Achievements And Errors Of Wangguowei’s Research On The Inscriptions On Bones Or Tortoises Shells

Wangguowei was an important early researcher on the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells, the main contribution lied in the application of the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells to study the descent of the kings of the Shang Dynasty, which was mainly written in the Shiji· Yinji, Wangguowei compared the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells with Shiji and considered it was believeable, and Shanhaijing that is informal but it is not unfounded. By comparing and corrected some errors in the Yinji, except these, he also researched in the period and matching of the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells, he also paid attenation to the method to research, later scholars have been inspired by all these, the age of the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells is very long and it is very complex, Wangguowei’s research would inevitably lead to some problems, this paper summarizes the contributions of Wangguowei’s research on the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells, and referring to other important research results, the paper also giving some my own opinions. Analysing the reason in his errors, the errors were existed in his researches, he used the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells to research the history of the Shang dynasty, people haved studyed about these,but they aren’t at all faces, so this paper can help people to more research about Wangguowei’s achievements.