With the passage of time and historical changes, especially in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, hieroglyphics covered and unified the land of China.
From Shang Dynasty to the end of Qing Dynasty, the evolution of Chinese characters went through the stages of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, inscriptions on bronze, big seal script, small seal script, official script, regular script, cursive script, running script and song style. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the earliest form of Chinese characters found at present. It originated in the Yin and Shang Dynasties and was named after being carved on tortoise shell bones.
Regarding the origin of Chinese characters, there are many sayings in China ancient literature, such as "knot rope theory", "gossip theory", "picture theory" and "calligraphy contract theory". Ancient books also generally recorded the legend of Cang Xie, the historian of the Yellow Emperor who created Chinese characters. Modern scholars believe that a systematic writing tool cannot be completely created by one person. If Cang Xie really exists, he should also be one of the authors, text organizer or publisher.
In recent decades, Chinese archaeologists have published a series of unearthed materials about the origin of Chinese characters earlier than Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins. These materials mainly refer to the carved or painted symbols that appeared on pottery in the late primitive society and early historical society, and also include a few symbols engraved on Oracle Bone Inscriptions, jade and stone tools.
Wang, a doctoral supervisor of Zhengzhou University, made a systematic investigation and comparison of the carving symbols on pottery pieces unearthed from more than 100 archaeological sites in China, and thought that the earliest carving symbols in China appeared in Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan Province, with a history of more than 8,000 years.