Chinese Writing: Origin or Origins?
Though it is often said that the earliest form of Chinese writing consists of divinatory inscriptions on bones (the so-called oracle bone inscriptions) dating to the Late Shang period (ca. 1300-1045), it is amply clear that there was writing on pottery, bronze, and bone dating to the Early and Middle Shang and even earlier to the Early Bronze Age (Erlitou) and Late Neolithic. What is perhaps less clear is what were the processes that led to the emergence of Chinese writing and where exactly these processes took place. Can we talk about a single geographic-political origin of Chinese writing in the middle Yellow River valley or should we think of a diffuse interaction among different Late Neolithic sign systems that over time was systematized in the context of emerging and competing political entities in a wider territory?
