# Descendants exist and form chains will find them

> Still possible: Many unread graphs have later descendants obscured by changes of form, and systematic form chains will keep yielding accepted readings.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/answers/ANS0DEDS3C777CK/descendants-exist-and-form-chains-will-find-them  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Unread oracle bone characters](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered)[What are the roughly 3,000 unread oracle-bone graphs, and how many of them can ever be read?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/questions/QST0DEDQEESA0GT/what-are-the-roughly-3-000-unread-oracle-bone-graphs-and-how)Answer

Answer · Unread oracle bone characters

# Descendants exist and form chains will find them

Many unread graphs have later descendants obscured by changes of form, and systematic form chains will keep yielding accepted readings.

**Still possible** Answers **1** question0

## Where it stands

**Still possible** One piece of evidence for, one against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- Accepted readings continue at a rate of one or more per few years and each rests on a form chain.
- Newly published Warring States and Qin bamboo texts supply the missing links for some unread graphs.

## What would rule it out

- No new reading is accepted by the Anyang reviewers for a decade despite submissions.
- A slot classification shows nearly all unread graphs are names.

## Evidence 1 for · 1 against

[Jiang Yubin's 2018 reading of chun and Zhou Zhongbing's 2023 reading of tai were both reached by form chains through…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/evidence/EVD0DEDTGX7E8FK/jiang-yubins-2018-reading-of-chun-and-zhou-zhongbings-2023)

Supported

FOR

[The rate of accepted readings has been about one every three years since 2016, which at the present pace would take…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/evidence/EVD0DEDTHBFGPBG/the-rate-of-accepted-readings-has-been-about-one-every-three)

Suggestive

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[What are the roughly 3,000 unread oracle-bone graphs, and how many of them can ever be read?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/questions/QST0DEDQEESA0GT/what-are-the-roughly-3-000-unread-oracle-bone-graphs-and-how)

Open6 answers, none ahead

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Descendants exist and form chains will find them [Answer ANS0DEDS3C777CK]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0DEDS3C777CK
```

Key

**ANS** 0DEDS3C777CK

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Proposed

[Session 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/oracle-bone-undeciphered/sessions/SES0DEDVWXKJN4C/session-1-the-unread-oracle-bone-characters-seeded-corpus) · 31 Oct 2026

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