Trending claims

You Shou was a Harbin scholar in a group called the “eight weirdos” who were targeted for torment by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.

Yinxu’s largest industry, besides bronze, was the production of bone tools.

Peasants during the Shang dynasty lived in pits dug into the earth with timber and thatch roofs.

During the Shang dynasty, elephants, rhinoceroses, and tigers roamed the Henan plains.

Some say the ancient city of Yinxu had a population of around 150,000, no physical walls, and was sharply divided by class.

In industrial quarters like Xiaomintun, Shang craftsmen operated large, coordinated bronze foundries.

Shang craftsmen held a privileged, middle-tier status and were protected by the state.

Fact: Shang Dynasty scribes routinely posed questions for divination in both positive and negative forms.

Fact: Auspicious answers, dates, and consequences from oracle bone divination were recorded on the bones.

The Chinese character for alliance (盟), used to describe the EU and ASEAN, is composed of the characters for vessel (皿) and bright/clear (明).

In ancient China, lords sealed political pacts by slaughtering a sacrificial animal, catching its blood in a vessel, smearing the blood on their lips, and swearing an oath.

Fact: The Shang people performed divination rituals before major activities like going to war or planting crops.

Fact: The character 文 originally meant "interlocking patterns."

Fact: Archaeologist You Shou's work involved tracing changes in early Chinese geography, social organization, and ritual practices by analyzing character structures.

Fact: The modern Chinese words zhuyi (主义) and jingji (经济) are loanwords from Japanese.

Fact: During the Shang Dynasty, diviners posed questions to a high god or ancestors and then applied heat to ox shoulder blades or turtle shells.

Statement: Archaeologist You Shou argued that oracle bone and bronze scripts were intrinsically linked to the materials used to create them.

Fact: You Shou (1906–1994) was a prominent Chinese archaeologist and master calligrapher.

Statement: Scholar Yuri Pines has argued that the ideographic nature of the Chinese script was the primary engine of its cultural continuity.

Fact: The written Chinese language emerged in Yinxu, Henan, around 3,500 years ago in the form of prophetic oracle bones.