The text before the oracle bone inscription, whether the Tao inscription counts or not, has always been controversial, and some people even think that there were rock inscriptions, bird and beast inscriptions and other scripts before the Tao inscription. The carriers of words are different, and the traces that can be left behind are different after a long history. The number of words and symbols that can be preserved is very limited.
Before the oracle bone inscriptions were recorded, the symbols on the faience were also a type of recording. Whether the Tao inscription is just a symbol or a kind of writing does not depend on the Tao inscription itself, but on how much of the Tao inscription we can see at present. Too small a number can only be judged as a symbol, and a large number can be called a writing system.
Before the oracle bone inscription, there was indeed a primitive script called the bone inscription. The bone inscription is engraved on the animal bones, mainly used to remember, just like the knotted rope record, compared to the knotted rope record, the bone inscription looks like a picture, which can obviously express more content. Pictures have a higher degree of expression and freedom than knotted ropes, and bone inscriptions are hieroglyphs and graphic characters.
If the Tao inscription and the characters before the Tao inscription are not recognized as a writing system, then the bone inscription is the earliest recognizable script in China, and it is also the earliest kind of "calligraphy and painting homology". According to experts, the bone inscriptions were carved with agate and other acute-angled gemstones. History