Gulian (Beijing) Media Tech Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zhonghua Book Company, has recently released the "Shang Dynasty Ruins Oracle-bone Script Database", gathering years of research achievements, original texts, interpretations and dictionaries on oracle bones. The database solves the previous problem of scattered research results.

　　Oracle bone scripts are the oldest written characters in China till today. Oracle bones were used by people in the Shang Dynasty for divination. The contents of oracle bone inscriptions cover a wide range of aspects, including weather, agriculture, politics, military affairs and daily life at that time. They are of great archaeological value and can be called treasure of the Chinese civilization.

　　The "Shang Dynasty Ruins Oracle-bone Script Database" includes 59,591 oracle bones and 143,856 scripts. The database is specially developed for oracle bone scripts, so that they can be presented to readers in a digital form. It is reported that the database also includes Professor Chen Nianfu's important research outcome - Oracle Bone Online Dictionary. The dictionary contains prefixes, pronunciations, glyphs, solutions and definitions of oracle bone scripts, including about 3900 prefixes of characters and 6700 prefixes of expressions. Users can not only look up for a single character, but also read the interpretation of the oracle bone expressions containing the character. On the one hand, it provides reference materials for the interpretation of oracle bone inscriptions; on the other hand, it functions as a convenient tool for other researchers in the field of literature and history to use oracle bone inscriptions resources. (cited from chinakongzi.org, source from Guangming Daily)