Which is the earliest article in China?

It cannot be verified. The earliest to appear was the oracle bone inscription, but it is impossible to prove which one appeared first.

The oracle bone inscription was identified in 1898 by antique dealers and gold and stone scientists, and then excavated on a large scale in Yinxu (Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan), with a large number of tortoiseshell animal bones unearthed, coupled with sporadic collection in other places, more than 100,000 pieces have been collected so far, of which the longest single article reaches more than 100 words, which can be seen in the prototype of applied literature.

The oracle bone script is an ancient Chinese script, an early form of Chinese characters, sometimes considered one of the scripts of Chinese characters, and the oldest surviving mature script from the Chinese dynastic period.

The oracle bone inscription is also known as the "deed inscription", "oracle bone inscription", Yinxu script or "tortoiseshell beast bone inscription". The oracle bone inscriptions recorded and reflected the political and economic conditions of the Shang Dynasty, mainly referring to the inscriptions on tortoise shells or animal bones used by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty (14th and 11th centuries BC) in China for divination. Yin Shang perished.

After the rise of the Dead Zhou Dynasty, the oracle bone inscription was also used for a period of time, which is an important source for studying the social history of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The shape and structure of the oracle bone inscription has tended to be combined with independent bodies, and a large number of morphophonetic characters have appeared, which is already a fairly mature script, and is the earliest known systematic writing form in China. It inherits the original carved symbols on the top and the bronze inscriptions on the bottom, which is the key form of the development of Chinese characters and is known as the "earliest Chinese character".

Modern Chinese characters evolved from oracle bone inscriptions.

Based on the available archaeological data, it is found that the oracle bone inscription is not unique to the Shang Dynasty and existed long before the Shang Dynasty. Archaeological research has found that the Yin Shang oracle bone inscription is very likely to originate from the Jiahu inscription symbol of the Peiligang cultural site in Henan Province 8,500 years ago, and there is a transitional script - the oracle bone inscription of Huayuan Village, Doumen Town.

It is impossible to study the first oracle bone inscription in history for a long time......

The oracle bone script is the earliest known systematic writing form in China and one of the four ancient scripts in the world. It has the methods of pictographic, signifying, knowing, morphophonic, transcribing, and borrowing, which marks that it has entered a mature stage. The oracle bone inscription in Yinxu is a record of divination in the Yin Dynasty, oracle bone divination in ancient China has a long history, and the Yinxu period is the most popular period for divination, the Shang kings and nobles almost everything must be divined, and divination has become an important part of the social life of the Shang Dynasty.

The methods and procedures of paying tribute, storing, remediation, drilling and divination of oracle bones, and the grammar and vocabulary of divination form a set of strict and systematic systems. According to oracle bone inscriptions, there were already Zhenren in charge of divination and records in the Yin Dynasty, and there were about 100 Zhenren who were seen in divination. Divination involves sacrifices, celestial phenomena, annual success, conquests, royal affairs, etc., and even hunting, illness, dreaming, and giving birth to children of the Shang king.

After the Shang Dynasty, oracle bone divination gradually lost its prominent position. The discovery of the oracle bone inscription in Yinxu bears witness to the extinction of the divination system of the Shang Dynasty and provides important materials for the study of Chinese cultural history. At present, about 150,000 oracle bones and more than 4,500 words have been found in Yinxu.

Judging from the about 1,500 words that have been recognized by the oracle bone script, the oracle bone script has the basic form of modern Chinese character structure, although its book body has undergone the evolution of the golden script, seal script, affiliated script, Kaishu and other book styles, but the characters and basic grammar characterized by shape, sound and meaning have been retained, becoming the square characters still used by one-fifth of the world's population today, which has had an important impact on the way of thinking and aesthetics of the Chinese, and laid the foundation for the emergence and development of Chinese calligraphy art. As a result, the oracle bone inscription has become the only one of the world's four ancient scripts that has been passed down to this day. The Chinese characters evolved from the oracle bone inscription played an important role in spreading Chinese culture and contributing to the formation and consolidation of China's unified state.