Amazing Oracle Bone Scripts | Why do we need to decipher oracle bone inscriptions today?

了不起的甲骨文 | 今天我们为什么要破译甲骨文

Amazing Oracle Bone Scripts | Why do we need to decipher oracle bone inscriptions today?

编者按

一片甲骨惊天下。安阳殷墟，甲骨文的出土把中国信史向上推进了约1000年。镌刻在龟甲兽骨上的甲骨文，是迄今为止发现最早、最为完备、最为系统且能表达完整思想的文字，是汉字的源头。习近平总书记在考察殷墟时指出，“中国的汉文字非常了不起，中华民族的形成和发展离不开汉文字的维系”。甲骨文，了不起，却凑不齐甲骨文“了不起”三个字。目前发现的甲骨文字4500字左右，能释读的只有三分之一，看似不可思议，却正是汉字的魅力。

Editor's note:

A piece of oracle bone amazes the world. The unearthing of oracle bones in Yin Ruins of Anyang helps to extend the recorded history of China by about 1,000 years. The oracle bone inscriptions, engraved on tortoise shells or animal bones, are the earliest, most complete, most systematic, and most expressive form of writing ever discovered, and they are the origin of Chinese characters. Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out during his inspection tour of Yin Ruins that Chinese characters are remarkable, and the formation and development of the Chinese nation cannot be separated from the preservation of them." The oracle bone scripts are remarkable; however, a complete set of characters to express the meaning of "remarkable" or "extraordinary" haven't been found in the oracle bone inscriptions. It is true that only about one-third of the approximately 4,500 oracle bone characters discovered so far can be interpreted, which may seem incredible. Still, it is precisely the charm of Chinese characters.

古来新学问，大都由于新发现。为推动中华文明创新发展，即日起，河南日报社重磅推出“了不起的甲骨文”系列报道，将以融媒的形式报道一个新时代。精心设计的logo以白文印章的形式、仿造甲骨卜辞的体例，从右至左、从上至下。这七个字当中，根据“殷契文渊”甲骨文大数据平台显示，“不”“起”“甲”“骨”字是甲骨文，其他字用的是小篆，即秦始皇统一六国后在大篆的基础上简化，创制的统一文字的汉字书写形式。字体虽不统一，风格却浑然一体，内含文化的传承、基因的延续之意。敬请垂注。

Throughout history, most new knowledge and disciplines have emerged due to discoveries. So, starting today, Henan Daily has launched a heavyweight series of reports titled “Remarkable Oracle Bone Inscriptions” to promote the innovation and development of Chinese civilization. The series logo is elaborately designed as a white seal, imitating the arrangement of oracle bone inscriptions. According to the "Yin Qi Wen Yuan," an oracle bone inscription big data platform, of the seven characters on the seal, the characters “不” (bù),“起” (qǐ), “甲” (jiǎ), and “骨” (gǔ) are in oracle bone inscription, while the remaining characters are in small seal script (小篆). The small seal script was simplified by Emperor Qin Shi Huang on the basis of the original big seal script (大篆) after he unified the six states as the standardized form of Chinese characters. Although the font is not unified, the style is harmonious, implying the inheritance of Chinese culture and Chinese character genes. Please stay tuned.

破译一个甲骨文奖励10万元。这是中国文字博物馆曾面向社会发出的“悬赏令”。

The National Museum of Chinese Writing once announced that it would offer 100,000 yuan (around US$14,779) for each unknown character that is deciphered.

“甲骨文研究经历了120多年发展，就在10多年前，人工智能和大数据还没有兴起的时候，研究进入瓶颈期……”12月25日，中国文字博物馆研究中心工作人员刘浩告诉记者，“认出一字，奖励十万”是为了让更多人了解这门学问的艰深与重要性，唤起大众考释甲骨文的热情，激励更多人参与古文字研究。

"The study of oracle bone scripts has undergone over 120 years of development, and just over ten years ago, before the emergence of artificial intelligence and big data, the research entered into a bottleneck period," said Liu Hao on December 25, a staff member of the Research Center from the National Museum of Chinese Writing in Anyang City. He added that the big cash reward of 100,000 yuan for identifying each new character is aimed at making more people understand this study's difficulty and significance, igniting the public's passion for deciphering oracle bone scripts and inspiring more people to research ancient Chinese characters.

我们为什么不惜一字“千金”，也要破译甲骨文？

Why do we spare every effort to decipher the oracle bone scripts?

“破译甲骨文有助于重建和完善商朝史。”刘浩认为，从历史的宏观来说，甲骨文在中华文明史上的价值怎么形容都不为过。它直接证实了古史记载中“商”王朝的存在和安阳小屯为殷商王朝的都邑，将我国信史的上限提早了将近1000年。“破译殷商甲骨文，会极大地推动古代历史文化脉络传承的研究。”刘浩说。

According to Liu, deciphering the oracle bone scripts is helpful for reconstructing and completing the history of the Shang Dynasty. He believed, on a historical scale, the oracle bone scripts are of great value in the history of Chinese civilization. The oracle bone scripts are the actual existence of the "Shang" Dynasty mentioned in the ancient historical records and of Xiaotun Village in Anyang, once the capital of Shang, helping to extend the recorded Chinese history to nearly 1,000 years earlier than previously believed. "Deciphering the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty will greatly contribute to studying that period's history and culture," said Liu.

