The Shang dynasty and oracle bones

The Shang kings hold the middle Yellow River, war with their neighbours and move their capital until they settle at Anyang. Their craftsmen cast bronze vessels of such complexity that it took ages to learn to reproduce them, and the tombs of the nobility are filled with chariots, weapons and the bodies of slain servants. Before every weighty undertaking the king consults his ancestors: a hollow is burned into an ox shoulder-blade or a turtle shell, the answer is read in the cracks, and the question is carved alongside. These inscriptions are the oldest Chinese texts known, and today's characters descend directly from their signs.