AlphaOracle —— Learn from the past to understand the present, and explore the secrets of the millennia-old cultural context.

“AlphaOracle” Main Interface Illustration

Click the bottom-right arrow or the buttons in the Object Selection Area to expand the Information Panel:

“AlphaOracle” Expanded Interface Illustration

“AlphaOracle” supports the input of photocopied rubbings, transcription, photocopied single characters, and manuscript single characters, enabling multi-dimensional oracle bone analysis with comprehensive functionality:

• Navigation Bar: Switch between Chinese and English interfaces, view system references, and access documentation
• EN: Switch the main interface to English.
• Doc: View the list of all references used in the system.
• Intro: Access the system manual.
• Workbench: This is the core area for oracle bone analysis. All operations, whether on rubbings or single characters, start here.
  ▶ Object Selection Area: Supports selecting analysis materials from the system’s built-in examples or from images uploaded locally.
  • Select Oracle Bone Fragment: Choose from various manuscript rubbings and photocopied rubbings provided by the system.
  • Select Oracle Bone Character: Choose from multiple single-character samples provided by the system.
  • Image Upload: Upload oracle bone rubbings or single characters from your own device.
  ▶ Function Activation Area: Activates relevant functions based on your selections and uploaded results.
  • Transcription & Rubbing Analysis: Activated when a rubbing is uploaded. Supports detection and recognition of oracle bone inscriptions and characters within the rubbing, and provides translations for each inscription.
  • Oracle Character Analysis: Activated when a single character is uploaded or selected from a rubbing. Supports detailed analysis of the character’s decipherment, including its form, evolution, radical, meaning, similar forms, and an evolutionary timeline.
  • Oracle Character Retrieval: Activated when a single character is uploaded or selected from a rubbing. Retrieves the original rubbing source of the character based on the analysis results, helping you quickly locate the character.
  • Related Literature Search: Activated when a single character is uploaded or selected from a rubbing. Intelligently searches for relevant academic literature that discusses the usage of the character.
• Information Panel: Displays system results and comprehensive oracle bone research materials.
• Example: Shows prepared manuscript rubbings, photocopied rubbings, and single-character images. Click an image to enlarge for detailed viewing, or click “➕” to upload automatically.
• Detection: Displays specific results from rubbing analysis, including annotation boxes for inscriptions and single characters. Click on a character for detailed analysis.
• Retrieval: Shows related rubbings indexed by oracle bone characters. Each rubbing contains similar character forms to the uploaded oracle bone character.
• Literature: Displays academic references related to the analyzed oracle bone characters, providing insights into different usages and research materials.

It only takes two steps to quickly learn how to use this system for oracle bone inscription research:

Input two types of oracle bone materials in multiple ways:

Format 1: Upload the Transcription & Rubbing

2 Method to Upload Transcription & Rubbings

• Using the system-provided transcription / rubbing copies:
1. Click “Select Oracle Bone Fragment” in the center of the homepage.
2. In the pop-up gallery, freely choose from the high-resolution Transcription or Rubbing provided by the system.
3. Click the green “+” icon in the lower-right corner to load the selected item into the workspace.
• Local upload:
• Click the Image Upload button on the right-hand side to import files from your device.

Format 2: Upload Oracle Bone Character

2 Method to Upload Oracle Bone Character

Method 3: Click on the single character in the rubbing analysis results

• Using the system-provided single characters:
1. Click “Select Oracle Bone Character” in the center of the homepage.
2. In the pop-up gallery, freely choose from the high-resolution single character samples provided by the system.
3. Click the green “+” icon in the lower-right corner to load the selected item into the workspace.
• Local upload:
• Click the Image Upload button on the right-hand side to import files from your device.
• Select single characters displayed after uploading a rubbing for analysis:

Load the oracle bone rubbing or impression, and click the 「Rubbing/Impression Analysis」 button:

Upload the rubbing and conduct rubbing analysis

After a while, the system will provide the rubbing analysis results:

Rubbing result analysis diagram

1. AI Automatic AnnotationL:The system will complete the rubbing analysis within a few seconds.
   • 🔵 Blue Box:Precisely locate each independent oracle bone character.
   • 🔴 Red Box:Intelligently identify sentence segments that form complete semantics.
   • 🔢 Serial Number:Sort according to the correct reading order of the divination text.
2. Results Synchronization:The left information bar will instantly generate an interactive analysis report.
   • Original Text and Translation:Display the oracle bone text sequence and its corresponding modern Chinese interpretation sentence by sentence.
   • Thinking Chain Display:If you are interested in the AI's decision-making process, you can read the content of the <think> tag to explore its "thoughts".

