Of course it’s China
Chinese characters are the earliest writing in the world, with a history of about 6,000 years.
The ancients believed that Chinese characters were created by Cangjie. Regarding this, there are many records in pre-Qin classics, such as "Xunzi·Jieye": "There are many good calligraphers, but Cangjie is the only one who can write about it." "Lu Shi Chunqiu·Jun Shou Chapter": "Xi Zhong made chariots Cangjie wrote the book, Houji made the crops, Gaotao made the punishment, Kunwu made the pottery, and Xia Gun made the city. These six people should be the ones who wrote the book. , those who ring themselves are called '厶', and those who carry '厶' are called public." There are many records in Han people's writings. For example, "Huainanzi · Ben Xun": "In the past, Cangjie wrote books, and the sky rained millet, and the ghosts cried at night." Especially Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in his foundational linguistics monograph "Shuowen Jiezi · "Xu Shen and his "Shuowen Jiezi" (see appendix "Xu Shen and his "Shuowen Jiezi"", the same below) talks about it in the most detail: "In ancient times, the Pao Xi family was the king of the world. When you look up, you observe the phenomena in the sky, and when you look down, you observe the law. On the ground, he looked at the characters of birds and animals and the suitability of the place, and took objects from near and distant objects, so he began to make the Eight Trigrams of Changes, and used the hanging of Xianxiang and Shen Nong's knotted ropes to govern and regulate his affairs. , The story of Huangdi, Cangjie, saw the traces of the hooves of birds and animals, and knew that the rules could be different. He first made a book and deed, and he made hundreds of works and inspected everything."
It can be seen from the above that in ancient society, the theory that Cangjie invented characters has been concluded. And Xu Shen clearly put forward the origin, ideas and results of Cangjie's creation of characters.
However, later generations, especially modern scholars, are skeptical or even negative about Cangjie's creation of characters. They believe that Chinese characters could not have been created by one person at one time and in one place, but were the result of long-term collective accumulation by the ancestors of the Han nation. .
To discuss this issue, we believe that we must first define the meaning of the origin of Chinese characters: that is, the origin of Chinese characters refers to the Chinese character system we use now. Once this premise is clarified, the views of these scholars are questionable.
First, from the above introduction and other historical records, it can be seen that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period more than 2,500 years ago, the theory that Cangjie created characters was already a common sense in society at that time. In modern times, through the study of unearthed documents and cross-examination with materials from different sources, the credibility of my country's ancient history records is quite high. For example, in the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the tomb of King Wei in Ji County (now Ji County, Henan Province, which was Wei during the Warring States Period) was robbed, and the ancient history chronicled in the "Ji Tomb Book" - the "Bamboo Book Annals", the history book of the Wei State, was discovered. Many records about the historical facts of the Shang and Zhou dynasties are consistent with oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions. In the recently completed large-scale historical research project in my country, the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasty Dating Project, the documentary materials are largely based on the "Bamboo Chronicles". For another example, the study of different sources such as oracle bone inscriptions shows that the records of the lineage of emperors of the Shang Dynasty in "Historical Records·Yin Benji" are basically credible. They are some traditions that historians have always dismissed because of their inelegant language. Documents, such as "Five Emperors Virtues", "Emperor Lineage", "Shan Hai Jing", etc., have also been proven to express facts. Therefore, although there is no conclusive evidence to prove the truth, there is also no conclusive evidence to prove the wrong. It is not advisable to adopt a skeptical or even negative attitude towards the records of ancient history.
Secondly, the earliest known system of Chinese characters is the Yin Shang oracle bone inscriptions, whose historical upper limit is at least 3,300 years ago. After verification and research by experts and scholars, 5,949 Oracle-bone script characters have been compiled (most of which have the same character isomers, and according to the latest research, there are about 3,500 characters). It has been found that Oracle-bone script is a fairly mature writing system that fully conforms to the "Six Books" system. word principle. This shows that the emergence of Oracle should be a longer time ago. Cangjie lived in an era about 4,500 to 600 years ago. As can be seen from the previous introduction, Cangjie's creation of characters was a method that had origins ("the common people's industry is complicated, and false decorations are born") and theoretical guiding principles ("dividing principles"). It is a conscious creative activity that can be distinguished from each other") and achieves results ("one hundred works can be judged, and ten thousand products can be inspected"). Comparing it with oracle bone inscriptions, it is reasonable to say that Chinese characters were created by Cangjie from a historical perspective.
Third, through the study of the laws of innovation, it is found that the formation of all important ideas and theories, as well as major inventions and discoveries in history, were completed independently by individuals. Moreover, even if these important innovations are recognized and accepted by the public, it often takes a long and difficult process. It can be seen that Cangjie's theory of character creation conforms to the law of innovation.
In view of the above analysis, we believe that Cangjie’s theory of coining characters is credible.
At least it can be considered that it began with Cangjie that Chinese characters became a mature and systematic script. As for whether Cangjie is a personal name, an official name, or other meanings, we can not go into details for the time being, because what we are focusing on here is the fact of the origin of Chinese characters.
The Chinese characters used by the Chinese (actually far more than the Chinese) were created by Cangjie. Today, among the many computer Chinese character input methods widely used in the world, there is one called "Cangjie Chinese Character Input Method". As the "originator of Chinese characters", Cangjie has been respected not only by descendants of Yan and Huang at home and abroad for thousands of years, but also by the world. The Tomb of Cangjie, located in Wangji Township, Yucheng County, Shangqiu City, welcomes an endless stream of domestic and foreign tourists every day.
Cangjie was the historian of the Yellow Emperor. In order to record things and convey information, Huangdi ordered him to create characters. Cangjie first invented hieroglyphics. Later, because hieroglyphics could not meet people's needs, he invented ideographic characters, pictophonetic characters, etc. Made great contributions to human civilization and progress. The Yellow Emperor valued Cangjie's contribution to the invention and promotion of writing. After Cangjie's death, he ordered his coffin to be hung and buried. Today, in front of Cangjie's tomb, a large hall is hidden by ancient cypresses with lush foliage. The wooden pillars on both sides of the hall door have a couplet: "The ancestor of writing in the world, the master of calligraphy in ancient and modern times."