550 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 31 



itative source is to be found in the inscribed bones from the Waste 

 of Yin. In 1899 the first of these to attract attention were found 

 5 li (nearly 2 miles) northwest of the city of Chang-te Fu, otherwise 

 known as An-yang, in northern Honan, It long remained unknown 

 whence these bones came, although collections of them were made by 

 Chinese antiquarians, among them L'iu T'ieh-yiin and Lo Chen-yii. 

 Some specimens, both genuine and forged, were also secured by the 

 Kev. Samuel Couling and Dr. Frank Chalfant, and later by L. C. 

 Hopkins and by Dr. Richard Wilhelm. Certain curio dealers stated 

 that the place of origin of the bones was the tomb of Pi Kan, near 

 Wei-hsien, while others claimed that they came from Yu-li, in T'ang- 

 yin, where Wen Wang was imprisoned.^ Again, Lo Chen-yii, the 

 well known antiquarian above mentioned, was informed that they 

 were being found at An-yang. No responsible scientist, however, 

 had personally confirmed the place of their origin, and everyone was 

 dependent upon the hearsay reports of dealers. 



I first visited the Waste of Yin in the early spring of 1914. The 

 site has nothing about it to attract particular attention, save for 

 the broken potsherds, which the farmers have carefully gathered 

 from the surface of the ground, and which have become buried along 

 the edges of the fields. From 1914 until the present I have carefully 

 collected the many fragments of inscribed bones which have come 

 in my way. The dealers from the cities would purchase only large 

 specimens; small pieces were not wanted. Of these latter I was 

 fortunate enough, in the course of 15 years, to collect many thou- 

 sands, some no larger than a bean. These fragments have formed 

 the source material for my study. Broken potsherds and stone and 

 bone implements I also found and kept. It was at no time possible, 

 however, to do any excavating. I could only make observations on 

 exposed sections of the soil along the river bank. Unfortunately 

 all my material was destroyed during the disturbances which took 

 place in 1927. 



In the autumn of 1928 the Academia Sinica (the scientific branch 

 of the newly established Chinese Government) sent one of its repre- 

 sentatives, Tung Tso-pin, to undertake investigations on the site. 

 Early in the following year he was joined by Dr. C. Li, then on the 

 field staff of the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C, which 

 then undertook the entire cost of the excavation. Work was carried 

 on through the greater part of 1929, and the Academia Sinica has 

 since published two reports (in Chinese), which add considerably to 

 the information which we have been able to extract from the in- 

 scribed bones themselves and from the surface finds. 



' The datP ascribed by the " orthodox " chronology to W6n Waug, the father of the 

 founder of the Chou Dynasty, Is 1231-1135 B. C. 