商代留给后人的史料有限，而甲骨文上的信息恰恰提供了最原始最真实的商代时事和生活，主要是商王室及贵族的占卜记录，上至国家大事，下至私人生活，如祭祀、气候、收成、征伐、田猎、病患、生育、出门等等，无不求神问卜，以得知吉凶祸福决定行止。刘浩解释：“我们从甲骨文中知道，几千年前，黄河中下游还有象群存在，当时已经出现了黍、麦、稻、豆等‘六谷’，商代人吃什么、穿什么。某种意义上说，它就是一部最原始的商代史书，可以据此追溯中国上古史的未知。”

The historical materials left by the Shang Dynasty are limited, but the oracle bone inscriptions provide the most primitive and authentic information about the current affairs and life of the Shang Dynasty, and the divination of the royal family and the nobles, such as rituals, climate, harvest, wars, hunting, illness, childbirth, going out, etc. "We know from the oracle bone inscriptions that thousands of years ago, there were elephant herds in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and that the 'six grains' of millet, wheat, rice, and beans have appeared at that time. The oracle bone inscriptions are the most primitive historical records of the Shang Dynasty, which can help us to trace the origin of Chinese history," said Liu.

在甲骨文发现及研究之前，商朝仅见于司马迁《史记·殷本纪》，但因没有实证，在近代颇受质疑，许多学者都怀疑商朝的存在。“甲骨文里记载了很多商王的名号，有些名号成序列，可恢复出商王世系。王国维等学者利用这些材料，证实了《史记》所记商王世系大体可信，证实了商王朝的真实存在。”安阳师范学院甲骨文信息处理教育部重点实验室副主任高峰也认为，甲骨文具有文化属性，有助于我们深入了解古代中国的社会生活和文化风貌。

Before discovering and studying oracle bone inscriptions, people only found the Shang Dynasty in the "Records of the Historian (Shi Ji)." However, due to a lack of empirical evidence, the existence of the Shang Dynasty was questioned by modern scholars. "People found the names of many Shang kings in oracle bone inscriptions. With these materials, scholars such as Wang Guowei confirmed that the Shang kings recorded in the "Records of the Historian" was generally credible and confirmed the existence of the Shang Dynasty," said Gao Feng, deputy director of theOracle Information Processing Laboratory. He also believes these inscriptions can help people better understand ancient China's social life and culture.

破译甲骨文还有助于研究汉字的起源和演变。

Deciphering oracle bone inscriptions also helps study the origin and evolution of Chinese characters.

在清华大学出土文献研究与保护中心主任、中国文字学会会长、中国文字博物馆馆长黄德宽看来，甲骨文一方面展示了3000多年前汉字的原始面貌，让现代人甚至比东汉文字学名家许慎更清楚地了解汉字的历史形态，并纠正了2000多年来汉字字形结构分析的一些错误；同时，甲骨文能够更好地帮助研究者寻找汉字的历史发展轨迹和演变规律。

"The oracle bone inscriptions show the original appearance of Chinese characters more than 3,000 years ago, enabling modern people to have a clearer understanding of the old forms of Chinese characters than Xu Shen, a famous philologist in Eastern Han Dynasty, and to correct some mistakes in the analysis of the structural components of Chinese characters that have existed for over 2,000 years; these precious relics can also help researchers to find the historical development and evolutionary rule of Chinese characters," according to Huang Dekuan, Director of Research and Conservation Center for Unearthed Texts at Tsinghua University, President of the Chinese Characters Association, and Curator of the National Museum of Chinese Writing.

黄德宽形象地比喻说：“文字的内在规定性很强，它内部可以分成一个个‘家族’。我们找到了相关字的‘老祖宗’，然后便能分析出它是如何派生出其他字的。

Huang said that oracle bone inscriptions can help people analyze how Chinese characters are derived.

“殷商甲骨文的造字系统凝聚了中华民族远古祖先的杰出智慧，全面破译甲骨文，将找到中华史前文明的文字密码。”黄德宽说，虽然甲骨文研究已过百年，但还有许多问题没有搞清楚。

"The oracle bone scripts in Yin Ruins embody the wisdom of the ancestors of the Chinese nation, and their comprehensive interpretation can help to trace the genes of ancient Chinese characters," said Huang. He added that although the research has undergone over a hundred years, many problems still need to be solved.

甲骨文破译之路依然艰难且漫长。但再难，我们也要坚定地走下去。

Deciphering oracle bone inscriptions remains challenging and lengthy. No matter how difficult it is, the Chinese people will proceed with determination. （中文来源/河南日报 记者/谢建晓 杨之甜 编译/李云娇 审校/温晓梅）