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writing brush, and then incised. Writing at this very early period in China was used
by a small minority, centered on the Shang rulers, for such purposes as enquiring
about the outcome of future events such as a battle, harvest, or childbirth, hence the
term ‘oracle bones’.
Although the oracle bone texts—typically fragmentary in nature—date back
more than two thousand years, they were only brought to light (rediscovered) in
relatively recent times. In 1899, Liu E, a Chinese scholar who was looking
for material to make up traditional Chinese medicine, purchased some bone fragments.
These were fragments which had been unearthed by farmers when plowing,
and they were known as ‘dragon bones’, based on the belief that dragons shed their
bones. Liu happened to notice some unusual scratching on the fragments. Being
familiar with how the early Chinese script looked, and guessing that these markings
probably represented a still earlier stage of Chinese writing, he decided to purchase
more of the bone fragments. His study of these fragments led to confirmation that
this was indeed an ancient stage of Chinese writing, and a stage earlier than what
had been recognized until then. This was a very important discovery, and marked
the point of departure for the scientific study of the oracle bone script.
1.2 Seal Script ( 篆 書 Ch. zhuanshu, J. tensho)
The ancient variety of the Chinese script known as seal script is divided into two varieties:
‘great seal’ (Ch. dazhuan, J. daiten) and ‘small seal’ (Ch. xiaozhuan,
J. shōten). Some of the examples of great seal script—the older variety—found on
bronze vessels date back in some cases to a period no later than that of the oracle
bone inscriptions, i.e., the latter part of the Shang Dynasty. The situation has been
summed up by the noted Chinese scholar Qiu Xigui as follows: ‘The practice of
casting inscriptions on bronzes initially grew in popularity in the latter half of the
Shang period and reached its zenith during the Zhou.’ (QX2000:62). Reflecting the
fact that before the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC) bronze was referred to as (Ch.
jin, J. kin), characters on ancient bronzes are sometimes known alternatively as
(Ch. jinwen, J. kinbun). Great seal characters of very early date often occur in a
very short sequence of a few characters or even just one, and are notable for their
ornateness compared to those on oracle bones. In shape, the great seal forms tend to
be characterized by soft curves and varying stroke width, contrasting with the thin
angularity of the oracle bone characters. In a given text, individual characters can
vary considerable in size. The ornate great seal characters were ill-suited for practical
purposes, and so the evolution of less impractical shapes was really a natural
development, though this does not mean that utilitarian considerations were allconsuming:
aesthetic considerations were still very important. A degree of simplification
in shape compared with great seal can be seen in many cases in the small
10 Introduction