Oracle bone script of the Shang and Zhou dynasties

Author: Wang Yuxin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-07-01
Features:
2. The Important Position of the "Luo's Four Books" in the History of Oracle Bone Studies Luo Zhenyu originally believed that the publication of Iron Cloud Collection of Oracle Bone Inscriptions would attract academic attention to oracle bone script. However, several years later, only Sun Yiyang's Examples of Oracle Bone Script was published, which greatly disappointed Luo Zhenyu. He then took it upon himself to study oracle bone script diligently. During his research, Luo Zhenyu realized the significance of collecting materials and thought, "To seek them is more urgent than to interpret them." Thus, he made great efforts to acquire oracle bones, and after several years of collection, he amassed tens of thousands of oracle bone fragments. After acquiring a large number of oracle bones, Luo Zhenyu organized and sorted them, planning to first publish their rubbings before interpreting them. In 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out, and Luo Zhenyu took his family to Japan, taking all his collected oracle bones with him. In Japan, Luo Zhenyu "used a year's time" to compile Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins in eight volumes, which is what we commonly refer to as The First Series of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins. The First Series recorded a total of 2,228 oracle bones, excluding forgeries and duplicates, with 2,221 actually included, publishing a large amount of important material. The First Series had clear prints and exquisite binding, making it a fine example among early cataloging books (Figure 4). In 1914, Luo Zhenyu selected from his collection the finest and most important oracle bones that had not yet been rubbed or copied, compiling The Essence of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins. The Essence included 64 oracle bones, including four large bone plates, which were exceptionally. These four large bone plates had large characters and important content, making them the "premium" pieces in Luo Zhenyu's collection, hence the name The Essence of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins. In 1915, Luo Zhenyu returned to China from Japan and visited the Yin Ruins specifically, feeling "as if he had seen the ancient archives of Yin's historians." Upon returning to Japan, he "showed tens of thousands of oracle bones he had collected, selecting those not covered in The First Series and adding over a thousand more, completing the work in a hundred days with his own hands." The Jewish businessman Haroun Tatsuno in Shanghai, upon learning of Luo Zhenyu's intention to publish a book, offered to fund it. Luo Zhenyu "used ten days to quickly compile it into two volumes and deliver it." In 1916, The Later Series of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins was published, including a total of 1,104 oracle bones. While organizing his own collection of oracle bones, Luo Zhenyu also vigorously collected rubbings of oracle bones from other collectors. "Over ten years, he obtained about three thousand sheets." In 1933, Luo Zhenyu "used a month's time to select two-thirds of these three thousand sheets, compiling six volumes," which is The Continuation Series of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins. This book included 2,016 oracle bones, most of whose rubbings were from the collections of Liu E, Wang Xiang, Peking University, and others. Although this book contained refined content, it had many duplicate entries compared to other cataloging books, with only 375 newly recorded oracle bones. The four books—The First Series of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins, The Essence of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins, The Later Series of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins, and The Continuation Series of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins—together included over 5,000 oracle bones, most of which were the finest pieces from Luo Zhenyu's collection and the rubbings he had gathered. In the preface to The Continuation Series of Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Yin Ruins, Luo Zhenyu confidently stated, "I dare not say that all the essence of Yin Ruins is gathered here, but it is largely complete." The "Luo's Four Books" are the most important compilations of oracle bones unearthed before the official excavation of Yin Ruins, publishing a vast amount of oracle bone material and providing basic material for the study of oracle bone script, thus advancing the development of this field. P34-36