Overview
Presents a new approach for general readers and scholars, even those with only a minimal grasp of Chinese, to learn oracle bone inscriptions (OBI) and to gain an appreciation of the origin and development of the Chinese writing system and civilization
Employs a didactic and tutorial format, allowing it to be used for teaching OBI or self-learning
Provides background information on the Shang civilization, the scapulimancy culture, and a comparison of the four pristine writing systems (Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, and Mayan)
Includes detailed annotations that not only discuss the significance of the text but also illuminate the logographic nature of the Chinese writing system, which has survived to the present day
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
Table of contents (120 chapters)
-
Front Matter
Keywords
About this book
Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese OBI and Mayan constitute the four pristine writing systems. Of these, only Chinese writing has remained logographic and survived to the present day. The study of OBI not only plays a pivotal role in connecting archaeology to history, but is also of great importance to the comparative study of the origin of writing and civilization. Though there are numerous books on Mayan and Egyptian hieroglyphs, there are very few on OBI; this book fills that gap.
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
He studied oracle bone inscriptions (OBI) and Archaeology at National Taiwan University, Taipei and at the Graduate School at Yale University, working under several highly respected scholars, including Jin Xiangheng( 金祥恆 NTU), Li Xiaoding (李孝定NTU), Chang Kwang-chi (張光直 Yale), and JaoTsung-I (饒宗頤 Yale). He has taught OBI at Rutgers University for over 10 years. He also taught a seminar course at Rutgers entitled “Origin of Writing and Civilization.”
Zhenhao Song is an Academic Committee Member and Research Fellow at the Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. He is also the Director of the Center of Research on Oracle Bone and Shang History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is the chief editor of the Journal of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Shang History (《甲骨文與殷商史》). He has edited two highly acclaimed book series: Society and Life of Xia and Shang ( 《夏商社會生活史》) and History of Shang Dynasty (《商代史》), and has published numerous articles in the field of paleography and pre-Qin China. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to oracle bone research, including cataloging and publishing the source materials for OBI research. He has recently compiled seven volumes of OBI collected from private and public sources, adding thousands of hitherto unpublished pieces to the corpus of OBI.
Yuan Liu is a Research Fellow at the Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. He is also a Professor of History at the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His research focuses on the evolution of social structure, political and administrative machinery, and cultural institutions in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. He is also interested in didactics of OBI and bronze inscriptions (BI). He has authored the Study of Ancestral Worship Ceremony in Shang and Zhou (《商周祭祖礼研究》) and published numerous journal articles and conference papers on OBI, BI, and Shang Zhou history.
Matthew Anderson is an independent scholar on Early China. He studied under Professor Victor Mair and holds a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. His thesis Change and Standardization in Anyang: Writing and Culture in Bronze Age China is available through University of Pennsylvania Scholarly Commons. He is interested in the origins and evolution of the Chinese writing system, the linguistic development of Chinese, early Chinese rituals and religious practice, and interactions between the Early Chinese states and peoples on their peripheries. He is currently translating the corpus Yinxu Xiaotun cun zhong cun nan jiagu (Oracle bones from the center and south of Xiaotun village in the Yin Ruins).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Reading of Shāng Inscriptions
Authors: Kuang Yu Chen, Zhenhao Song, Yuan Liu, Matthew Anderson
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6214-3
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: Shanghai People's Publishing House 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-15-6213-6Published: 10 November 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-15-6216-7Published: 11 November 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-981-15-6214-3Published: 09 November 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 558
Number of Illustrations: 8 b/w illustrations, 17 illustrations in colour
Topics: History of China, Linguistics, general, Cultural Heritage, Historical Linguistics