Chinese Writing

Oracle Bone Script: The Earliest Chinese Writing

Oracle bone script (甲骨文) was carved on ox bones and turtle shells, mainly in the late Shang period, for divination records. It is the earliest substantial body of Chinese writing we can read as a system.

Many modern characters still show a family resemblance to those graphs. The link is easier to see in pictographic examples than in abstract grammatical words.

Oracle bone writing is not a font you apply in Word. You cannot "convert" a DOCX into 甲骨文 with OpenCC. OpenCC works on modern Simplified and Traditional standards.

If you are following the historical path, continue to bronze inscriptions.