Bu-ci - Bokuji (English spelling)

Japanese: 卜辞 - ぼくじ（英語表記）Bu-ci

Also known as oracle bone inscriptions. In the Shang dynasty in China, inscriptions were carved into tortoise shells and animal bones for divination. These were burned to tell fortunes. They are called Yin Ruins Bukuci, or simply Bukuci for short, because they were first discovered in the Yin Ruins in Anyang County, Henan Province. Oracle bone inscriptions are carved in straight lines with a knife, and in some special cases the inscriptions of the characters are painted red. Oracle bone inscriptions are divided into five periods, and there are considerable differences in the shapes and writing styles of the characters depending on the period. The contents of divination are wide-ranging, including military affairs, rituals, hunting, divination, finding age, and illness, and a typical example is one in which affirmative and negative imperatives are carved symmetrically on the left and right.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

甲骨文ともいう。中国，殷代に卜占のため亀甲や獣骨に刻んだ文。これを焼いて吉凶を占った。河南省安陽県の殷墟から最初に発見されたところから殷墟卜辞，略して一般に卜辞と呼んでいる。甲骨文字は，刀で直線的に彫られ，特殊なものには，字の刻み目に朱が入っているものもある。甲骨文は5つの時期に区分され，時期によって字形，書体などにかなりの相違が認められる。占われる内容は軍事，祭祀，田猟，卜旬，求年，疾病など多方面にわたり，肯定と否定の命辞を左右対称に刻んでいるものが典型である。

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