Oracle research welcomes new achievements: more than 20 monographs and 440 papers produced in four years

China News Service, Anyang, Henan, September 29 (Reporter Wang Yu) An exhibition and briefing on new results of Oracle research was held in Anyang, Henan on the 29th, reporting on the latest results of Oracle research in the past four years.

Anyang is known as the "Hometown of Oracle Bone Inscriptions". Official statistics show that a total of about 160,000 pieces of oracle bone inscriptions have been unearthed so far, and the study of oracle bone inscriptions has become an internationally recognized "study" for understanding early China.

Li Xiaoyang, executive deputy director of the Museum of Chinese Characters, said that the research results of oracle bone inscriptions in recent years cover three categories: monographs, papers and digital results, reflecting the organic combination of traditional scholarship and modern technology. Among them, he has published more than 20 monographs and more than 440 papers.

Liu Yongge, director of the Ministry of Education's Key Laboratory of Oracle Bone Information Processing at Henan Anyang Normal University, told China News Service that the Chinese-English Dictionary of Oracle Bones, compiled by the school, is currently in progress. The dictionary plans to include more than 800 oracle bone terms and oracle bone words, with Chinese and English definitions for terms, word examples and Chinese and English translations. It is the world's first Chinese-English bilingual oracle bone vocabulary reference book.

In recent years, Oracle research is accelerating to "embrace" digital intelligence. Tsinghua University, Jilin University, Fudan University and other universities have successively built Oracle intelligent research platforms and concatenated information databases. Among them, Anyang Normal University has "brought back" 951 oracle bone high-precision digital files from overseas since it launched the "Global Oracle Digital Revitalization Plan" in 2024.

Qi Hangfu, president of the Henan Provincial Character Society, said that oracle bone inscription research is entering a new era of "systematization, standardization, and digitization." In recent years, digital tools such as AI and databases have developed rapidly and are extremely efficient in retrieval, glyph comparison, and fragment concatenation, opening up a new track for interdisciplinary research on oracle bones.

Li Xiaoyang suggested that future digital intelligence research on oracle bone inscriptions should unify data standards and establish an AI review system. While leaning towards material research, we should continue to promote research on oracle bone morphology and oracle bone divination, and promote joint research on oracle bone, archeology, and historical geography.