The people of the Shang Dynasty1 (c. 1600-1046 BC) believed that spirits roam the heaven and earth, and sought advice from these supernatural being.2
Bone with Inscription 卜骨
Animal bones | Shang Dynasty (c. 16th-11th centuries BC), King Wu Ding’s reign | National Museum of China Collection, Reportedly unearthed at Anyang, Henan Province. 甲骨｜商王武丁时期｜中国国家博物馆藏，传河南安阳出土
The inscriptions are carved on both the front and back of the bone, and the long text talks about wars with the tribes of Tufang 土方3 and Gongfang 
方.4
First discovered by Wang Yirong 王懿榮 in 18995 from bones and shells excavated at the Yin Ruins 殷墟 in Anyang, central China’s Henan, Jiaguwen 甲骨文, or the oracle bone inscriptions named for their mysterious “scratches” on bits of animal bones and on tortoise shells, are considered the oldest fully-developed characters as well as the origin of the Chinese characters people use today. Among the oracle bones unearthed in Yin Ruins, the content of divinations includes religious sacrifice, military expedition, field hunting, climate, harvest, patients, giving brith and other aspects.
方入侵。Divination Turtle Shell卜甲
Animal bones | Shang Dynasty (c. 16th-11th centuries BC) | National Museum of China Collection. 甲骨｜商（约公元前16世纪-约公元前11世纪）｜中国国家博物馆藏
”释为分娩之娩，像以双手将婴儿的头从产道托出之形。Many of these involve fertility divination, such as divination of the time of delivery, whether the delivery is smooth, whether the birth is male or female, etc. The content of this turtle shell is about the divination of Shang king’s wife Fu Wo 妇婐 giving birth in July. The “
” in oracle script is the character for “delivery of childbirth”, a logogram that looks like taking the baby’s head out of the birth canal with both hands.
Details of the oracle script inscriptions
卜辞（甲骨文）铭文：
丙戌卜，爭貞，帚（婦）婐娩，
(lè)（嘉）。七月
貞，帚（婦）婐娩，不其（嘉）。七月
貞，帚（婦）婐娩，（嘉），隹 (zhuī)（惟）卒。一二三二告四
ㄓ (zhī)6（侑 yòu）兄戊。一
勿ㄓ（侑）。
ㄓ（侑）父庚。
勿ㄓ（侑）。
Translation:
24th Divination by Oracle Zeng on Fu Wo’s childbirth in July whether will it be smooth. Bless her brother Wu and bless her father Geng.
Fragment of divination bone with the character “Shu” “毓”字卜骨残片
Fragment of divination bone with the character “Ji” “疾”字卜骨残片
甲骨｜商（约公元前16世纪-约公元前11世纪）｜中国国家博物馆藏
妇妌是商王武丁的配偶之一，这段卜辞是关子妇妌生育之事。甲骨文“
“即“毓”字，从女或从母，“子”常倒立，位于“女”的后下方，像妇女产子之状，本义为生育。
甲子卜…亥帚（妇）井毓…
甲骨文中表示疾病的疒字写作“
”，一个“人”字加一个“爿”[pán]字，爿就是床，即人倚靠在床榻上，即人倚靠在床榻上，即《说文解字》云：“疒，倚也，人有疾病，像倚箸之形。”有时还于人体四周加上数点以示出开或出血，形如“
”。
According to scholars’ research, there are more than 50 kinds of diseases recorded in the oracle bones inscriptions, covering internal medicine, surgery, gynaecology, paediatrics, ophthalmology, rhinology, laryngology and infectious diseases in modern medical subspecialties, and the names of the diseases are mostly based on the site of onset. There are also a large number of records of maternity, showing the Shang dynasty’s concern for the reproduction of children.
About Oracle Scripts 甲骨文 and Divination
The following video showed a very interesting animation of how these oracle scripts come about through their logograms.
About Chinese National Treasure Series
中華國寶系列 Chinese National Treasure series feature specific artefacts and relics from museums all around the world that are historically significant to be considered a National Treasure. The series covers the 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation from Neolithic periods before the Xia dynasty (c. 2070-1600 BC) to modern day.
- 商朝延續500 餘年，(約公元前1675年-前1046年），始於商湯，終於商紂，共17世31王，商朝的君王，分別是：成湯->太乙 -> 太丁 -> 外丙 -> 中壬 -> 太甲 -> 沃丁 -> 太庚 -> 小甲 -> 雍己 -> 太戊 -> 中丁 -> 外壬 -> 河亶甲 -> 祖乙 -> 祖辛 ->沃甲 -> 祖丁 -> 南庚 -> 陽甲 -> 盤庚 -> 小辛 -> 小乙 ->武丁 -> 祖庚 -> 祖甲 -> 廩辛 -> 武乙 -> 太丁 -> 帝乙 ->帝辛，末代君主帝辛於牧野之戰（根據利簋銘文記載，公元前1046年）被周武王姬發前（公元前1076年—前1043年）擊敗後自焚而亡。帝辛也就是人人皆知的紂王。因此還有一個成語叫做：助紂為虐。但是帝辛是否真的是暴君，歷史評論並不一致，因為還沒有確鑿的歷史證據。 ↩︎
- 《禮記·表記》：「殷人尊神，率民以事神，先鬼而後禮。」殷人尚鬼，殷商的王室遇事好占卜，經常利用龜甲和牛胛骨占卜凶吉，并記錄下來。在商代，崇拜至上神、祖先神和自然神的原始宗教是占統治地位的意識形態，商王有疑難諸事一定要燒灼龜甲或牛胛骨，看甲骨上的裂痕，藉以判斷吉凶禍福，以定出入行止。 ↩︎
土方：殷商北邊異族，是殷墟出土卜辞中见到的一个商代的方国部落，根据卜辞记载，它们在商王武丁前活动于商部落的西北部边缘地区，大致在今山西省汾河流域。土方是一个强大的方国，是武丁以及先前商王的长期征讨的对象。武丁征服土方之后，在其腹地“唐土”建设大型城邑“唐”，镇压控制土方人民，此后不再有土方叛变的记载。武丁时期的一期卜辞中有多片与土方有关。此时的土方还颇为强盛，所以常与商部族争战。 ↩︎- 𢀛方：甲骨文，方国名，同邛，是殷墟出土卜辭中見到的一個商代的方國部落，根據卜辭記載，它們在商王武丁時期活動於商朝的西北部邊緣地區，位於土方之西，大致在今陝西省中部地區，太行山西北地區。𢀛方是商朝長期的敵對方國，可能與土方聯合與商朝作戰。 ↩︎
- 1899年，清朝的國子監祭酒王懿榮（1845年—1900年8月14日）發現龍骨上刻有文字，經過研究後確認這便是殷商時期占卜所用龜甲、獸骨的碎片。 ↩︎
- ㄓ (zhī)：甲骨文用同「又」、通「有」、通「宥」 宽恕、通「祐」(you3) 福 ↩︎
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