Origins and evolution of Chinese writing systems and preliminary counting relationships

The history of Chinese writing extends back more than 6000 years and the Chinese writing system remains unique among all writing systems. In this paper, the origin and evolution of Chinese writing systems will be discussed. It will be shown that in the Shang dynasty (about 1200 BC) the principles of Chinese writing had been formulated and that over the following 3000 years the structure and key elements of the system have remained, although the style of writing has changed (Li, 1969; Keightly, 1989). Explanations of the possible motivation behind the invention of Chinese writing will also be discussed. It can be shown that numerals had the highest frequency of occurrence in the earliest writing system - pottery inscriptions - and this finding indicates that one of the purposes of innovation of a writing system was for counting. This paper concludes that evidence of early Chinese writing confirms there is a significant relationship between the invention of a writing system and abstract counting and accounting requirements