During the late Shang Dynasty (c.16th century-11th century BC), on the banks of the Huanhe River in what is now Henan province, a scribe lowered his bronze knife onto a polished tortoise shell. Firelight flickered across his face as the blade traced characters into the bone. He was performing divination on behalf of the king, inscribing questions onto bone or shell before applying heat to create cracks that were interpreted as answers from the spirit world. The brief, urgent inscriptions he left behind became the earliest known written records of Chinese civilization.
More than three millennia later, that moment has been reimagined by digital artists as part of the Jiagu Xungen (Roots of Oracle Bone Civilization) IP. The scene — titled Yongxu (Eternity) — belongs to the Wen (Writing) thread of the project, one of four narrative pillars that together tell the story of Shang civilization.
For centuries, these inscribed bones lay buried beneath the soil of Yinxu, the last capital of the Shang Dynasty, in Anyang of Henan. They remained forgotten until the late 19th century, when they began to surface as "dragon bones" sold in traditional medicine shops. Scholars soon recognized them as fragments of a lost writing system that predated any previously known Chinese script by nearly a millennium.
Today, oracle bone script is recognized as China's earliest fully developed writing system, and the only ancient script in the world that remains "alive". Unlike Egyptian hieroglyphs or Mesopotamian cuneiform, which became extinct writing systems, oracle bone script is the direct ancestor of the Chinese characters still read and written by more than one billion people.
On July 13, 2006, Yinxu was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its "outstanding universal value". Exactly 20 years later, on the same date this year, China Daily, the country's leading English-language newspaper, joined forces with the Anyang government to launch the Jiagu Xungen IP — a visual storytelling project that translates these ancient inscriptions into contemporary design.
The release is a fitting tribute to a heritage that "fills every descendant of Chinese civilization with pride", said Zhu Baoxia, deputy publisher of China Daily, at the launch ceremony in Anyang.
As China's national English-language newspaper, Zhu says, China Daily has a responsibility to share Chinese culture with the world. She announces that the IP will be distributed through China Daily's cultural knowledge database, which reaches audiences in more than 50 countries. The newspaper will also partner with the Yinxu Museum on a series of follow-up initiatives.
"The goal is to let oracle bone script step out of the classics, live in the present and reach audiences around the world — transforming Shang civilization from an artifact display into a living cultural legacy," she says.
Ning Hongliang, head of Anyang's publicity department, echoes: "The transmission of civilization requires both the archaeologist's trowel and the communicator's pen." He says the collaboration with China Daily is a concrete step toward advancing the city's cultural mission and strengthening China's international cultural communication, allowing more people overseas to appreciate the depth of Chinese civilization.
The project is part of a broader effort to make oracle bone script not only understandable but emotionally resonant in an age of emojis and short videos.
Reviving ancient words
When Zhao Qingrong, deputy director of the Yinxu Museum, began working at the site in 1998, oracle bone script was widely seen as an esoteric field understood only by a small circle of specialists. "People regarded it as a 'heavenly script' that ordinary people could never read," she says.
That perception has changed dramatically. Since the museum's new building opened in 2024, nearly 5 million people have visited. Clad in bronze-colored panels, the structure takes the shape of a ritual ding cauldron, while its central atrium evokes the Shang legend of the dark bird that gave birth to the dynasty.
"Oracle bone script is no longer a niche academic pursuit," Zhao says."It has become something the public actively wants to engage with."
Over the past two decades, she has witnessed a remarkable transformation. The script has gone from "unreadable words" to a "visible civilization", as visitors now arrive with basic knowledge picked up from social media, documentaries and oracle bone-themed calisthenics exercises practiced in schools, she says.
The experience has moved from "remote" to "tangible". Oracle bone-shaped noodles let visitors "swallow 3,000-odd years in one bite", and coffee topped with ancient-script foam art has become an unlikely bestseller, she says.
Museum visits have also shifted from "one-way transmission" to "two-way dialogue". "Visitors no longer simply listen to guides. They ask questions, challenge interpretations, and make connections to their own lives," she says.
Zhao sees the oracle bone roots IP as the next step in this evolution. "I expect the IP to bring greater depth, a more systematic framework, and richer consumer scenarios."
