Quickbytes Explanation
Oracle Bones
Question
What were oracle bones used for in Shang China?
Reveal Answer
Answer
They were used in divination, with questions and responses recorded in inscriptions.
Quick Explanation
Oracle bones were cattle shoulder blades or turtle shells used in Shang royal divination. A question was prepared, heat was applied to create cracks, and diviners interpreted the cracking as a response from ancestors or spiritual powers. Many bones were inscribed with dates, questions, predictions, and sometimes the outcome, giving historians direct evidence about Shang rulers, warfare, harvests, weather, childbirth, rituals, and other concerns.
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What Were Oracle Bones?
Oracle bones are animal bones and turtle shells used in divination, especially by the royal court of the late Shang dynasty. Common materials included cattle scapulae—shoulder blades—and the lower shells, or plastrons, of turtles.
How Divination Worked
A diviner prepared the bone or shell, often drilling or carving small hollows into it. Heat was then applied, causing the material to crack. The pattern of the cracks was interpreted as a response to a question posed to ancestors or other spiritual powers.
What Was Written Down?
Many surviving examples include inscriptions recording information such as the date, the diviner, the question, and the king’s interpretation or prediction. Some also record what eventually happened.
Questions could concern rainfall, harvests, military campaigns, hunting, sickness, childbirth, sacrifices, dreams, or the proper timing of rituals.
Why They Matter to Historians
Oracle bones preserve names of Shang kings and events that can be compared with later historical traditions. They also reveal how closely religion, government, warfare, and family concerns were connected at the royal court.
Early Chinese Writing
The inscriptions are the earliest large surviving corpus of Chinese writing. The script is already developed and recognizable as an ancestor of later Chinese characters, which suggests that earlier stages of writing probably existed on materials that have not survived as well.