Shells archived
4,127
Jiǎgǔwén · 甲骨文 · est. c.1250 BCE
Heat the bone. Read the crack.
Turtle plastron and ox scapula, scraped thin and pit-bored, then touched with a heated brand. The split that followed was the answer; the incisions beside it are the oldest Chinese writing we can read. Hover a shell to apply heat.
Descend to the reading table
卜
01 / Oracle
Pose a question. Apply heat.
The diviner bored a row of hollows into the reverse, pressed a heated brand into one, and the face split with a report — the pǔ. The angle of the split was read, then the charge and its outcome were incised beside it. Move your cursor onto the scapula: heat gathers, the fracture runs, and the inscription reads out.
Hover to apply heat
02 / Method
The three motions of the pǔ.
Motion I
Charge
The plastron is scraped, hollowed, and pit-bored so the heat has somewhere to bite. A shell that will not hold fire will not speak.
Motion II
Crack
A bronze rod, red at the tip, is pressed to the hollow. The bone snaps with a small report — the pǔ — and a fracture writes itself into the grain.
Motion III
Read
The diviner reads angle and branch — auspicious or ill — then incises the verdict beside the crack. Those incisions became China's first writing.
03 / Collection
From the Anyang vaults.
卜.001
The Rain PetitionOx scapula · full transverse crack
Late Shang · Wu Ding reign
卜.048
Shall We Hunt at DawnTurtle plastron · forked omen
Late Shang · Zu Geng
卜.192
The Harvest of the MilletOx scapula · clean auspicious break
Late Shang · Di Xin
卜.311
On the King's ToothachePlastron fragment · ill-boding angle
Late Shang · Wu Ding
Read the fourth part.
Most published charges stop at the prognostication. The verification — what actually happened in the ten days that followed — survives on roughly one bone in twenty.