The New Research Of Divination

The research of Divination is an important part of the study of Carapace-bone-script, mainly about the conciseness, the procedure, the origin and the evolution, the writing rules, and the rankings of the invitation. The divination of the ancient times disappeared from Han Dynasty, and there has been little record about it in the books following. Due to the lack of evidences supporting each other from the books, there had never been breakthrough in this aspect. But after getting the Oracle Bones discovered in AnYang in the year 1898, we've got the first-hand clues to the Divination. The research of divination is a weak point compared to other fields of the Oracle Bone Study just because of the limitations itself.My paper is mainly about the divination of the Yin-Shang times, mostly based on the Oracle Bones we have got in AnYang and the achievements from the previous documents delivered dynasty after dynasty. After referring to the accomplishment of the former great people, I am trying to raise some fresh ideas of my own and lead a breakthrough. My paper is divided into three parts:The first part is about the background of the thinking at that time, the beginning, the developing, and the dying of divination from standing point of consciences. From the oracle bones, we get the great Spirit Di, which shows the religion belief of the ancient people. Honoring the God was accepted by the Shang People, and from words in divination we can see the domination of witchcraft, even over the king. The existence of divination was a result of the merging conciseness between the Gu Gua in the north and the Gui Cong in the south. It boomed in Shang Dynasty after the beginning in Xia Dynasty, went down from the Warring States Periods, and almost disappeared in Tang and Song Dynasties.The second part is to talk about the divination system according to the ancient records and archeology documents. First listed are the ranks in divination. There are five categories conclude: Duizhenzhi, Xibuzhi, Sanguazhi, Xuanbuzhi, Bushibingyongzhi. Then, every category is explained in detail of the content and the function.The third part is to talk about the important procedures in divination and do some investigation on the contentious parts. The following parts are picked: Jigui, Zuanzao, Minggui, Jiaozhuo, Zhangui, Qieke, Tuzhutuhei and Kezhao. Storing and managing are also included, and after that, the writing rules of divination are discussed.