Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China

by David N. Keightley

Book Overview

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520054555
• ISBN13: 9780520054554
• Release Date: July 1985
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 2.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.9" x 12.0"

Customer Reviews

Oracle Bone Writing in Shang Dynasty

This book is written by a Shang Dynasty academic authority in the oracle bone scripts of ancient China. This script only re-discovered in 1899 by chance by a Chinese scholar who looked for dragon bone to cure his disease. The 1936 Yin site digging yielded a good bone harvest and generated worldwide sensation in China and abroad to study this new subject. Professor Keightley documented this in his book, The Oracle Bone inscriptions of Bronze Age China for the bone crack for divinations using mainly female tortoise shells for the uniform standard. He listed on p.33 the seventeen enquiry questions for god or ancestors’ guidance and approval. Of particular interest is number five for the ten-days week which surprisingly corresponding to that of Native American and Maya culture. On p.57, he pointed out about one hundred seven thousand oracle bone pieces have been assembled in over eighty collections. It is fun to peek into the deciphering of the inscriptions in the few examples he picked. He was aware of the discovery of oracle bone scripts in Native American rock art before he passed away a few years ago. This book is a good orientation on this old and new subject to generate interest in the ancient script on North America rock art in the Sino-American Pacific Crossing before Columbus.