A study on the relationship between the period of oracle bone inscriptions and the development of character forms

Abstract

Dong Zuobin 董作宾 utilised character form information to classify the oracle bone inscriptions period, pointing out that character form changed depending on the period. However, the concept of leizu (类组) was formed that classified an oracle bone inscription and its period based on the character form characteristics. This led to academia’s overemphasis on character form varying by the leizu (类组) of buci (卜辞). However, personal habits and the period trend may affect oracle bone inscription character forms, as they are formed by human hands. The author of this study picked 10 characters, including 示, 琮, 吉, 帝, 乇, 冊, 商 and 岳, as character form examples that change according to periods. They represent character forms that appear in the early and late periods based on their development order. This emphasised that the character form information could play an important role in distinguishing the period of oracle bone inscriptions and that only characters changing precisely in line with corresponding periods and forms could be used for such period classification.