The connection between life and language has endured as a conceit of philosophers and writers throughout the ages. To these searching souls, I would humbly suggest a course in Chinese and a visit to Anyang, where some of the worlds most ancient evidence of language, the Yin dynasty oracle bones, have been unearthed.The Shang Dynasty built their first capital in the area around what is modern day Zhengzhou, but in 1300 B.C. the 20th king of the dynasty relocated the capital city to the area around Anyang, which remained here for two and a half centuries making it history s longest enduring Shang dynasty capital. This section of its history is more commonly called the Yin dynasty.
In the 30 square kilometers surrounding the western suburbs of Anyang, the Shang developed villages of family settlements, installed irrigation for their crops and draining pipes for their homes, created fine works of stone, clay, bronze and jade, traded and bartered with other nations using cowrie shells as currency, conducted animal husbandry of cow, lamb and pig and created political and ritualistic institutions. Perhaps most to their credit, however, is the creation and use of the Chinese language. Of the three ancient writing systems, only that of the oracle bones has developed into a form still used today.
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This all poses some very interesting questions to the visitor. Namely, how is it that through the thousands of years that have passed, despite the many cultures and languages that have arisen in that time, that today we are able to glean the same meaning from certain symbols? Does it bespeak of humanity s inherent definition or value on certain things? History forced language to evolve and branch out, but, if it only served to fragment people, why?
I am no linguist, but I am a student of Chinese. I fell in love with its written form years ago on my first visit to China when I saw a man using a four foot long calligraphy brush and a bucket of water to write out Chinese couplets on the smooth ebony tiles of a small park. Because many of the same sounds in Chinese can have dozens of characters and thus dozens of different meanings, when Chinese speak to one another, they often trace the character on their palm for clarification. In writing, everything becomes clearer.
