Photo via People's Daily

Chinese oracle inscriptions have gone from bones and tortoise shells to computer systems with the assistance of a new six-digit input method, another successful attempt made by China to introduce ancient culture into modern life.

The input and editing of Chinese oracle inscriptions have been puzzling the publishing industry due to its mostly pictographic and complex nature. The unknown sounds of the characters also ruled out the common option of pronunciation coding.

To solve this problem, Liu Zhixiang, the 77-year-old researcher, together with Yin Kuiying and Liu Xiaorong, came up with a six-digit input method based on the stroke structures, enabling much easier input into computer systems. The effort has won a national patent.

More than 8,700 characters of Chinese oracle inscriptions are now available in digital form, Xinhua reported.

Dating back 3,000 years, Chinese oracle inscriptions have been found on over 160,000 pieces in China and overseas.

This marked another successful attempt to introduce ancient culture into modern life. Chinese oracle inscriptions have also been turned into popular emoji’s on Chinese social media.