Basic Problems Underlying the Process of Identification of the Chinese Graphs of the Shang Oracular Inscriptions.

Basic Problems Underlying the Process of Identification of the Chinese Graphs of the Shang Oracular Inscriptions.

In discussing the problems of identification of the Chinese graphs, we must exclude from the start all glyphic forms discovered in earlier pre- Shang levels which are sometimes claimed by Chinese scholars to fully warrant the term 'writing'. Such a claim should first provide some grounds by giving us a definition of true writing, namely what must be the minimum requirements to lable any number of incised or painted signs not as mere signs, glyphs or glyphic forms, but as true graphs. The graph is any kind of drawing or image, integrated in a system of writing, resulting in a visual representation of a language. As a system, writing is something complete in itself, yet open ended, capable of continuous, homogeneous readaptation, growth and development (according to its system); it must be apt to express anything with all the refinement of stress and focus, with all the unambiguous clarity of the language represented and remain so.