# A comprehensive survey of oracle character recognition: challenges, benchmarks, and beyond

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.11354 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.11354/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 18 Nov 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Mitigating Long-tail Distribution in Oracle Bone Inscriptions: Dataset, Model, and Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.09555/) (2025)
- [Chronicles-OCR: A Cross-Temporal Perception Benchmark for the Evolutionary Trajectory of Chinese Characters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.11960/) (2026)
- [Towards Computational Chinese Paleography](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.06753/) (2026)
- [AMR-CCR: Anchored Modular Retrieval for Continual Chinese Character Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.07497/) (2026)
- [JieZi: A Large-Scale Expert-Audited Dataset and Benchmark for Ancient Chinese Character Exegesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.11741/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Oracle character recognition-an analysis of ancient Chinese inscriptions found on oracle bones-has become a pivotal field intersecting archaeology, paleography, and historical cultural studies. Traditional methods of oracle character recognition have relied heavily on manual interpretation by experts, which is not only labor-intensive but also limits broader accessibility to the general public. With recent breakthroughs in pattern recognition and deep learning, there is a growing movement towards the automation of oracle character recognition (OrCR), showing considerable promise in tackling the challenges inherent to these ancient scripts. However, a comprehensive understanding of OrCR still remains elusive. Therefore, this paper presents a systematic and structured survey of the current landscape of OrCR research. We commence by identifying and analyzing the key challenges of OrCR. Then, we provide an overview of the primary benchmark datasets and digital resources available for OrCR. A review of contemporary research methodologies follows, in which their respective efficacies, limitations, and applicability to the complex nature of oracle characters are critically highlighted and examined. Additionally, our review extends to ancillary tasks associated with OrCR across diverse disciplines, providing a broad-spectrum analysis of its applications. We conclude with a forward-looking perspective, proposing potential avenues for future investigations that could yield significant advancements in the field.