An Introduction to the Oracle Bones 甲骨文介绍 英语

An Introduction to the Oracle Bones

前言

Preface

to

The Written Word in Ancient China

When

the

Royal

Ontario

Museum

acquired

获得

the

Menzies

人名

Collection

收藏

in 1960, a fund

基金

was established to enable study

研究

学习

and

publication

发表

of

its

most

significant

part,

the

approximately

4,700 in scribed oracle bones collected by the late James M. Menzies while

he was working in China before the Second World War. Dr. Menzie is today

acknowledged

in

China

as

the

only

westerner

who

made

a

fundamental

contribution to the understanding of oracle bone script, the earliest body of

Chinese writing to have survived, dating from the later Shang dynasy (ca.

14

th

-11

century BC).

The Museum’s original plan was to bring Dr. Ch’u Wan

-li, a renowned

scholar

of

the

Chinese

classics,

from

Academica

Sinica

in

Taiwan

to

undertake

the

publication

project.

Unfortunately,

Dr.

Ch’u

experienced

a

period of ill health that made overseas travel impossible, and after taking

local advice, he recommended one of his students, Hsu Chin-hsiung, for the

project.

James,

as

he

became

known

to

the

Far

Eastern

Department,

arrived in Toronto in December, 1968 to begin this work.

Over

the

next

few

years

he

completed

the

preparation

and

publication of the Menzies oracle bones. When the first volume appeared

in 1972, it revealed a major contribution to oracle bone periodization that

he

had

developed,

based

on

analysis

not

only

of

the

script

but

of

the

chiselled

hollows

that

were

part

of

the

bones’

preparation

for

divination.

We in the Royal Ontario Museum like to think that it was at least partially

as a result of his working in a museum environment, where he learned from

the

objects

themselves,

that

he

came

to

regard

the

importance

of

the

entire bone, not just its inscription, as a subject for study.

. . .

After James Hsu received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in

1974, he was cross-appointed to the Department of East Asian Studies at

the university, where he gradually assumed more teaching responsibilities.

In

1979

he

began

teaching

“The

Written

Word

in

Ancient

China,”

an

undergraduate

course

that

became

extremely

popular

and

which

he

still

gives. [He retired about 1997.]

Source:

The information here comes from the book written by a man who

researched the Oracle Bones at UofT/ROM for about 30 years. Hsu, James

C. H. [

許進雄

] (with the assistance of Jeannie Thomas Parker),

The Written

Word in Ancient China

, Vol. I & II, Hong Kong: Vincent Printing, 1996. [about

$$40.00 for the set of 2 books

–

usually available in the ROM Bookstore]

Paleothithic Times/Period [Old Stone Age, c. 100,000 to 10,000 BC]

Modern

human

beings

(Homo

sapiens)

appeared

in

East

Asia

around

100,000

years

ago,

probably

spreading

from

somewhere

in

Africa.

During

this

period

of

predatory

hunters

and

gatherers

that

followed,

humans

began to speak.

?

c. 600,000 BC

–

Lantian

in Shaanxi Province in western China

?

c. 500,000 BC -

Peking Man

–

found in limestone caves at

Zhoukoudian, Hebei Province, near Beijing

______________ ____________________________________________

Neolithic Times/Period [c. 10,000

–

2,000 BC]

Around 5,000 BC in China, the Neolithic Period fell into 2 main cultures: the

Yangshao and the Lungshan.

?

5,000

–

3,000 BC

–

Yangshao

culture

–

red pottery (Henan, Shaaxi,

Gansu) Formerly hunter- gatherer tribes who settled into villages

divided into areas for dwelling, making pottery by firing clay pieces in

kilns, and burying the dead. Lived in semi-subterranean pounded

earth houses; domesticated pigs, dogs,

Banpo

–

5,000

–

4,000

–

near Xi’an

, Shaanxi Province

?

4,300

–

2,000 BC

–

Dawenkou

culture - Taian, Shandong Province -

black pottery

?

3,300

–

2,250 BC

–

Liangzhu

culture

–

jade cong (tubes with

cylindrical bores

and squared sides) and

bi

(discs) found at Sidun, Jiangsu Province

?

2,500

–

2,000 BC

–

Longshan

culture

–

black or grey pottery which

was formed on a potter’s wheel. The goods found in their graves

indicated a differentiation among social classes. (Shandong Province)

in Eastern China. Worked with jade like Liangzhu culture. At this time

there was a possible shift from matriarchal to patriarchal form of

social organization.

Xia Dynasty

–

21

st

century

–

16

th

century BC