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They simply gathered together digging without the consent of the landlord.  Althou they succeeded in finding many inscribed bones, the ending was like the previous occasion, a confused mob fight.  However it was settled by the village elders amicably; as it was obvious to all parties concerned, that it could be no body's advantage to bring the case to the [[underline]]yamen[[/underline]] again.

While the site was so haphazardly plundered, methodic study also made a start.  Lo Chen-yü, who assisted Liu Ê to publish the rubbings, and corresponded with Sun I-jang on problems of decipherment^[[,]]silently took up the unfinished works of both.  The works have been very ably done; and it is fair to say that he has played a leading rôle in gradually developing this new branch of Chinese study.  In his preface to Yin-hsü Shu-ch'i, he records:

[[block quotation]]
".....when this book(namely T'ieh-yün Ts'ang kuei) was made public, I thought that there must be some learned man like Shu Kuang-wei(束廣微) to study, expo^[[u]]nd, and interpret its contents. Insignificant and unrecognized as I am, certainly dared not to try this task.  But in all these years, except the notes made by Sun I-jang, nothing was heard of.  Sun was an authority on epigraphy and Chou Wen(籀文), but his notes on the oracle bones have certainly left much to be desired.  Viewing such a situation, I began to realize that I am perhaps the one to take up this task.  In the year Ting-wei(丁未],1907), I received official appointment in the metropolis.  As office hours were few, I utilized my leisure moment to sutdy the rubbings, and the tortoise shells in my private collection.  By closer examination and more intimate acquaintance with them, my past doubt were gradually explained away.  As yet, I hardly made any note of my study.

"In the second year of Hsüan-t'ung(宣統,1910), my Japanese friend Lin T'ai-fu(林泰輔) sent me the notes of his study, which, compared with Sun's work, seem to be more systematic.  Beside he wrote to me discussing several problems on this subject.  To respond such a friendly call[[strikethrough]]ing[[/strikethrouhg]], and on the basis of what I found out, I wrote an article called 'Yin-shang Chên-pu Wên-tze-k'ao(殷商貞卜文字考).  Later as I saw more, I found that the article erred in one or two places and also made some new discovery.  Then I began to realize the fact that the remains of this treasure are limited, the bones and the shells are fragile and the inscriptions could be easily destroyed.  Althou they have been discovered for more than ten years, their value is yet not at all appreciated; should they not be quickly collected, the moment that these bones were taken out of the soil would be the moment of their destruction.  Beside, explanatory notes based on a