From recording to writing:
Some people contend that perhaps the traditional tales of "recording by tying knots in string" and "the legendary emperor Fu Hsi drawing the eight trigrams" as well as prehistoric animal drawings can all account, at least in part, for the origins of characters. But there is still quite a distance between these things and the regularly shaped Chinese writing system, so doubts about this theory persist.
More convincing are carved characters found on stone and jade items unearthed in the last few years. Presently people can deduce meanings from these markings. Some are purely for counting, like |, ||, =, and (. Some are clan markings, such as , , , or . And some, with a bit of evolution, could "conceivably" be written characters.
Take for example jottings like . It is clearly depictive, and it seems possible to guess the meaning. Some people explain it as "looking like a sun on the top, a fire in the middle, and mountains at the bottom, so it must have something to do with heat." But others believe that "it looks like a sun rising out of a mist, so it's a primitive representation of the character dan( 旦) for 'day.'" Or take for instance. Some say it looks like a series of overlapping peaks, like a mountain range, and could be related to the character yue (
岳) for "hills." But others say it looks like a pair of rams, and is related to the character yang (羊), meaning sheep. Today interpretation of these symbols is still a demanding task. Even for oracle bones, only about a fifth of the marks are decipherable. So you can't expect much from pre-oracle bone script.
Many people who hear of the inscribed potsherd come to see it for themselves, bringing an unaccustomed hustle and bustle to the History Department.