A Study On The Crack Number Of The Tortoise Plastrons Of The Bin-group Unearthed From YH127 At Yin Ruins

When divining,Shang(16^th-11^th century BC)people used to burn the prepared oracle bones,making them crack into veins.By studying the veins,people could predict auspicious or not auspicious.After the vein emerged,they numbered the order of the divination near the crack,which was later known as crack number.They always divined based on both the positive and negative aspects of one thing,so they craved the crack numbers on the symmetrical sides of the tortoise plastron.The order of crack numbers and the symmetry of plastrons contribute to a regularity.The study on the regularity and connections among crack veins,divination inscriptions,inscriptions on oracle bones,rows and columns and the zuan-zao?drilled round holes and chiseled lenticular holes?will make some contribution to further researches of oracle bones'Syntax and rejoining,and Shang divination as well.This paper,a study on the crack number of the tortoise plastrons of the Bin-group from YH127 at Yin Ruins in Anyang,consists of the following four chapters:Chapter One,functioning as Introduction,describes the thesis background,summarizes the former studies and proposes the research methods.By combining and studying both classical and new researches and making detailed study on more materials and documents,Chapter Two makes a classification of the crack numbers'arrangement of YH127:11 basic forms and 9 special ones.In addition,the author analyzes 3 main factors which affect the crack number arrangement.Chapter Three presents the importance of the study on the crack number of the tortoise plastrons of the Bin-group from YH127.The fruit of the study is:the author adds70 rejoining,completes fragmentary inscriptions,revises annotations,corrects wrong rejoining and recognizes a new character??? after reorganizing the oracle bones included in Yibian,Yibu and Binbu.Lastly,the fourth chapter discusses two questions related to the crack number.By way of illustration,it presents that crack can not only be craved on the inner,top or bottom part of the crack trunk,but the outer part.It also illustrates that divination inscription and crack number have no necessary connection.Moreover,it presents that the statement�when a crack has a divination inscription,it must possess a crack number�is incorrect.