Chao News client commentator Chen Jiang.
Oracle 2174". On the top left is the oracle bone inscription "rabbit". Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yin Gang **Xinhua Daily Telegraph.
The prize for deciphering a word is 100,000 yuan!With the announcement of the second batch of winners of Oracle's "Reward Order", Oracle, as the earliest and most mature writing system in China so far, has become a hot search again.
According to reports, recently, the Museum of Chinese Characters announced the "Announcement of the Second Batch of Outstanding Achievements in Oracle Bone Interpretation". According to the "Announcement on the Reward for the Collection and Selection of the Second Batch of Outstanding Achievements in Oracle Bone Interpretation", after the evaluation of the Oracle Interpretation Expert Committee, a total of 5 items are planned to be selected for the second batch of outstanding achievements in Oracle Bone Interpretation to be publicized. The publicity period is from November 30 to December 6, 2023.
An oracle bone shook the world". It has been 124 years since the first discovery of the oracle. The oracle bone inscription is the source of Chinese characters and the root of the excellent traditional Chinese culture, which has a positive effect on the study of the origin of Chinese civilization. But the interpretation of the oracle bone was very difficult. According to authoritative data, there are currently more than 4,500 oracle bone inscriptions, although after more than 120 years of continuous research by several generations of experts and scholars, only more than 1,600 have been interpreted, less than half, and many words are still ancient mysteries.
In order to fully mobilize the enthusiasm and creativity of oracle bone researchers at home and abroad, solve the bottleneck faced by oracle bone interpretation, and expand the social participation of academic research, the Chinese Character Museum has carried out two collections and selection of outstanding achievements in oracle bone interpretation, and issued a "reward order" for oracle bone decipherment to the society: if an individual can decipher the uninterpreted oracle bone inscription, after passing the appraisal of the expert committee, a single word can be rewarded with up to 100,000 yuan;If a new interpretation of the disputed oracle bone inscription is made, a reward of 50,000 yuan can be given for a single word.
Deciphering a single word and rewarding 100,000 yuan can be described as "ten thousand gold". This confirms the difficulty of deciphering the oracle bone inscriptions. In fact, since the bounty order was issued.
In the past six or seven years, only in 2018, Professor Jiang Yubin of Fudan University became the only person to win the highest bounty for deciphering the word "stupid" in the oracle bone inscription. He researched the usage of "tun" in the oracle bone inscription, which is the word "stupid" in ancient books. After his explanation, many difficult ancient sentences can be read through, so that many aspirants can study and climb along the ancient context, which is really good.
In all fairness, in terms of the difficulty and significance of the interpretation of the oracle bone inscription, the reward of "100,000 yuan per word" is not much. Writing is related to the development of Chinese civilization, and the study of the origin of Chinese characters is also an exploration of the origin of Chinese civilization. The oracle bones that had been sleeping in the Yin Ruins of Anyang for more than 3,000 years were rediscovered, directly advancing China's written history by 1,000 years. Since then, the codes of Chinese civilization hidden in the mysterious oracle bones have been deciphered one by one, and the national wisdom and Chinese civilization carried behind them are rooted in the bloodline, shaping the cultural self-confidence belonging to every Chinese.
Chinese civilization is the only civilization in the world that has not been interrupted, and Chinese characters are the carrier of Chinese culture. "One hundred thousand words" rewards oracle bone decipherers, and Chinese civilization deserves such a tribute. In the process of building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation today, this long-term effective reward order is an attitude and a responsibility and responsibility, which highlights its significance of the times.
*Please indicate the source".