What is the origin and evolution of Oracle Bone Inscriptions?

Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which originated in Shang Dynasty, is a form of ancient calligraphy in China. Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty was originally carved on tortoise shells or animal bones, and its main function was to record the contents of divination. Later, the characters on tortoise shells or animal bones gradually formed the Oracle Bone Inscriptions.

The Shang and Zhou Dynasties, in which bronzes were the main materials, changed from Oracle bone inscriptions at the beginning to inscriptions on bronzes, which were particularly popular in the Zhou Dynasty and lasted for a long time.

After Qin Shihuang unified China, in order to consolidate the rule and strengthen the central power, the Qin Dynasty implemented the policy of "thousands of books is the same, and all cars are on the same track", and many measures such as unified measurement, car and track were originally sui generis. Inspired by Qin Shihuang and managed by Prime Minister Li Si, the script of the big seal script used by Qin State was gradually simplified to the small seal script, and at the same time, the fonts of other countries were cancelled, creating a unified writing form, which had a far-reaching impact on later generations.

By the Han Dynasty, Chinese characters had evolved into a new way of writing, namely official script. Lishu, also known as Han Li, has a flat, long and horizontally curved font. When writing, pay attention to "the silkworm head and goose tail are tortuous, and want to go left first and then right", and the overall font is a cuboid.

Since the Tang, Song, Wei and Jin Dynasties, Chinese characters have evolved into regular script, running script and cursive script. According to legend, running script was created by Liu Desheng in Han Dynasty, which was between regular script and cursive script. Writing is fluent and pen is flexible. Many calligraphers are good at this font.

During this period, many famous calligraphers emerged in ancient China, and they had their own writing styles, which had a far-reaching impact on the people who studied calligraphy in later generations and became valuable wealth in the history of writing evolution.

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Most of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's contents are the records of divination by the royal family in Shang Dynasty. Most people in Shang dynasty were superstitious about ghosts and gods, and they had to ask questions about big and small issues. Some divination is about the weather, some is about the harvest of farming, some is about diseases and premature birth, and there are hunting, fighting, sacrifice and other important things to ask. Therefore, Oracle Bone Inscriptions's content can provide a glimpse of people's life and the historical development of Shang Dynasty.

At the same time, the shape of Oracle Bone Inscriptions is very close to that of ancient buildings. It can be said that architectural records are also a major source of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. From the glyphs of many buildings in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, we can know the structural form and development of ancient buildings in China.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions's word "Gao". It can be inferred from its glyph that there was a building built on the earthen platform in the Shang Dynasty. The lower part of it should be regarded as a cellar dug in the earthen platform, which is a way of building after the rise of private ownership and the emergence of families. Its upper part can be regarded as a building with both roofs and walls.

The appearance of the Great Wall is a great creation in ancient China. The indoor space surrounded by walls is much higher than that surrounded by roofs only, which coincides with the meaning of "Worship to the Highest".