The earliest known form of Chinese writing, found on tortoise shells and animal bones, is oracle bone script.
These inscriptions date mainly to the late Shang dynasty, especially the 13th–11th centuries BCE. Diviners carved questions into ox scapulae or turtle plastrons, applied heat, and interpreted the resulting cracks as answers from the spirit world. The inscriptions often recorded concerns about weather, harvests, warfare, sacrifices, illness, and royal affairs.
Most examples were discovered at Yinxu near modern Anyang in Henan, the last Shang capital. Their importance extends beyond calligraphy: they provide direct evidence for Shang political life and preserve early forms of characters that evolved into later Chinese scripts, including bronze inscriptions, seal script, clerical script, and regular script.
A common mix-up is calling oracle bone script simply “the first Chinese writing.” Earlier Neolithic symbols exist, but they have not been conclusively shown to represent a connected writing system. Oracle bone script is therefore the oldest clearly attested and substantial corpus of Chinese writing.