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Inscribed oracle bones from the reign of King Wu Ding 11981189 BCE
Courtesy of The National Library of China

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The National Library of China
Beijing
China

Oracle bones
1198–1189 BCE

Oracle bones were used for imperial divination and are the earliest known texts in Chinese. Although the inscriptions were incised more than 3000 years ago, they were already a part of a systemic and mature form of writing.

Topics of divination ranged from the performance of an ancestral cult, to protective wishes for 'no harm' in the next ten-day week. Other questions relate to the outcome of Royal hunts, harvests or childbirth, queries on impending disasters, enemy invasion, victory in battle, and good fortune or bad omens.

The inscriptions are placed vertically in columns and read from top to bottom, with the arrangement of the characters depending on the shape of the animal bone used.

They record the king's interpretation of the cracks which appeared when the bones were heated by applying hot metal rods or heated sticks of wood to the hollows on the rough (back) side, so that T-shaped fissures would appear on the smooth (front) sides.

The interpretations could variously be interpreted as auspicious, inauspicious or neutral. After the king had made his forecast or interpretation, the number of each crack, along with a notation about the good fortune of a particular crack, was incised beside it. A complete record of the divination was then incised into the bone. The characters and the cracks were occasionally filled with vermilion or black pigments. After the usefulness of the oracle bones had expired, they were buried in storage pits.

The National Library of China has a very large collection of oracle bones, numbering over 34,000 pieces, and over 70,000 sheets of rubbings taken from inscribed oracle bones.