What is Oracle Bone Inscriptions? Why did people write words on tortoise shell bones at that time?

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is an ancient script in China, also known as "Qiwen", "Oracle bone inscriptions", Yin Ruins script or "tortoise shell and beast bone script". As an early form of Chinese characters, it is the oldest mature writing in China Dynasty, which was first unearthed in Yin Ruins in Anyang City, Henan Province.

The reason why Oracle Bone Inscriptions wrote on the bones of tortoise shells and beasts:

Most people in the Shang Dynasty were superstitious about ghosts and gods, and they had to ask questions about big things and small things. Some divinations were about the weather, some were about the harvest of farming, and some asked about illness and premature birth, while hunting, fighting, sacrifice and other big things needed to be asked.

Divination is to predict bad luck. Its method is to drill holes in tortoise shells or animal bones and bake them with fire, and predict bad luck by the shape and trend of the cracked cracks, and engrave the prediction results on them for later verification. So write the words on the tortoise shell bones.

Extended information:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions's records:

(1) Processed and scraped tortoise shells and animal bones are kept by the specialized diviner. The diviner inscribed on the edge of them a note describing the origin and storage of these Oracle bones, which is called "note inscription";

(2) During divination, the diviner used the burning bauhinia wood column to burn and drill the nest slot, which made the front of the bone crack in the shape of a "divination". This kind of crack is called a "divination", which is the basis for inferring the good or ill fortune of divination. Under the oracle-bone inscriptions of earlier times, the numbers of the order of divination are engraved, which is also called "trillion order";

(3) Oracle Bone Inscriptions's main part is oracles, that is, inscriptions that record the progress and results of divination activities after their completion. Most of them are engraved on the front of Oracle bones, and some are engraved on the back;

(4) Sixty heavenly stems (A, B, C, D, E, Ji, G, Xin, Ren and Gui) and earthly branches (Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai).

Baidu Encyclopedia-Oracle Bone Inscriptions (China ancient script)