Bamboo and Silk Analysis

Rhetorical Implications What Can We Learn From Tsien's Research?
Back to Home THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE RECORDS The vast number of archaeological finds indicate several things imperative to the history of writing: 1) The Chinese are believed to be the first culture to have made attempts toward the mechanical multiplication of writings through stamping, rubbing, and squeezing (2). 2) Writing served as the "carrier of an old and ingenious civilization that bound the Chinese people together as the largest homogeneous cultural group of mankind" due to literature used in education and study of books (2). 3) China is known to have the largest, "richest, and most detailed historical record" of any known peoples--of their culture, religions, wars, rulers, and ideologies--having kept a detailed record nearly every single year since 722 B.C. (3). 4) Because of the number of books, the Chinese are known as the first civilization to begin the practice of an extensive classification systerm--the first library (3). 5) China is one of the only cultures known to have had actual bookstores before the christian era. 6) The first Chinese dictionary, called the Shuowen jiezi, indicates a stabilized vocabulary of over 9353 characters and a widespread literate society (mostly due to the spread of Buddhism) already in existence by around 100 A.D. (16). 7) Evidence exists that would attribute the invention of paper to the Chinese, who were writing on paper long before there are any indications of paper use in the West (146).

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THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE RECORDS
The vast number of archaeological finds indicate several things imperative to the history of writing:

1) The Chinese are believed to be the first culture to have made attempts toward the mechanical multiplication of writings through stamping, rubbing, and squeezing (2).

2) Writing served as the "carrier of an old and ingenious civilization that bound the Chinese people together as the largest homogeneous cultural group of mankind" due to literature used in education and study of books (2).

3) China is known to have the largest, "richest, and most detailed historical record" of any known peoples--of their culture, religions, wars, rulers, and ideologies--having kept a detailed record nearly every single year since 722 B.C. (3).

4) Because of the number of books, the Chinese are known as the first civilization to begin the practice of an extensive classification systerm--the first library (3).

5) China is one of the only cultures known to have had actual bookstores before the christian era.

6) The first Chinese dictionary, called the Shuowen jiezi, indicates a stabilized vocabulary of over 9353 characters and a widespread literate society (mostly due to the spread of Buddhism) already in existence by around 100 A.D. (16).

7) Evidence exists that would attribute the invention of paper to the Chinese, who were writing on paper long before there are any indications of paper use in the West (146).