The Oracle Bone’s Collection And Research Of Chalfant

Chalfant(1862-1914) was one of the famous collectors and researchers of Chinese oracle bones in the late19C and in the early20C. Chalfant was born in America in1862. He came to China in1887and worked as a missionary in Shan Dong. He committed himself to the investigation of Chinese oracle bones and tried his best to copy a large quantity of oracle bones in all his life. Chalfant published the Ancient Chinese Characters in America, which is the one of the early research books based on oracle bone inscriptions. Besides, Chalfant left a lot of manuscript unpublished. His research mainly focused on the investigation of oracle-bone characters and also covered other aspects, oracle bone re-jointing, identification of the fake ones, genealogy inscriptions, chronology with branches and stems. Chalfant once discussed many questions on oracle bones in the more than140letters which he wrote to Hopkins. Based on this firsthand material, we would make an investigation of his research on oracle bones.This dissertation mainly consists of4chapters. Chapter1briefly introduces the main experiences and some related persons. Chapter2illustrates a history of Chalfant’s buying bone curios and transferring of them. Chapter3lists the163characters Chalfant investigated in the letters which he wrote to Hopkins and summarizes the methods. Chapter4demonstrates Chalfant’s other contributions to the study of oracle bones. In the end, we make a general conclusion of some achievements in the study of oracle bones.Chalfant is a very dedicated scholar on oracle bone inscriptions. He made a famous oracle collection and made a contribution to the study of oracle bone inscriptions. He left behind a precious material for future generations. Also, Chalfant has a pioneering spirit in the investigation of orcle-bone characters and the compiling of the oracle glyph table.