ON EARLY CHINESE WRITING
The origin of writing in China is still shrouded in mystery, giving rise to much speculation. While some still say that a stimulus from the West might have sparked off a local writing system, the evidence seems to suggest that the logographic Chinese script was indigenous and had a far earlier inception than was previously thought.
The new archaeological finds in the PRC over the last five decades have brought to light interesting clues relating to this, which hint at a Neolithic origin of Chinese characters.
The earliest signs of inscriptions in China, mainly on pottery, oracle bones (ox scapulae) and turtle plastrons have a connection with the practice of divination.
Whereas the Shang dynasty (c.1600 – 1050 B.C.) archaeological discoveries have revealed that an already highly developed writing system was in use by at least 1200
B.C., many earlier markings indicate the possibility of an inchoate script developing during the Neolithic period.
The earliest symbols found so far appear to be carved signs on 8,600 year old turtle plastrons belonging to the Peiligang culture in Jiahu, Henan and signs painted onto Laoguantai pottery in Shaanxi and Gansu, neither of which have been satisfactorily deciphered. 11 separate graphs have been recognised so far on the turtle plastrons, bearing a resemblance to the later Shang script – radiocarbon dated to between 6,600 and 6200 BC. These were found buried with human remains in 24
Neolithic graves. For example, the numerals 8 and 20 and signs similar to the later characters for ”window” and “eye” have been tentatively identified. However, these identifications are controversial and disputed, as many archaeologists cannot accept that these in inscriptions can be linked with the Shang script approximately 5000 years later, even though many appear schematised or stylised like typical characters.
The findings seem to suggest a link with shamanism, in common with later writing, adumbrating a shamanic monopoly of writing in early China.
The part of the Neolithic period of relevance to this essay, however, can be roughly divided into two basic time-frames: the Yangshao (5000 – 3000 BC) and the
Longshan (3000 – 2000 BC). Although, these two periods denote different cultures in ancient Neolithic China, they also can be usefully referred to as chronological ages.
During the Yangshao period, there are a variety of markings on pottery which may or may not be related to later symbols, for as yet it is unclear whether they are any more important than potters’ marks. Nevertheless, at Jiangzhai, a Banpo culture site, dated to c.4000 B.C., they appear more advanced and could conceivably be seen as primitive or embryonic characters. In some other Yangshao sites graphs similar to subsequent characters have been discovered.
At the late Dawenkou sites in Shandong etc., a number of symbols or markings have been found to be comparable to later “associative compounds” of the Chinese script, which scholars have attempted to decipher. Concepts such as “morning” and
“hot” seem to be expressed in these basic composite logographs. Elements of these
“proto-characters” depict pictographically, for example, mountain, sun and moon, hoe
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and hatchet etc which are already recognisable. These date from around 3000 – 2500
B.C. and are therefore categorisable as belonging to the Longshan era.
The Liangzhu culture of Zhejiang, beginning in the fourth millennium B.C., has been regarded by some as a progenitor of the Chinese script. Certain signs from this culture appear to be numerals. District graphs on jade “bi” have been located in different areas, suggesting a standardised form of primitive writing, beginning to be developed. The Hongshan culture from c.4000B.C., according to some, incorporated shapes in their burial sites that suggest petroglyphic symbolism.
Nevertheless, it is in the Longshan period (3000 – 2000 B.C.) that the development of precursors of Chinese characters is most evident. (possibly influencing the Liangzhu symbols). It was in the Longshan era, roughly corresponding to the mythical and legendary age of the Five Emperors and to the early days of the Xia dynasty (now accepted by most archaeologists as genuine, despite a lack of written texts) that Chinese civilisation with all its trappings starts to flourish. Myriad statelets with walled cities appear, ruled by kings engaging in warfare, metallurgy arises and religion and ritual become more highly developed, not to mention an incipient writing system prerequisite for social interaction. Fine pottery, silks and jades are, in addition, a feature of this period.
A sequence of 11 characters on a sherd, dated to approximately this period, has been found in an ash pit in Dinggong village, Shandong, but not yet successfully deciphered. Already at this time the characters reveal the square structure and shape of later characters. It is not yet certain whether these signs formed part of a rudimentary script which later died out or led directly to modern writing. It is salutary to bear in mind, however, that nationalism can pervade archaeology as well as history and that patriotism could distort, or rather reinterpret findings in favour of ethnocentricity and relative ancientness of civilisation. This said, it still remains a convincing argument that Chinese characters were an indigenous product and because the Shang script was already complex by about 1200 B.C., it seems hardly credible that it could have arisen in a vacuum. Around the late Erliton period (now usually equated with the Xia dynasty) signs apparently like precursors of the Shang inscriptions on oracle bones have been found.
Chinese writing, ideally suited to a homophonous tonal language is arguably more complex than any other so far discovered.. Sumerian pictographs and subsequent cuneiform are relatively less complicated. The Egyptian hieroglyphic system of writing is less stylised but much more phonetic than Chinese, with an inventory of only 700 odd signs in middle Egyptian.
The total number of Chinese characters is unknown and vast: at least 50,000 can be found listed, although an educated Chinese might be familiar with 10,000 or so and people get by with considerably fewer. Of course Chinese has proved to be an impressively long-lasting writing system: even today it is still very much in use alongside Pinyin romanisation and undoubtedly will continue to do so. Mayan glyphs, by contrast, now mainly deciphered, had a much shorter life-span, consisting of a mixture of logographs and a phonetic syllabary, again seemingly less complex than Chinese. Hence the need for a longer gestation period for the Chinese script.
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In conclusion, it now seems plausible that Chinese characters have a far longer history than was previously recognised, going back probably at least to the Longshan graphs and conceivably even to the Peiligang culture of c.6000 B.C. (in embryonic form). If this is the case, and it must be emphasised that it is still a matter of dispute, an inchoate, incipient script may even be found to pre-date the Sumerian, but many more archaeological finds relating to this need to be made before it is established without doubt and controversy.
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