Origins and evolution of Chinese writing systems and preliminary counting relationships

Accounting History,  Nov 2004  by Lu, Wei,  Aiken, Max

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Abstract

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.

Keywords: Writing; counting; China; history; invention; relationship.

Introduction: literature review on counting and writing

The rhetoric of accounting history across time and space can take heed of primitive elements of pre-history. Artefacts may send messages from the past. These messages may be revealed through an interpretive focus of relevance to the present and to interim events. An interim event of importance in Chinese accounting is the invention of writing.1 This in itself may have strong associations with counting and the need to express financial rights and obligations among citizens through accounting measurement and communication practices.

Explanation of the origin of writing had been dominated by myths and legends. Questions are often asked including: "what is the origin of writing and abstract counting?". In order to provide answers scientists and researchers may need to find archaeological evidence. Many alternative theories have been developed in order to explain the invention of writing. In the eighteenth century William Warburton (1738), Bishop of Glouscester, introduced an evolutionary theory of writing. In his book based on his observation of Egyptian, Chinese, and Aztec manuscripts, he introduced the first evolutionary theory of writing. He argued that all scripts originally developed from narrative drawings. Although some have argued his theory does not offer a perfect explanation of the origin of particular writing systems, it has remained dominant for more than two hundred years (Schmandt-Besserat, 1996).

Archaeological findings at Uruk since the 1930s have instigated criticism of the universal pictographic theory. Archaic tables excavated have contradicted Warburton's theory. This has been because there were rarely any true pictorial signs in these tables. Even with few being truly pictorial, they were uncommon. This raised a series of uncertainties about all scripts having originated from narrative drawings (Falkenstein, 1964; Schmandt-Besserat, 1996).

In the search for the origin and invention of writing several scholars have attempted to link writing, abstract counting and accounting. These include Oppenheim (1959), Falkenstein (1964) and Amiet (1966). Falkenstein argued that cuneiform writing was originally created for the exclusive purpose of recording economic transactions. Oppenheim (1959) revealed the cuneiform envelope containing tokens used for accounting purposes. The numbers of tokens inside the envelope reflect the economic transactions incised on the surface of a cuneiform envelope. Amiet (1966) interpreted clay counters in envelopes of the prehistoric period as representing commodities.

Professor Denise Schmandt-Besserat of the University of Texas, an archaeologist specialising in pre-historic clay objects, claimed that small tokens found in the Near East are among the antecedents of writing. Schmandt-Besserat (1992a; 1992b) describes clay objects as "tokens". These different shapes of objects - cones, spheres, disks, cylinders, and so on - served as "counters" in the prehistoric Near East. They were present throughout the Near East including in Israel, Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran. The layers range from 8000 to 3000 BC and even later. Apart from individual clay tokens which often were loosely distributed in pre-historic sites, archaeologists discovered hollow clay balls containing such tokens. The oldest of these receptacles (called envelopes by Schmandt-Besserat) dated back to about 3250 BC. They bear seals impressed on the surface.

From about 3200 BC onward the container surface not only bears a seal but also is imprinted with every token contained in the envelope. Obviously, the need to identify the contents from outside (that is, without breaking the seal and envelope) was soon realised. This imprinting of the tokens on the surface of the envelope is considered to be a device moving towards the invention of writing.

In visiting many museums as well as archaeological sites, Schmandt-Besserat puzzled over these tokens and containers. She provides the following hypothesis: that clay tokens represented various commodities. Before 3250 BC the tokens were presumably kept in perishable containers; but after this date they were preserved in clay envelopes, each representing a commodity aggregate. This was owed by one person to another or, more often, owed to a temple precinct. At the same time there existed an alternative system using the same tokens. However, these were perforated, stringed, and held together by a sealed button of clay. The debtor was identified with the seal (wrapped around the envelope or impressed on the clay connecting the ends of the strings). This system served as a counting device and an accounting method for control of goods in the pre-historic cultures of the Near East.