The earliest writing in our country is, where did our writing first appear

Many scholars believe that Tao Wen is the earliest prototype of Chinese writing.

In the prehistoric and early history of China, before the emergence of Chinese characters, the symbol that most resembled writing was Taowen. There are many materials that have been unearthed in Taowen, but it is not as long as the oracle bone inscription, with only a single symbol. From the Neolithic period to the late Shang Dynasty, the earliest pottery inscriptions that have been unearthed are Banpo pottery, about 4800-4300 BC.

In addition, during the period of Dawenkou culture, Longshan culture and Liangzhu culture, there were also pottery inscriptions. Most of the pottery inscriptions are engraved on the black wide band pattern and black inverted triangle pattern on the outer edge of the pottery bowl, and very few are engraved on the outer wall of the pottery pot and the bottom of the pottery bowl, and there is only one pottery inscription on the general utensils. Scholars have different opinions on the nature of these pottery inscriptions.

Qiu Xigui thinks that it is a "sign", Guo Moruo thinks that it is a "symbol with a literal nature", and Yu Shengwu and other scholars believe that it belongs to the category of words. Mr. Tang Li'an (Lan) said of the Dawenkou cultural pottery inscription that this is "the distant ancestor of the current script, and they have a history of about 5,500 years." It is very difficult to decipher the Tao inscription, and so far there are only a few words that can guess that it is equivalent to a certain character of the descendants.

However, it should be certain that Tao Wen has a relationship with Chinese characters.

Symbols Oracle bone inscriptions are characters engraved on tortoise shells and animal bones during the Yin Shang period. Most of the oracle bone inscriptions were unearthed in Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province, and were first discovered in 1898. After 1928, after many excavations, more than 100,000 pieces have been unearthed, mainly engraved divination and divination records.

The total number of words is about 4,600 words, and the number of literate characters is more than 1,700 words. The structure of the text has tended to be combined from a single body, and it basically has the construction rules of the Chinese characters of pictograms, signifiers, meanings, pretenses, transfers, and morphophonics.

Before the oracle bone inscription, was there still a script in our country? Judging from the historical records, "Xunzi", "Lü's Spring and Autumn", "Han Feizi", and "Shiben" all record the legend of Cangjie making characters. The preface to Xu Shen's "Shuowen" combines the statement of the "Biography of the Dictionaries" with the legend of Cangjie, saying:

And the knot rope of the god family is unified for the rule, and the industry is complicated, and the fake is born. The history of the Yellow Emperor Cangjie saw the traces of birds and beasts' hooves, and knew that the reason could be different from each other. "The era of the Yellow Emperor is about 25600 BC, and the earliest oracle bone inscription is no more than 1300 BC.

Judging from the archaeological materials, before the oracle bone inscription, there were many immature writing symbols in China. In the 30s, some symbols were found in the Longshan culture pottery excavated in Chengziya, Zhangqiu County, Shandong. There are also text symbols on the Xi'an Banpo painted pottery, it is composed of geometric lines depicted, most of them are relatively simple, Guo Moruo said that the symbols on the Banpo painted pottery have the nature of words.

Symbols were also found on the pottery of Dawenkou culture in Shandong, and some of the symbols were painted with colors. These symbols are depicted in prominent places on the surface of the pottery. Some symbols resemble the sun or moon rising from a mountain.

In addition, symbols have been found on the pottery of the Majiayao culture in Qinghai, the early Shang Dynasty culture in Zhengzhou and the middle Shang Dynasty culture in Hebei. Some of these symbols are combined with the pattern, and some are clearly different from the painted pottery ornamentation, although these symbols are simple, sporadic, and have no certain law, but they are the prototype of Chinese characters, and it can be said that the birth of Chinese characters has a history of at least five or six thousand years. Therefore, the oracle bone script can only be said to be the oldest and more mature script in China, and it cannot be said to be the earliest script in China.

The earliest written language in our country is the oracle bone script.

About a century ago, in Anyang, Henan Province, China, there was a major archaeological discovery, which was the discovery of the Burning Yin Ruins and the oracle bone inscriptions. Since then, the study of the history of the Yin Shang dynasty in China has entered a new period. According to Chinese paleographers, the Koukou Script is "the earliest and relatively complete script that can be seen at present".

It is already relatively complex, and more than 3,000 words have been discovered, including nouns, pronouns, verbs, auxiliary verbs, adjectives and other categories, and can also form a narrative of more than 170 words.

Birth background

The royal family and nobles of the Shang Dynasty all sought the gods for divination from national events to private life, such as sacrifices, climate, harvests, expeditions, field hunting, sickness, childbirth, going out, etc., so as to know the good fortune and the good fortune to decide what to do. As a result, divination became a major event in the country's political life, and the imperial court set up special institutions and diviners.

The oracle bones with inscriptions are preserved as national archives and piled up in the cellars. As a result, the inscriptions on the oracle bones became the primary source for the study of the history of the Shang dynasty, reflecting various aspects of social life from 1300 BC to 1000 BC.

It is currently recognized that the earliest Chinese script is the oracle bone script. The oracle bone inscription is a script used during the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC – 1046 BC) in ancient China, and the main trembling key was engraved on tortoise shells and animal bones. Most of these characters were used for divination and recording of sacrifices, prayers, astronomy, calendars, etc., and at the same time, the bend rock also reflected the social, economic, and cultural conditions of the time.

The discovery and study of oracle bone inscriptions is of great significance for the study of ancient Chinese culture and history, especially for the origin and evolution of Chinese characters.

Oracle. The earliest Chinese character in China is the oracle bone script, which is the earliest known systematic writing form in China and one of the four ancient scripts in the world. It has the methods of making characters such as pictograms, rulers and fingers, understanding, shape and sound, transfer notes, and false base borrowing, which marks that it has entered a mature stage.

1. Chinese writing first appeared in the Yellow River Basin. Writing is a way and tool for human beings to record and express information with ideograms to pass on information for a long time. Modern writing is mostly a tool for recording language.

Human beings often have oral language first and then produce written words, and there are many small languages, with languages but no writing. The difference in writing reflects the different ways of writing and thinking of countries and nations. Writing has brought humanity into a civilized society with historical records.

2. According to the phonetics and glyphs, the characters can be divided into epigraphs, phonetic characters and phonetic characters. According to phonetics and morphemes, it can be divided into phonemic scripts, syllabic scripts and morpheme scripts. Epigraphs are hieroglyphs of early human native scripts, such as:

The sacred script of the ancient Egypt and the Huai, the cuneiform script of the Lianghe Valley, the ancient Indian script, the Mayan script of the Americas, and the early Chinese characters.

3. Yiyin characters are composed of pictographic symbols and the sound side of the confession, Chinese characters are evolved from epigraphs, and Chinese characters are also morpheme characters.