In November 2017, The earliest written language carrier in China: Oracle Bone 
Inscriptions, which has successfully entered (the UNESCO World Memory List.)  In 
today’s Literary Forum, only a few scholars have devoted their whole lives to studying 
oracle-bone inscriptions. Mr. Qin Shiwei is a master of the literary world who studies 
Oracle Bone inscriptions, which is the wealth of human spirit.


          I met Mr. Qin Shiwei in 1981, and we lived as neighbors for 18 years. Mr. Qin 
Shiwei’s creative environment is too primitive. He spends his years studying oracle bone 
inscriptions, seal carvings, and calligraphy in a humble house. The house where Mr. 
Qin lives at is cold in winter and hot and Muggy in summer the time. In those years, I often 
come home late at night, and it was dark all around me. But whenever Mr. Qin’s room 
was always lit.  At that time, although I admired Mr. Qin very much, and had always 
been interested in Mr. Qin’s study of Oracle Bone Art, due to my financial constraints, 
I didn’t dare to hope that one day my life would have a connection with the esoteric 
art of Oracle Bone. Gradually, Mr. Qin’s perseverance and spirit attracted me, I often 
observe in the side, to unconsciously as his assistant: sharpening, rubbing ink, cutting 
paper, washing brush, looking up information. Mr. Qin became my guide, as well as my 
respective and beloved mentor. I became Mr. Qin’s bosom friend and confidant of Mr. 
Qin.  Mr. Qin has so many things to be moved and admired. He has never sold a single 
artwork and seal in his entire life. However, in his 70s, he spent two years’-salary to 
purchase back the complete works of Oracle bone inscriptions (50 copies), which shows 
his love and devotion to art.


          In the 18 years I have spent with Mr. Qin, I can still see Mr. Qin’s selflessness in his 
study of art and his every move in his creation.


          Mr. Qin is a teacher, a friend, and an elder. He brought me into the art world in the 
process of also imperceptibly preaching the arts and ethics, which affected my life. The 
publication of this book is not only a summary of self-study but also sincere gratitude for 
Qin Shiwei’s inculcation. It also provides a window for promoting Chinese culture and 
promoting cultural exchange between East and West. At the same time, it also provides 
some study material for the research of Oracle bone inscriptions for the experts, 
scholars and research institutions both in the east and the West.


          Qin Shiwei (1922-1999), a native of Huai’an, Jiangsu Province, China, Mr. Qin, his 
pseudonym Dan Xia, is a famous contemporary oracle-bone carving and calligraphy 
artist. Mr. Qin has been a member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association since the 
1970s. He has profound knowledge and remarkable achievements. He was named the 
chief consultant of the Oracle Bone Inscriptions Society of Jiangsu Province, China, and 
was employed as an honorary librarian of the literature and History Research Institute of 
Jiangsu Province; his works were selected in the first and third Chinese calligraphy, and 
seal carving exhibition works, the first Chinese seal carving art exhibition works he has 
participated in many international book fairs and exhibited in France, Japan, Belgium, 
Korea, and other countries. In 2009, Mr. Qin’s work was invited to the United Nations 
building in New York and had a Grand Exhibition, the impact of unprecedented, attracted 
a large number of research, love Oracle international experts and friends.


          Mr. Qin was born into a scholarly family. Great-grandfather Qin Huan styled himself as “WenBo” was a scholar in the 10th Year of the XIAN FENG Reign of the Qing 
Dynasty. The Old South Gate of Huai’an is still intact, with more than two hundred 
and ninety houses and a large area. Mansion carved beam painting Dong, the door 
and “light three dark five” of the hall brick carving exquisite abnormal, can be called 
a must. Mr. Qin’s grandfather, Qin Shaowen, was one of the most famous wealthy 
men in Huai’an. His father, Qin Jichen, studied poetry and was a man of integrity and 
intelligence. After the admission of a scholar, into the Imperial College, North Korea 
admitted to the election of excellent tribute, Ren Seven Pin Beijing official. Qin Ji Chen 
good calligraphy, especially Jing fly head small Kai, with “Ji Lu Shi Gao” three volumes. 
The Qin family was closely associated with such famous scholars as Luo Zhenyu, the 
oracle bone expert, and Liu E, the renowned oracle bone collector. Mr. Qin grew up 
under the influence of such a deep-rooted cultural family atmosphere. He was interested 
in a Hundred Schools of Thought, explanation, and inscriptions, and his father wanted 
to help his son become a great master. He asked Bao bailing, who was a master 
of classical Chinese and calligraphy, to be his private tutor. All this has laid a solid 
foundation for Mr. Qin’s cultural competence.
          Since the 1940s, Mr. Qin has been studying the tortoise shells bones, the Hands 
All Over, and the inscriptions on the tortoise shells bones in his hometown. Mr. Qin has 
spent years poring over a copy of Xu Shen’s Shuowen Jiezi, a work of the Eastern Han 
Dynasty, punctuated almost everywhere with notes. Many reference books, such as 
the table of ancient Chinese characters, oracle inscriptions, oracle bone inscriptions, 
the essence of the Yin Ruins, and the notes on bronze inscriptions, are always kept on 
the desk. Mr. Qin has repeatedly researched, compared, and checked more than 4,000 
characters and symbols of oracle bone inscriptions, which have not yet been identified 
and confirmed by the academic circles. More than one hundred and forty single figures 
of oracle bone inscriptions have been released through research and examination, such 
as “Qi,” “Xuan,” “Yi,” “Xun,” and other words, and applied for the use of oracle-bone 
script calligraphy and seal carving in the creation.


