语出《诗经》
南方出产鲜美鱼，鱼群游动把尾摇。
Oracle bones are a type of artifact found in archaeological sites in several parts of the world, but they are best known as a significant characteristic of the Shang dynasty [1600-1050 BC] in China.
Oracle bones were used to practice a specific form of divination, fortune-telling, known as pyro-osteomancy. Osteomancy is when shamans (religious specialists) divine the future from the pattern of the natural bumps, cracks, and discolorations in animal bone and turtle shell. Osteomancy is known from prehistoric east and northeast Asia and from North American and Eurasian ethnographic reports.The subset of osteomancy called pyro-osteomancy is the practice of exposing animal bone and turtle shell to heat and interpreting the resulting cracks. Pyro-osteomancy is conducted primarily with animal shoulder blades, including deer, sheep, cattle, and pigs, as well as turtle plastrons--the plastron or undercarriage of a turtle being flatter than its upper shell called the carapace. These modified objects are called oracle bones, and they have been found in many domestic, royal and ritual contexts within Shang Dynasty archeological sites.
The production of oracle bones is not specific to China, although the largest number recovered to date are from Shang Dynasty period sites. Rituals describing the process of creating oracle bones were recorded in Mongolian divination manuals dated to the early 20th century. According to these records, the seer cut a turtle plastron into a pentagonal shape and then used a knife to incise certain Chinese characters into the bone, depending on the seeker's questions. A twig of burning wood was repeatedly inserted into the grooves of the characters until a loud cracking noise was heard, and a radiating pattern of cracks produced. The cracks would be filled with India ink to make them easier for the shaman to read for important information about the future or current events.
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