甲骨文名缘中药

The Language in Oracle Bone Inscriptions

王懿荣是清代著名的金石学家，首先发现了甲骨文字。而这段发现经历却是得益于两味中药。

Wang Yirong was a famous scholar on epigraphy in the Qing Dynasty who first discovered the inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells. However, his great discovery had some relation with two traditional Chinese medicines.

清光绪年间，时任国子监祭酒的王懿荣患了疟疾。

During the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, Wang Yirong, a libationer in the imperial college, caught malaria.

在经大夫诊疗之后，他从达仁堂中药店买回了一剂治病的中药。

Having been diagnosed, Wang bought a dose of prescription from Daren Tang, a Chinese pharmacy.

在煎药过程中，王懿荣无意中发现了一味叫“龙骨”的中药上隐隐约约刻了一些符号。

While decocting the medicine, Wang Yirong accidentally found some signs vaguely engraved on a kind of medicine called “Longgu (animal fossil fragments)”.

身为金石学家的他，敏锐地意识到这龙骨上所刻的可能是一些古代的符号。

Being an epigraphist, instinctively he sensed that these signs might be some ancient symbols conveying special meanings.

于是他派人到药店，以每片2两银子的高价，把药店里刻有符号的龙骨全买了下来。

So he had all the Longgu with symbols collected at a high price of 2 liang (an ancient Chinese monetary unit) each piece.

他开始对这些符号进行仔细的研究，终于从《周礼》和《史记》中找到了线索。这些文字正是秦汉之前的上古文字。

Then he began to study these symbols carefully, and finally he got some clues from Rites of Zhou and Historical Records. These symbols were actually the ancient characters before Qin and Han Dynasties.

自此以后，不仅是龙骨，又有许多文字在另一味中药——龟甲上得以发现，因而这些中国最古老的文字被称之为“甲骨文”，而王懿荣也因此被认作为“甲骨文”之父。

Since then, not only on the Longgu, but also on the Guijia (tortoise shells)—another kind of traditional Chinese medicine, have many characters been found.Therefore, these China’s oldest characters are called“oracle bone inscriptions”, and accordingly, Wang Yirong is regarded as “the father” of it.