Since the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in 1899, more than 654.38 million pieces have been unearthed, and this book is the representative work selected from them. There are two sources of rubbings in the book:
(a) Cut it from the record book;
(2) Re-ink. If the rubbings in the book are not clear, try to replace them with new rubbings and restore them to their original state. When editing, we should first eliminate the fake films, detect the duplicates, combine the fragments, and then sort them out in stages.
The book adopts Dong Zuobin's five-stage staging standard, that is, the first stage, Wu Ding; The second stage, Zu Geng and Zujia; The third issue, Yan Xin and Kangding; The fourth period, martial arts, Wen Ding; The fifth issue, Di Yi and Di Xin. As a part of the fourth Oracle bone inscriptions, Dong Zuobin is called Qi, Qi and Wu. This book collects them all and attaches them to the first issue of Wuding Oracle bones. The distribution of each issue of 13 is as follows: 1-6 is the first issue, 7 is the first issue, 8 is the second issue, 9- 10 is the third issue, and 10 is the fourth issue.
Each period of Oracle bones is classified from the perspective of social history according to its main contents. The book is divided into four categories, 2 1, and its classification method is as follows:
(1) class and country:
(1) slaves and civilians; (2) slave owners and nobles; (3) officials; (4) army, punishment and prison; (5) War; (6) square domain; (7) gunnar.
(2) social production:
(1) agriculture; (2) Fisheries, hunting and animal husbandry; (3) handicraft industry; (4) commerce and transportation.
(3) ideology and culture:
(1) astronomical calendar; (2) meteorology; (3) architecture; (4) disease; (5) Fertility; (6) Worship of ghosts and gods; (7) sacrifice; (8) Good dreams or nightmares; (9) complement method; (10) text.
(4) others.
By stages, each Oracle bone can be put into practice in Wang Shi, where it is located, so that the times are clear, and the classification makes Oracle bone inscriptions with the same content in the same period gather together for comparative study. However, many Oracle Bone Inscriptions with different contents are often engraved on an Oracle bone. In order to maintain the integrity of Oracle bones, it is not allowed to separate rubbings and record them separately, so there are many phenomena that various types of contents cross each other, which makes its classification subjective and imperfect.
Nevertheless, this book will basically collect all the existing Oracle Bone Inscriptions materials except those collected and published in the book "Xiaotun South Oracle Bone Inscriptions" in the 80 years since the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and scientifically sort them out through identification, de-duplication, fragment combination, staging and classification, laying a foundation for the future development of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Its publication is one of the great achievements of China's historiography after liberation. It has been widely concerned by academic circles at home and abroad.
During the period from 1982 to 1992/1year, he won the ancient book arrangement award (1987), the Wu Award Special Award (1987) and the first National Excellent Ancient Book Arrangement Award Special Award (/. With the publication of this book, the research on Oracle Bone Inscriptions, ancient Chinese characters and ancient society has become more active.