Historic character of China's writing

Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used writing system, sometimes called China's fifth great invention. It was a major factor in unifying China, where different dialects are spoken but everyone reads the same script.

Around 1.4 billion people speak or are learning Chinese worldwide. The total number of characters remains unknown because new characters emerge all the time, but estimates are around 100,000. The characters are mysterious, complicated, beautiful and rich in culture and art.

An exhibition "Magnificent Chinese Characters" at the Shanghai Public Art Center explores the origin and evolution of the characters. The 13-day exhibition runs through November 18.

Most exhibits come from the National Museum of Chinese Writing in Anyang, central China's Henan Province, site of the Yin ruins where oracle bones and oracle bone script were discovered. They are the earliest form of Chinese writing, believed by some to date back to the late Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century BC).

The earliest writing was used for royal divination; questions were carved on bones or tortoiseshell, which were then heated until it cracked. The cracks were then interpreted and answers divined.

There is no consensus on when the earliest known Chinese characters originated.

In recent years, inscriptions have been found on Neolithic pottery and on bones at various sites, such as Banpo and Hualouzi near Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. These simple, often geometric marks are similar to some of the earliest known Chinese characters, potentially indicating that the history of Chinese writing extends back over six millennia.

But at Damaidi in the northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, more than 3,000 pictorial cliff carvings dating to 6000-5000 BC were discovered, leading to bold speculation and reports that Chinese writing was 8,000 years old.

Chinese characters, in isolated graphs and pictures, are found periodically. Scholars hold various interpretations.