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Inscribed Oracle
Bones: Turtle Plastron Fragments
Shang
dynasty (ca. 1600�ca. 1100 b.c.e.),
undated, from the reigns of the kings Zu Geng (ca. 1188�ca.1178 b.c.e.) and Zu Jia (ca. 1177�ca.1158 b.c.e.)
Four
fragments; dimensions vary (a: 5.8 x 7.1 cm; b: 7.0 x 5.5 cm; c: 6.5 x 6.3 cm;
d: 5.9 x 4.5 cm)
Inventory number: Jiagu 5521,
5538, 5518, 6019
Royal
divination was one of the central institutions of the Shang dynasty and the
names of more than 120 Shang diviners, serving the last 9 kings, are known to
historians.� Topics of divination ranged
from the performance of the ancestral cult, apotropaic wishes for "no
harm" in the next 10-day week, questions regarding the outcome of royal
hunts, harvests, or childbirth, queries on impending disasters, enemy invasions,
victory in battle, good fortune, or bad omens.�
Royal diviners obtained the scapulae (shoulder blades) of cattle and
sheep that had been ritually sacrificed and turtle plastrons (ventral shells)
or carapaces and cracked them by applying hot metal rods or heated sticks of
chaste wood to hollows on the rough (back) sides, which would produce T-shaped fissures on the
smooth (front) sides.
Although
the diviners formulated the charges and oversaw the divinatory rituals, with
few exceptions, only the king had the prerogative to make pronouncements
regarding the cracks, which could be interpreted as auspicious, inauspicious,
or neutral.� The Shang king's monopoly
of the critical act of interpretation may well be understood in terms of his
ancestry.� After the king had made his
forecast or interpretation, the number of each crack, along with the occasional
"crack notation" about the auspicious quality of a particular crack,
was incised beside it.� A complete
record of the divination, probably drafted on perishable material, was then
incised into the bone or shell.� The
incised characters and cracks occasionally were filled with pigments.
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