          The oracle bone inscription records and reflects the political and economic situation 
of the Shang Dynasty. It is the critical form of the development of Chinese characters, 
which is called “the earliest Chinese characters.” It has been 122 years since oracle 
bone inscriptions were discovered in 1898 by Wang Yirong, an antiquarian, epigraphist, 
and scholar. Up to now, there are still few famous masters, and excellent calligraphy 
and seal carving work on oracle-bone inscriptions, which has much to do with the 
profound and challenging debate on oracle-bone legends. At the same time, due to 
the limited number of the original characters used in the creation of often missing 
characters, hard to make ends meet, this requires a solid foundation of writing. Another 
difficulty in writing Oracle is the irregular diagonal lines and geometric shapes of the 
glyphs, which are extremely difficult to settle in the more square characters and seals. 
Stable and easy to put the original meaning of the natural meandering. Therefore, the 
works of oracle-bone inscriptions are often denied by scholars because of their out-of-
tune feeling, and the actions which are confined to the copying of oracle-bone notes are 
scorned by calligraphers and seal carvers. Sir “take the law almost on,” direct imitation 
in the first people. He studied the calligraphic style of the Oracle inscriptions of Shang 
Dynasty, absorbed the artistic features of the “vigorous and great, primitive and simple 
and vigorous” of the Wuding period and the “extraordinary precipitous and vigorous” 
of the Wu Yi and Wen Ding periods, and incorporated the writing style of the Western 
Zhou Dynasty’s bronze inscription, its body open and close, curved strokes conscious, 
innovative and without losing the law, Freehand without losing conciseness, flexible and 
free and easy natural, naive and harmonious unity. It not only shows the keen interest 
of the inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells but also produces strange artistic effects 
because of the difference of the strokes. It forms the unique momentum of the “Qin’s 
calligraphy” and the vigorous and unrestrained style of the ancient calligraphy, breaking 
the pattern of the calligraphy of the inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells of the past, 
created “freehand” impressionistic style of oracle calligraphy, which is magnificent.


          Mr. Qin has a deep foundation of oracle-bone inscriptions and seal carving. His 
works are vivid and colorful, with good brushwork, sometimes vigorous, occasionally 
active, and energetically, sometimes firm and gentle. His works are “pure oracle bone,” 
that is, all the Chinese characters are oracle bone inscriptions, such as “Jiangxi” “Wang 
Guangming,” “Yanfu,” “the ear of Huai’an,” “a hundred schools of thought contend,” and 
“Semi oracle bone inscriptions,” that is, there are both inscriptions on bones and tortoise 
shells and inscriptions on bronze. However, no matter how the proportion of inscriptions 
on bones and tortoise shells are,  the notes on bones and tortoise shells still appear 
in the end. For example, the word “Sheng” in “Jin Sheng Xi” and the word “Gu” in “Gu 
Wei Jin Yong” are inscribed in bronze. (in fact, there is a word “Gu” in the oracle-bone 
inscriptions. Another example is “Lin Sanzhi” Zhu Wenyin, “San” as an inscription of 
bronze, oracle bone inscriptions, notes on bronze layout complement each other, sense 
of”harmony.” 