Click “+” to expand the workspace:

Expand the workspace to proceed with the next step.

Upload or click on a single character within the blue box of the analyzed rubbing, then click the “Single Character Analysis” button:

Upload a single character and perform oracle bone single-character analysis

After a short wait, the system will provide the single-character analysis results:

Example of single-character analysis results. The system provides multiple candidate characters, and you may also directly input other possible characters for further retrieval.

The dialog box will sequentially display the analysis results, candidate and similar characters, and the character evolution timeline:

• Single-Character Analysis Results: Includes decipherment status, modern Chinese character restoration, radical structure analysis, classification across historical periods, and character form reasoning.
• Candidate and Similar Characters: Based on the analysis results, the system suggests multiple possible candidates and lists visually similar or easily confused forms for reference.
• Character Evolution Timeline: Provides a clear visual representation of the character’s evolution from Oracle Bone Script → Bronze Inscriptions → Seal Script → Regular Script.
• Multiple Candidate Selection: Choose from the candidate characters provided by the system, or input other possible characters to improve subsequent retrieval and literature search.

The Chinese character to be retrieved

Based on the single-character analysis results, or by selecting a new oracle bone character, click the “Single-Character Retrieval” button:



Upload a single character and perform single-character retrieval

After a short wait, the system will provide the retrieval results, presenting the corresponding sentence segments in digital form:



Example of single-character retrieval results



Comparison of digitalized results

At the bottom, the system summarizes the usage of the character across all retrieved sentences:



Possible meanings of the character

Click on the index results on the right to display the position of the character in the rubbing/manuscript, along with detailed interpretations of the rubbing:



Detailed view of single-character retrieval

The dialog box will display the provenance of the rubbing, sentence segment location, and allow translation of the sentence where the character appears:

• Rubbing Provenance: Locates all rubbings and manuscripts containing similar character forms in authoritative sources such as Jiaguwen Moben Daxi and Jiaguwen Heji.
• Sentence Segment Location: Results are displayed as cards, each containing the source, ID, sentence segment, and original image, together with the corresponding annotated transcription page.
• Sentence Translation: Each sentence segment is accompanied by a modern Chinese translation. Clicking the Translate button helps you quickly grasp the meaning of the segment.

Based on the detected single characters in rubbings or those input by the user, click the “Single-Character Literature Search” button:



Upload a single character and perform oracle bone literature search

After a short wait, the system will provide the results of the literature search with the corresponding content:



Display of single-character literature search results

Click the red literature titles on the left to locate where the oracle bone character appears in the text:



Contextual positioning of single-character search results

Click the red literature titles on the left to locate the specific content related to the oracle bone character:



Contextual positioning of single-character search results

Summary of content related to the character:



Summary of single-character usage

The dialog box will display matched explanations and research results from the knowledge base, returning a result set with image fragments and context:

• Literature Search Display: Retrieve related interpretations of the character from authoritative sources such as Jiaguwen Zilin, Guwenzi Gulin, and academic papers, providing direct access to the documents.
• Contextual Positioning: The system automatically highlights the exact position of the interpretation and research results in the original text, enabling quick browsing of the context.
• Single-Character Usage Summary: The system automatically summarizes the character’s usage based on the retrieved literature.

Core Data Sources

Our research is rooted in authoritative academic achievements, with main data sources including but not limited to:

• Jiaguwen Moben Daxi
• Jiaguwen Heji
• Jiaguwen Zilin
• Guwenzi Gulin
• Xin Jiaguwen Bian
• Multimodal Oracle Bone Dataset
• Oracle Bone Character Dataset
• Other rigorously curated academic literature databases

Open Survey

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