甲骨文の解読史
◈解読に貢献した人物
清末の文字学者・国子監祭酒。1899年、漢方薬屋の「竜骨」に古代文字を発見し、その年だけで約1,500片を買い集めた。1900年、義和団事件で八か国連合軍が北京を占領すると、発見からわずか1年で自決。
王懿栄の友人にして小説家（『老残遊記』の著者）。王懿栄の甲骨コレクションを受け継ぎ、1903年『鉄雲蔵亀』——1,058片の甲骨拓本集を出版。甲骨文が学問の領域に初めて入った瞬間だった。
1908年、骨董商により秘密にされていた甲骨の出土地を追跡し、河南省安陽の小屯村（殷——商の最後の都）であることを突き止めた。これにより学者による直接発掘が可能になり、1928年から中央研究院の本格的な発掘が始まった。
甲骨文を『史記』の殷王系譜と照合し、二つの記録が完全に一致することを立証。伝説とされていた殷の歴史的実在を初めて証明した。
◈どのように解読されたか
Oracle bone inscriptions are the divination records of the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC), incised on turtle plastrons or ox/deer scapulae. The divination ritual had four stages: (1) date and diviner's name, (2) the question addressed to the spirits, (3) the king's reading of the cracks (his judgment), (4) verification of the outcome. The king himself served as the supreme priest interpreting the cracks; war, agriculture, weather, disease, even his toothaches and dreams — every state decision passed through the bones. Of ~5,000 distinct characters found, ~1,500 have been deciphered.
◈実際に解読された文字
代表的な銘文の例：「婦好」— 殷第22代王・武丁の王妃にして1万3千の軍を率いた将軍、最高神官。1976年、安陽で盗掘されていない彼女の墓が発掘され、青銅器・玉器など1,928点と、甲骨に刻まれた彼女の名約200件が一致した。
◈解読の前後の物語
Until oracle bones came to light, scholars regarded the Shang dynasty — recorded in Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" — as myth and legend. Meanwhile, for decades, farmers in Xiaotun village (Anyang, Henan) had been digging up bone fragments and selling them to apothecaries as "dragon bones," to be ground into hemostatic and analgesic powders. Inscribed bones actually fetched lower prices, and shopkeepers sometimes scraped off the writing to raise the value.
In 1899, the paleographer Wang Yirong — sick with malaria — recognized inscriptions on a bone fragment he had pulled from his boiled prescription. He immediately bought up every inscribed bone in the Beijing apothecaries: ~1,500 pieces in that year alone. In 1903 his friend Liu E published "Tieyun canggui," bringing oracle bones into scholarship; in 1908 Luo Zhenyu traced the source to Xiaotun in Anyang, opening the way to systematic excavation.
Systematic excavation by Academia Sinica began in 1928; to date ~160,000 fragments have been recovered, yielding ~5,000 distinct characters of which ~1,500 are deciphered. The king names on the bones match Sima Qian's Shang genealogies exactly — turning legend into history. China's International Center for Oracle Bone Studies now offers a 100,000-yuan (~$14,000) bounty for each newly decoded character, encouraging AI-assisted attempts. Oracle bones are the direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters — a still-living writing system 3,200 years on.