In the fall of 1991, the Anyang Archaeological Team, IA, CASS, excavated at Huayuanzhuan Locus East within the Yin Ruins and discovered in Ash-pit H3 1, 583 pieces of oracle bones,of which 579 bear inscriptions and are mostly intact and so especially valuable. Chronologically,H3 should be dated to the first period of the Yin Ruins culture judging from its stratigraphical evidence,the pottery unearthed in association and the formal features of the drilled holes and chiselled grooves for divination on its oracle bones. The contents of the H3 oracle inscriptions are concerned with sacrifice, hunting, weather, illness exorcizing, etc. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first discovery of oracle bone inscriptions, the authors select 23 pieces from the H3 oracle inscriptions for the first publication. The H3 oracle inscriptions are regular in character form and display outstanding features: new styles different from the previously seen appear in both grammatical construction and the direction of character and line arrangement. There are king oracle inscriptions and non-king ones among the finds from the Yin Ruins. The most important feature of the H3 inscriptions is that the main body of divination was not the king but "Zi"' This argument is principally based on the following facts:Firstly, the divination activities which the H3 inscriptions concern were all carried out around "Zi"; and secondly, "Zi" was the main diviner of the H3 inscriptions. This "Zi" Is a person other than that in the previously-known "Zi group" of inscriptions. The main figures to whom the sacrifices were most frequently offered were the late kings Zu Yi and Wo Jia and their respective consorts Bi Geng and the third Bi Geng. This shows that the "Zi" in H3 inscriptions must have been a member of the Yin king's lineage and might have been Wo Jia's off-spring,and what we encountered in H3 are not king oracle inscriptions but non-king ones. The "Zi" of H3 inscriptions was qualified to conduct sacrificial ceremonies and compile oracle inscriptions;he had a close relationship with influential figures in the dynastic court such as Fu Hao and Ding;and he was authorized to order people about and controlled a large divination organ second only to the king's one. So it can be inferred that he enjoyed the highest position among the chief performers of the divination activities represented by the non-king oracle inscriptions. Many figures mentioned in H3 oracle inscriptions occur on other divination bones of the Wu Ding reign,including then still living Fu Hao and Zi Zhi. The two figures as late and worshipped ancestors appear in the Bin group and leser-character Shi group of inscriptions, which are generally beliveved in academic circles to be of the mid and late Wu Ding reign and the mid Wu Ding reign respectively. This further indicates that the H3 inscriptions should be dated to the early Wu Ding reign,which is roughly comformable to the dating based on the stratigraphic evidence and associated pottery objects from H3.
