Oracle Bone Script in Use
Around 1250 BCE, during the late Shang dynasty, diviners at the royal court in the Yellow River region were carving questions onto ox shoulder blades and turtle shells. These inscriptions are the earliest substantial body of Chinese writing that survives, and they matter because the script is a direct ancestor of the characters used in Chinese today. The date is approximate: the practice is generally placed between about 1250 and 1046 BCE, with a few inscriptions possibly somewhat earlier.
Divination by heating bones was older than writing in northern China, and Neolithic sites show cracked animal bones used for similar purposes. Under the Shang, whose later capital was at Yin, near modern Anyang in Henan province, the practice became a formal royal institution. The king sought guidance from ancestors and spirits on matters that shaped the state, and specialist diviners prepared the materials and recorded the results. Scholars still debate whether writing existed earlier on perishable materials such as bamboo or wood, which would not have survived, so the oracle bones may represent a mature script rather than its very beginnings.
The procedure was fairly consistent. Bones and shells were cleaned and hollowed with small pits on the back. A heated rod pressed into a pit caused a crack to split the surface, producing a pattern that was interpreted as a response. The question, and sometimes the interpretation or later outcome, was then carved beside the cracks. Topics included harvests, rainfall, military campaigns, illness, childbirth, dreams, hunting, and sacrifices to ancestors. The inscriptions are brief, and many follow set formulas. They name kings and officials, mention neighboring peoples, and offer a rare view of Shang politics and religion.
The script itself is already sophisticated. It includes pictographic signs, symbols for abstract ideas, and characters combining elements for meaning and sound. Thousands of distinct signs have been recorded, and a good portion have been deciphered, though some, especially names, remain uncertain.
The bones were not systematically studied until the late nineteenth century. Tradition holds that scholars noticed carved markings on so-called "dragon bones" sold in Chinese apothecaries, and the source was traced to fields near Anyang. Official excavations began in 1928 and uncovered tens of thousands of fragments, along with royal tombs and bronze work that confirmed the Shang as a historical dynasty rather than only a literary tradition.
Today oracle bone inscriptions are central to the study of early China, helping historians reconstruct royal genealogies, calendars, and ritual life. They also show the remarkable continuity of the Chinese writing system, which has evolved over more than three thousand years.