A Guide to Ancient Chinese Divination | Oracle Bones of the Shang Dynasty

Описание: 00:00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:04:11 What are They?
00:08:34 How Were They Used?
00:17:35 Inscriptions and What They Tell Us
00:29:44 Role of Oracle Bones in Shang Culture
00:41:27 Oracle Bone Divination and Other Early Chinese Practices
00:50:47 Legacy and Conclusion

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Unearth the story of Chinese oracle bones, the Shang-dynasty ox scapulae and turtle plastrons whose incised inscriptions preserve the earliest known form of Chinese writing. This video traces how royal diviners in 13th-century BCE Anyang drilled and heated the bones to read cracks for guidance on warfare, agriculture, and ancestral worship, then carved the pronouncements into the surface—creating a priceless archive of Bronze-Age politics and religion. Follow the 1899 discovery of “dragon bones,” their excavation at Yinxu, and the modern decipherment that revealed thousands of characters, calendrical data, and the roots of the Chinese script still in use today. Ideal for viewers interested in ancient divination, early writing systems, and East Asian archaeology, this exploration shows why oracle bones remain a cornerstone for understanding China’s deep past.

Information sourced from Wiki, Gutenburg, JSTOR, primary and secondary sources. All information is congruent with archaeological and history evidence at the time of recording.