3,500 years of Chinese written history
Chinese characters, also known as Hanzi (漢字) are one of the earliest forms of written language in the world, dating back approximately five thousand years. With such a diverse ethnic population, yet, Chinese people managed to do was to record a unified written language that can still be read today, 3,500 years later.
The Erya or Erh-ya is the first surviving Chinese dictionary. reasonably dated from the 3rd century BC.” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_China]
The earliest Chinese literature that we know of probably comes from about 800 BC (the same time as Homer in Greece) and was written on silk. This is the I Ching, a fortune-telling book, like the earlier oracle bones. By the 500s BC, the two philosophers Lao Tzu and Confucius wrote down their ideas about how people should act.
The invention of paper
Ts’ai Lun invented paper around 100 BC, making the art of writing books cheaper and more popular during the Han Dynasty.
The first woman writer of China was Ban Zhao.
The story of this woman writer was a total surprise to me.The first woman writer of China was Ban Zhao, lived in the Han Dynasty, in the first century AD. She wrote many books, including poetry and the history of the Western Han. Ban Zhao also wrote astronomy and math books, and she wrote “Lessons for Women,” which advised women to submit to the men around them. This last book became very famous.
Enchanting Books to Read or Gift.
