[BIGLOOK]

IIRC from Chinese history classes, it was the Yellow Emperor who invented writing during the Neolithic Period in the Lung Shan area. But big deal since no one could read other than the shamans at that time; history was passed on through the oral tradition.

Even if there were the legendary emperors from the Neolithic period (and the Xia), there's still a 500 year gap in the timelines.

[BIGLOOK]

[SunkenCiv]

Great, now I’ve got to try to sleep thinking of H.P. Lovecraft...

[muawiyah]

The earliest writing system(s) are clearly derivative of the same hieroglyphic system underlying the oldest Sumerian writing methods.

Some researchers are convinced that the Sumerian system is not just the first full writing system (as we understand writing) but it is also the basis of all the other systems, even those in the Americas.

I've found it fairly easy to read Shang Dynasty material through reference to my handy-dandy guide to American Indian sign language. It's a little harder to work backwards into Sumerian cunuiform though since the hieroglyphic forms became very stylized at an early period, but it's not hard at all to check out what they're really saying in the old Nam based "kitchen characters" you find along the left column of your typical Chinese menu ("fungus", though, continues to be a mystery food, even in Chinese).