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甲骨文
Inscriptions on Bones or Tortoise Shells
商周時期用于占卜記事而刻在龜甲或獸骨上的文字，又稱“契文”“甲骨卜辭”“殷墟文字”，是中國迄今為止發(fā)現(xiàn)的最古老文字，有三千多年歷史。甲骨文最初出土于河南安陽的小屯村殷墟，一般認為由晚清金石學家王懿榮于1899年最早發(fā)現(xiàn)。商周時期，王室及貴族上自國家大事，下至私人生活，如祭祀、氣候、收成、征伐、田獵、病患、生育等，無不向上天卜問，以占卜結果決定行止。占卜是國家政治生活中的一件大事，有刻辭的甲骨，會被當作國家檔案保存起來。目前已出土的甲骨達十萬余片，發(fā)現(xiàn)的甲骨文單字約4500個，其中能認識的字約1700個。甲骨文已經(jīng)有較嚴密的系統(tǒng)，漢字的“六書”造字法在甲骨文中都有所體現(xiàn)，而且有大批形聲字產(chǎn)生。甲骨卜辭也是今天研究商周時期歷史的第一手資料。
Such inscriptions include oracles and events recorded on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. They are also known as "script chiseled out with a knife," "oracles on bones or tortoise shells," or "script from Yin Ruins." They are the earliest known characters of ancient China dated more than 3,000 years ago. Inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells were first uncovered from among Yin Ruins at Xiaotun Village in Anyang in Henan Province, generally believed to have first been discovered in 1899 by Wang Yirong, a late Qing epigrapher. In the Shang and Zhou dynasties, royal families and noblemen would consult heaven about anything ranging from state business to trivial affairs in daily life, such as sacrificial rituals, weather, harvesting, war, hunting, illness, and giving birth. It was the answers they thus elicited that determined what course of action to take. Divination was an important part of a country's governance; the bones and tortoise shells with characters inscribed on them would be stored away as state archives. So far, more than 100,000 bones and tortoise shells have been unearthed, about 4,500 characters have been tallied, and of these, about 1,700 have been understood and interpreted. Characters on bones and tortoise shells have become increasingly systemized, with the six ways of forming Chinese characters (pictographs, self-explanatory characters, associative compounds, pictophonetic characters, mutually explanatory characters, and phonetic loan characters) all reflected in them and a large number of pictophonetic characters (or phonograms) that had merged. Oracles inscribed on bones and tortoise shells are also valuable firsthand material for studying the history of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
引例 Citation：
◎卜辭契于龜骨，其契之精而字之美，每令吾輩數(shù)千載后人神往。文字作風且因人因世而異，大抵武丁之世，字多雄渾，帝乙之世，文咸秀麗。（郭沫若《殷契粹編·序》）
占卜之辭刻在龜甲獸骨上，其刻工之精、文字之美，每每令幾千年之后的我輩神往。卜辭文字的風格也因人因時而異，大體上說，國王武丁時期，文字大多雄渾，國王帝乙時期，文字都很秀麗。
Words of divination, cut out on bones or tortoise shells, are truly admirable for their excellent craftsmanship and fine structures. They fascinate me nonetheless today, although they were the work of several thousand years ago. And they also varied in style from time to time and from person to person. Roughly speaking, the characters of King Wuding's time look majestic whereas those of King Diyi's time look elegant. (Guo Moruo: An Interpretation of Selected Inscriptions on Bones and Tortoise Shells of the Shang Dynasty)
推薦：教育部 國家語委
供稿：北京外國語大學 外語教學與研究出版社
責任編輯：錢耐安
