ABSTRACT
The earliest fragmentary examples of the Chinese writing system date from about 2000 BC. The first sizeable corpus of connected texts, however, is provided by the oracle inscriptions on animal bones and tortoise shells, which were used in divination rituals by the rulers of the Shang dynasty (c. 1400-1100 BC). From 1899 onwards, great numbers of these inscriptions have been excavated at the site of the ancient capital, Anyang, and elsewhere. Their content is largely stereotyped along the lines that one would expect to find in an economy based on agriculture: Is it going to rain? Will the harvest be plentiful? The question was apparently incised on one half of a shell, for example, which was then heated; the cracks which appeared in the other half were interpreted as the answer, and written in.
