when the wind of western learning and eastern learning strongly impacted the ancient Chinese culture, and did not hesitate to undertake the historical mission entrusted by the times. Their deeds deserve to be understood and paid attention to by future generations, and their academic spirit is worthy of recognition and development.
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