Future is uncertain. It is sort of like a mystery that is waiting
for you to find out. Have you ever wondered what would happen to you in the future? In this modern era, when we want to know about our future, we can go to the fortune tellers and let them foretell future events. The fortune teller might look at palm line or let you pick the gypsy card in order predict your fortune. However, it is different back in the ancient time. The curiosity of people to know their fortune has been a persistence and began ages ago. So in order to fulfill this desire, many forms of fortunetelling were invented. In Ancient Chinese civilization dates back to the middle of Shang Dynasty, oracle bones were used as a method of divination. Moreover, they were marked as one of the great achievements of Ancient China due to the fact that they induced the development of the first form of writing in China. Oracle bones or also known as Dragons Bones are the shoulder blade of oxen or the flat underside of the turtles shell which were used in Shang Dynasty of China around 1600-1046 BCE for prophecy. Worshipping of Shang Di and ancestors was an important tradition during Shang Dynasty, so as part of the worship the used of oracle bones was brought to get advice from the ancestors. A fortune-teller which was trained priests would carve symbols on the bones of the ox or the turtle shell. Then a hot piece of metal or fire was applied to the bone or shell until the cracks appeared. The direction of the crack was interpreted to predict the future. People from the farmer to the king, during that time literally relied on the cracks on oracle bones in making decisions. They believed that the priests were able to contact with the spirit world of their ancestors through oracle bones. The person would ask question that they would like to know the answer to it. Then the priest would carve the symbol representing the question on the bone and the hot metal will be applied. If the crack went in one direction, it meant the positive thing, but if the crack went in many directions, it meant negatively. The discovery of these oracle bones is thought to be excavated by farmers around the area without realizing what the bones were and buried them back into the ground. During the 19th century, local villagers dug in the terrain and discovered numerous bones and later those bones were used as "dragon bones", the ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. The turtle shell fragments were prescribed for malaria. However, Wang Jung; a Chinese philosopher is the first one to recognize their significance. Wang Jung was sick because of Malaria. He received the medicine from an apothecary which was best-known for dragon's bones medication. He noticed some carvings that resembled some sort of writing on the dragon bones which is the ingredient in medicine that he was given to cure his illness. After the death of Wang, the bones were sold by his son to Liu E, who published the first book of rubbings of the oracle bone inscriptions. News of the discovery of the oracle bones spread quickly throughout China and among philosophers. In 1908, scholar Luo Zhenyu discovered the origin of the bones near Anyang and realized that it was the site of the last Shang dynasty capital. The significance of oracle bones was not only for divination or religious worship but also contribute towards the rise of the first Chinese writing system. These bones are also the crucial primitive sources that evidence the history of the Shang Dynasty as well as the history of the Bronze Age period in China. The oracle bones have resolved the doubt of historians and prove to the world that Shang Dynasty really existed. The oracle bones are the earliest written records of Chinese civilization. The writings and symbols on the bones provide us important information about the events occurred during Shang era and other things that are relevant to Shang Dynasty. The information about peoples wellbeing as well as the activities done by the king were recorded on the bones. In conclusion, the oracle bones had a major role during Shang dynasty, they served as the method of prophecy and also lead to the development of the first writing system of China. Furthermore, they are the important evidence which ensure us that Shang Dynasty did really exist. Without these oracle bones Shang Dynasty might be recognized only as myth or legend. Without them, there wont be the modern Chinese characters that are used today.
References :
Mark, E. (2016, February 26). Oracle Bones. Retrieved from
http://www.ancient.eu/Oracle_Bones/
Richard, R. (2016, n.d.). Oracle Bones. Retrieved from