A Study Of The Dating Of The Huang Group Oracle Bone Inscriptions In Yingxu Ruins

The Huang group oracle bone inscriptions in Yingxu ruins , which belongs to the fifth-period oracle bone inscriptions by the five-period-dividing method of Dongzuobing , has been always studied by the academic circle. This dissertation divides the Huang group oracle bone inscriptions to two groups by their handwriting style and character feature. The first category of the Huang group oracle bone inscriptions , with the appellation 'Father Ding' and 'Mother Gui 'which were the titles Di Yi addressing his father 'Wen Ding ' and his mother 'Pi Kui', is of the period of Di Yi .From the fact that the calendar days of data of the twenty sacrifices of the two kings don't get along well we know that the Huang group oracle bone inscriptions cannot have been early than the period of Wen Ding. There is an important appellation of 'Wen Wu Di'. By analyzing the inscription example and the rule of the date of the sacrifice ,the dissertation point out that the appellation of 'Wen Wu Di' refers to both Wen Ding and Di Yi, and that the appellation of 'Wen Wu Di' in the second category of the Huang group oracle bone inscriptions is the name which Di Xin refers his father Di Yi. From this we deduce that the date of the second category of the Huang group oracle bone inscriptions is Di Xin period.Based on the classification by dating , the dissertation studies the sacrifices ,wars and hunts recorded by the Huang group oracle bone inscriptions. The amount of the oracle bone inscriptions of the 'Circle Sacrifices' is the largest, with their complete and systematic content. From the fact that the distribution of the five sacrificing rituals (Yi,Ji,Zai,Xie,Rong) is not proportionate and that there are only Yi and Rong sacrificing rituals in the combined sacrifice for Shang Jia and the queens, we can see that the Yin people treated the five sacrificing rituals differently. The greatest disagreement about the Circular Sacrifices among the scholars is at which king and queen the Circrlar Sacrifices stop. This problem is important because it concerns not only the date of the Huang group oracle bone inscriptions, but the evolution of the sacrificing system of the late Yin. In 2005, the Ban Square Tripod, with inscriptions of 'the king offer a sacrifice to Wen Wu Di Yi on the Rong day', appeared. It proves that at the time of Di Xin ,the sacrifice to Di Yi belongs to the system of the Circular Sacrifices.By analyzing the feature of the oracle bone inscriptions of the five sacrifices for former kings, the king Bing and that by the Circular Sacrifices ,as well as the inscriptions on the bronze, the dissertaton explains that the sacrifices for the three kings and two queens such as Wu Yi, Wen Ding, Di Yi are belong to the system of the Circular Sacrifices. This dissertation tentatively arranges the data of the year sacrifice, month, heaven and earth branches, the Circular Sacrifices rituals, which recorded in he Huang group oracle bone inscriptions and late Yin bronze. Although the sacrifice No.2-8 of sacrifice table 1 and the sacrifice No.9-11 of sacrifice table 2 belong to the same first category of the Huang group oracle bone inscriptions, the two tables are not proportionate. It is inferred that they belong to two different kings or great calendar involution was taken during that period. There is only one example for year sacrifice and sacrifice ritual in the second category of the Huang group oracle bone inscriptions. The sacrifice table of the Circular Sacrifices No.2-7 for Di Xin is mainly based on the data from bronze inscriptions. The study on the data of 'twenty sacrifices for kings' shows that the extant four data of 'twenty sacrifices for kings' are not proportionate. The study on the reconstruction of the Circle Sacrifices table needs to be continued.Based on the study on the Fang, Jin, Zhen, and other sacrifices, this dissertation points out that the sacrifice form becomes former, the ritual content tends to be fixed and simplified, the sacrifice for late ancestors are more stressed, the amount of human beings and livestock is greatly reduced during the period of Di Yi and Di Xin in late Shang.The most important war oracle bone inscriptions in the Huang group are'the sacrifices of making war against Reng Fang'. There are different views aboutwhich king they belong to. Having arranged the data by the character feature ,thisdissertation concludes that the sacrifices of making war against Reng Fang' belongto the period of Di Yi.The Huang group oracle bone inscriptions abound in hunts, with lots of names of hunting places. This dissertation studies the hunting form, hunting date, the names of hunting places by the types of the oracle bone inscriptions, to learn the particular historical facts about hunting in the late Shang. This dissertation also makes a comparison between the names of the hunting places in the Huang group oracle bone inscriptions and that of the Nameless group, the He group, and the group between He and the Nameless, and makes a further conclusion that the hunting area in the late Shang changed along with the era.