A Study On The Oracle Inscriptions And The Literature And Art In Shang Dynasty

As a kind of culture remains, oracle inscription is of great importance in recordingthe culture of Shang dynasty and it is closely linked to literature and art. On one hand,carving of oracle inscription is the origin of Chinese calligraphy, based on whichcalligraphy styles were formed; On the other hand, oracle inscription records the artexistence of rites, poetry, music and dance of Shang people. Moreover, a considerableamount of oracle inscriptions have already taken the embryonic form of literature,helping poetry and prose take their rise. This has exerted a major impact on thedevelopment of historical science and literature of later generations.Taking the cultural study of oracle inscription as a starting point, and consideringliterature and art as key inspection angels, this paper aims at exploring comprehensivelythe interaction between oracle inscriptions and literature and art of Shang dynasty.Points are discussed as follows:First of all, the scapulomancy system and relevant issues. Scapulomancy was at itszenith in Shang dynasty. Driven by needs, a complete augury system with clear divisionof responsibilities was formed and based on which a unique scapulomany system wasdeveloped. An augury could be applied in every part of social lives such as musicaldance, whether to fight a war, hunting animals and astronomical phenomena etc. Suchunique culture helps a lot in understanding the Shang Dynasty.The second, bone inscription’s feature of “common origin of calligraphy andpainting” and the art styles of calligraphy. Bone inscription bears the feather of“common origin of calligraphy and painting”, which means that bone inscription is bothwith the literal and the artistic symbol functions. From those simple inscriptions,descriptions and artistic beauty could be full displayed. Such inscription has played aunique role in oracle inscription literature. There is an extremely strict carving systemfor bone inscriptions. Caving masters would pass their skills to their followers, whoimitates his carving style and practices and passes the skill on and on. Under suchsystem, different calligraphy styles of oracle inscriptions are formed and spread.The third, the literary features of the oracle inscriptions. Western literary theorybelieves that a change of reading method is of great help in explaining the feature of literature. From a perspective of “vertical reading”: to remove the augury vocabularypart, and keeping only mingci (divining words) and yanci (confirming words), thepoetic property of the oracle inscriptions will be revealed; From a perspective of“horizontal reading”: to read in a sequence of qianci (prefacing words), mingci(divining words), zhanci (astrology words) and yanci (confirming words), the prosestyle will be revealed. Limited by writing conditions and affected by historians’ culturelevel, artistic characteristics of oracle inscriptions were gradually generated.The fourth, oracle inscription and "common origin of augury and history”.Oracleinscription is with dual features of augury and historical records. It is the source of t“common origin of augury and history” in China. On one hand, this feature has a directimpact on the “image-observing system” defined in Zhou Yi. Meanwhile, this system of“taking history events as bases for augury” also gave some hints for Zhou Yi to takehistorical events as certain symbols. On the other hand, this special feature, combinedwith the recording system of ancient times, has made it a real source of chroniclehistorical recodes. The narrative style of oracle inscription offered a reference for thethree-paragraph structure of historical books such as: Tso Chuan and Guoyu etc.The fifth, oracle inscription and musical dance of Shang Dynasty. Oracleinscriptions witnessed people’s worship towards gods in Shang dynasty. In theinscription, a good number of musical dances that pleasing gods were recoded, and theywere the living fossil of such a culture. In the records of oracle inscriptions, the detailsof dances and the official system were revealed; important music officials such asduowan (in charge of music and dance) and gumeng were also unveiled. Furthermore,according to the musical dances records, it comes down in one continues line with theancient Xiangyue system (making ritual and music when the king gets victory inbattlefield or make achievements in any filed) and has promoted the formation of ShangSong.The sixth, oracle inscription and literature of Shang Dynasty. Apart from oracleinscription, Shang Shu and Shang Song were the two books passed down from Shangdynasty. Compared with the oracle inscription and investigating into the similarities, wemay re-estimate the time when the two books were created, and on the other hand, wecan see the development process of oracle inscription to literatures.