Decoding history's bones

A complete oracle bone on display shows the four-part fortunetelling process — first, learning about the person and time to practice divination; second, the detailed things Wu Ding wanted to ask the god; the third part records his judgment of good or ill luck according to information on the bones, which usually comes from the cracks formed after being fired; and finally, the verification of the results, says Zhang.

"This bone describes a day when Wu Ding ordered someone named Que to predict his fortune to see if something disastrous would happen in 10 days. He judged from the cracks that it would happen. Three days later, a northern wind came during a sacrificial ritual, so they believed the prediction was accurate," he adds.

"Only rare bones have the complete four parts. Many are broken or have some unclear words due to the passage of time."