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Literacy in Ancient China

1
     A key point in the evolution of language is the adoption of the written word. After a language becomes written and not purely oral, a cavalcade of changes come into effect. Vocabulary expands, the language is less susceptible to change, and a historical record is established. 

     The earliest written Chinese that we have record of comes from the late Shang dynasty, in the form of engraved oracle bones [1]. Before the discovery of jiaguwen, or “oracle bone script” in the early 20th century, the earliest record came from the Zhou dynasty or after, but the fact that jiaguwen is the earliest script known to us does not mean it is the earliest form of written Chinese. Some scholars postulate that, due to the linguistic complexity already present in the jiaguwen, it must be a development of an earlier script, backdating the earliest Chinese language even further, and by extension the history of Chinese literacy [2]. However, with no physical evidence supporting this, it remains just a theory.

     In the following chapters, I will be inspecting literacy in the earliest literate Chinese dynasties, starting with the Shang and ending with the Han, as well as discussing the literate populations present within these historical epochs, so long before the rise of popular literacy as we understand it in the west.


1. David Keightley, Sources of Chinese Tradition: Vol. 1 (Columbia University Press, 1999), 3
2. Li Zong-kun, A Legacy of Elegance (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2017), 21

Contents of this path:

  1. Chapter 1: The Shang Dynasty
  2. Chapter 2: The Zhou Dynasty
  3. Chapter 3: The Qin and Han Dynasties
  4. Chapter 4: Literacy in the End
  5. Literacy in Ancient China - Bibliography