Oracle-bone script (jiaguwen, 甲骨文), the earliest known form of systematic Chinese writing, dates from the fourteenth to eleventh century BC. The sharp beginning and end of each stroke relate to the script’s origins in carving divination texts on tortoise shells and on the flat bones of certain animals. These ancient texts were used primarily in predicting future events on behalf of the ruler.
Archaeologists in the early twentieth century discovered and deciphered oracle-bone script, and modern scholars and artists have added it to China’s tradition of calligraphic arts.