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oracle bones

   Also found in: Wikipedia 0.03 sec.
oracle bones, bones used for divination by the Chinese during the Shang Shang (shäng) or Yin, dynasty of China, which ruled, according to traditional dates, from c.1766 B.C. to c.1122 B.C.
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 dynasty (traditionally c.1766 B.C.–c.1122 B.C.). Along with contemporary inscriptions on bronze vessels, these records of divination, which were incised on the shoulder blades of animals (mainly oxen) and on turtle shells, contain the earliest form of Chinese writing. In addition to being an important source for understanding the development of written Chinese, they tell a great deal about Shang society. Questions asked by the diviners concerned such matters as sacrifices, weather, war, hunting, travel, and luck. The bones were heated to produce cracks from which "yes" or "no" answers were somehow derived. A small number of oracle bones have the answer and the eventual outcome inscribed. Discovered in the ruins of the Shang capital of Anyang in the late 19th cent., they were first sold as so-called dragon bones to be ground up for use in Chinese medicinal compounds and only received the attention of scholars in the 1920s.

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This is what Nivison does for a start with the word de [Chinese Text Omitted], the origins of which are traced to the oracle bones inscriptions of Shang China and which, eventually coming to mean "virtue," has become central to any reflection on ethics.
Before the invention of paper, scholars in ancient China wrote predictions and recorded events, including eclipses, on fragments of bone and tortoise shell known as oracle bones.
The last time was more than 20 years ago) --"Treasures from Shanghai" features bronze and ancient oracle bones from the Shang dynasty, jade and porcelain from the Son and Qing dynasties, to a myriad of exquisite and historically relevant lacquer boxes, paintings and calligraphy.
 
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