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- 16 Pendant of squatting man
altered jade, ht. 5.5 cm
Shang dynasty, 16th-11 th centuries B.C. arm Flat plaque in the form of a squatting man, pierced hairknot, arm raised with incised lines indicating fingers. Engraved double lines follow outline and depict features.
17 Pendants or engravers of (top) dragon or tiger and (bottom) fish
pale green jade with traces of cinnabar,
I. 5.6 cm and 5.1 cm
Shang dynasty, 16th-11th centuries B.C. JMH
18 Pendants or engravers of fish (top) pale green jade, (bottom) white jade I. 5.2 cm and 11 cm
Shang dynasty, 16th-11th centuries B.C. ARM
19 Pendants of fish
pale green jade with traces of cinnabar,
I. 3.8 cm and 2.8 cm
Shang dynasty, 16th-11th centuries B.C.
FMN and ARM
A large number of pendants and engravers of fish shape have been found in royal Shang tombs which are similar to the above. (e.g. see The Jades from Yinxu, Beijing, 1982, No. 30). The small fish pendants have incised lines to indicate fins and the eyes are pierced. Some pendants have a blade-edge extension from tail, so they may have served as small engraving tools. This pendant was acquired in Anyang.
20 Hairpin finials
bone, I. 5.2 cm and 3.8 cm
Shang dynasty, 16th-11th centuries B.C. JMH
21 Hairpins with bird-head finials
bone, I. 13-14.2 cm
Shang dynasty, 16th-11th centuries B.C.
ARM and JMH
Hairpins with bird- and animal-head finials appear to have been quite popular in Shang times.
22 Oracle bone
deer bone, I. 15.5 cm
Shang dynasty, 16th-11th centuries B.C. ARM
23 Oracle bone
bone, I. 11.8 cm
Shang dynasty, 16th-11th centuries B.C. JMH
24 Oracle bone (Inscription �
First Moon, King�s Unlucky Dream of a Son translated by Rev. Dr. James M. Menzies)
tortoise scapula, I. 7 cm
Shang dynasty, 16th-11 th centuries B.C. FMN
25 Oracle bone fragments
tortoise scapula
Shang dynasty, 16th-11th centuries B.C. ARM The earliest use of animal bones for divination in China can be traced back to the fourth millennium B.C. It appears to have become a fairly common practice in the Longshan and Xia cultures, but it was not until the Shang Dynasty (16th-11 th centuries B.C.) that the ear�liest examples of written Chinese can be found on them.
These bones, which include pig, ox or sheep scap�ulae and tortoise shells, came to be called �oracle bones.� Diviners or oracles would pose a question and produce cracks in the bones and shells, by heating, which were then interpreted and the answer ascer�tained. Like all good diviners, they probably controlled the prophecy by making the cracks appear where they wished and thus they wielded much power in the old society.
Indentations at regular intervals were cut on one side of the bone or shell, then it was touched with a red hot bronze point, which would produce a cracked pattern. Often the questions and sometimes the answers were incised into the bone with primitive pictograms and, eventually, a considerable vocabulary of charac�ters was developed during the Shang dynasty, which was quite sophisticated and capable of a wide range of expression. This came to be the basis of the modern Chinese written language. According to research so far, there may be up to 4,500 different characters, of which some 1,700 have been deciphered. Thousands of these bones from a place called the �Wastes of Yin� near the city of Anyang, have been found and published.
These important early writings were crucial to the understanding of the political and social activities of Shang society, and have provided us with a chronology of the rulers of the dynasty. The inscriptions provide much insight into the concerns of the royal court and shows how they reinforced and proclaimed their au�thority.
The questions on the bones and shells were put to the royal ancestors to predict the future and to deter�mine courses of action. Questions were on such mat�ters as royal household concerns, sacrifices to the ancestors, diplomatic and military affairs, as well as weather, agriculture, hunting, travel and sickness.
26 Shards
white earthenware
Shang dynasty, 16th-11th centuries B.C.
ARM and JMH
These shards are from the handsome white earthen�ware vessels which were produced during the Shang period. Complete vessels of this type are extremely rare. The shards are decorated with the type of decor�ation which can be found on contemporary bronze ritual vessels. These shards were found at Anyang.
27 Pigment container earthenware with traces of pigment, I. 9.7 cm Shang dynasty, 16th-11th centuries B.C. ARM This pigment container (tulu) has four cylindrical open�ings in a square body with long-necked, bovine-head handle at one side. Similar specimens, not great in number, have been found made of various media: pottery, bronze, jade and stone. This pottery example was obtained in Anyang.
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