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Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. [a] The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BC, in the Late Shang period. Bronze inscriptions became plentiful during the following Zhou dynasty.
Written Chinese is one of the oldest continuously used writing systems. [26] The earliest examples universally accepted as Chinese writing are the oracle bone inscriptions made during the reign of the Shang king Wu Ding (c. 1250 – c. 1192 BCE). These inscriptions were made primarily on ox scapulae and turtle shells in order to record the ...
An example of Chinese bronze inscriptions on a bronze vessel – early Western Zhou (11th century BC). The earliest known examples of Chinese writing are oracle bone inscriptions made c. 1200 BC at Yin (near modern Anyang), the site of the final capital of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC).
Wang Yirong, Chinese politician and scholar, was the first to recognize the oracle bone inscriptions as ancient writing. Among the major scholars making significant contributions to the study of the oracle bone writings, especially early on, were: [26] Wang Yirong recognized the characters as being ancient Chinese writing in 1899.
Many early Chinese texts were composed before the End of the Han dynasty in 220 CE. They involved numerous Confucian classics, such as the Four Books and Five Classics, alongside poetry, dictionaries, histories and surveys on topics such as mathematics, astronomy, music and medicine, among others.
Chinese Writing. Translated by Gilbert Mattos and Jerry Norman. Early China Special Monograph Series No. 4. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. ISBN 1-55729-071-7. Rawson, Jessica (1980). Ancient China: Art and Archaeology. London: British Museum ...
Chinese Writing. Translated by Mattos, Gilbert L.; Norman, Jerry. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China and The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California. ISBN 978-1-55729-071-7. Boltz, William G. (1994). The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society.
Writing and Literacy in Early China: Studies from the Columbia Early China Seminar. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-99152-8. Qiu Xigui (2000) [1988]. Chinese Writing. Translated by Mattos, Gilbert L.; Norman, Jerry. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China and The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of ...