          Whenever Mr. Qin makes a seal, he has his reasons and never works blindly. 
Therefore, Mr. Qin’s seal of each side has beautiful originality, and each seal can make 
people have lots of fun and boundless charm. For example, Bai Wenyin’s “striving for 
the upper reaches” is a classic of Mr. Qin’s “printing with books.” The “force” of the 
word and “on” of the report point, as if the pen focus on the ink points on paper. Mr. 
Qin is very skilled with the knife, has not rigidly so use “Chong Dao” or “Cut Dao,” so 
this seal is Chong, cut at will, the blade is free to go, the pen is free to follow the knife, 
let its weight and weight of natural change, pen knife interest show them. During the 
making of oracle-bone inscriptions, Mr. Qin paid great attention to the changes of rules 
and regulations, such as “southern Bamboo Shadow,” “no idle living,” or dangerous 
situations, such as “Sun Xun,” “wandering in Art,” or even dangerous situations, such 
as “Shi Wei.” Zhu Wen’s seal of “Yamin” was an ingenious idea of Mr. Qin in 1978. 
The two characters of “Yamin” are all found in oracle bone inscriptions. However, Mr. 
Qin’s concept was inspired and influenced by many sub-glyphs in his ancient Chinese 
emblem, in the form of taking characters and placing them in a sub-form, the character 
“Ya” was inscribed in the form of Jian-GUI character by Jin Wenchen. The seal was 
engraved, and the seal was expanded into a form of four-square couplet, which 
caused the character “Ming” to change four directions in the sub-form and increased 
its changes, at the same time, it conforms to the special law that the head of Oracle 
bone inscriptions can be up and down, left and right, with novel form and Integration of 
heaven and human.
    Since the 1970s, when Mr. Qin makes a seal,  he will be using the oracle-bone 
inscription for the mark of the seal, a small number, more than several crosses, 
hundreds of words, monumental works, which is magnificent. Many of Mr. Qin’s works, 
such as “Yamin,” “Qin shi-Wei,” “big feather painting seal,” “Jinggang Mountains” seal 
of the edge of the Oracle, or warm and quiet, or unrestrained, all without exception 
clumsy and craggy, elegant and beautiful. Until the Mid-1990s, Mr. Qin created nearly 
a thousand seal carving works; calligraphy works as many as 3,000 pieces. About 
three-fifths of the seal work comes from oracle-bone inscriptions and two-fifths from 
inscriptions on bronze, Chinese seals, and a small number of Xing (Fame) and Kai 
(regular )script prints. The calligraphy is somewhat similar, of course, but the calligraphy 
is unique. Whether it is seal carving or calligraphy, its selection, and practical application 
of the number of oracle-bone characters, involving a wide range of subjects, which is 
very rare. 


          Mr. Qin’s seal works, full of spirit, Nothing in Common, classical, Unique, and it left a 
precious and Spiritual art of wealth, which is worth studying for posterity. For the history 
of Oracle seal set a new milestone. Mr. Qin is a calligraphic engraver who combines 
his works, such as a “walking dictionary.” After a long and arduous exploration, he has 
made the creation of oracle-bone inscriptions change from an austere and restrained 
image to an expression of artistic taste in brush and ink, and have a distinct style of 
their own. These are sixty-year of Mr. Qin’s efforts to build, sweat, endeavors, wisdom, 
and ideas are integrated into it, thus reshaping the creation of a new model and way of 
Oracle, which is a very great achievement.


          Mr. Qin’s lives a simple life, and he is serenity indifferent to fame or wealth. After he 
became famous, he encouraged himself by saying, “Heaven has pity on the grass, and 
the world is full of fine nights. “Although he lived in a “leaky house,” he was contented 
with his fame. When Mr. Qin does calligraphy, It’s not for fame and wealth, kept the 
peace of mind, no harm and nothing to worry, often a moment of quiet contemplation, so 
that he sinks his breath to his Dan Tian, and then quickly down the pen, wave a drop of 
paper, one breath. The Pen and ink marks left on the paper, immediately come to life, a 
stroke without exception overflowing with the majestic masculinity. Mr. Qin is a man of 
pure integrity, pure and unpretentious. When dealing with people, Sworn Brothers does 
not boast or pretend; when dealing with younger generations, he teaches them by word 
or example; when he is sincere with his friends, he tells them everything. It is precisely 
because Mr. Qin has such a noble character and integrity, to Oracle’s calligraphy seal 
carving art to achieve the state of Now You See Me. Today, Mr. Qin’s name covers 
on both sides of the Changjiang River and his students, such as LanQing, Su Jinhai, 
and other students all over the world. “Calligraphy handed down good morality in the 
thousands of years, for people to show a good example, and exemplary conduct and 
nobility of character. Oracle characters which are the origin of Chinese Han characters, 
passing down from generation to generation, continuing forever. Mr. Qin and his 
outstanding artistic achievements will be in pursuit of the truth of oracle bone and stamp 
on the page of history.