I believe that Professor Edward L. Shaughnessy's review of Professor Wang Yuxin's book XiZhou jiagu tanlun is an important essay, pointing out several problems in the study of the Zhouyuan oracle bones worthy of attention. I intend here to discuss only one of these, the question of whether there are any Shang inscriptions among the Zhouyuan oracle bones.

I should first explain that, based on my understanding, this question pertains to only a very small portion of the Zhouyuan oracle bones, actually only four pieces, all of which come from pit H11 at Fengchu in Qishan County. In a conference paper entitled “Once Again on the Western Zhou Oracle Bones” presented to the “International Chinese Paleography Conference” in Hong Kong in 1983, I already pointed out that these four pieces are H11:112, H11:82, H11:84, and H11:1, and also attempted an interpretation of them (see Li 1985).