To this day, some 150,000 inscribed oracle bones have been unearthed, and there’re about 4,500 characters. Among them, nearly one third have been recognized. The oracle bone inscriptions cover a wide range of concerns. Roughly 7% of inscribed bones concern primarily the weather. Others address harvests, the favor of ancestors, disasters, childbirth, administrative orders, hunting expeditions, and many other topics.

It is often asked why the Shang people chose rigid animal bones as a writing tool? A close look at the back of these bones reveals pinholes and cracks. Experts conclude the answer lies in divination, a widespread practice in the Shang Dynasty that saw oracle bone inscription develop into a mature and comprehensive writing system. The ancient custom of divination was born out of the mystical and religious practices of the day. The Shang people applied a hot instrument to the back of tortoise shells or animal bones and the hidden meaning in the cracks produced was then interpreted.

According to the Historical Records of Sima Qian, a scholar in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 25 AD), in ancient times the king would seek inspiration through divination. Will it rain tomorrow? Will the army win in the forthcoming fight? Will the baby of the queen be a boy? Answers to such questions would be interpreted from the bones. Sorcerers would, when things happened as gods had expected, inscribe the result of divination onto the obverse side of bones. The practice went on to be refined with a written record of the divination being incised on the 'oracle bone'. And so oracle bone inscriptions came into being.