MEDIUM
The "writing" of Chinese characters first requires a medium. As today's writings are mostly on paper, one may wonder: What before that?

	In the Shang Dynasty (c.17th-11th century B.C.), letters were carved on oracle bones or bronze wares. This is a rubbing of the Inscription on Dayu Ding (tripod).
	Inscription on stone.
	Spring and Autumn Period (770-256 B.C.) was a time when the amount of writings and characters increased in great number. Hence the emergence of new mediums, Houma Covenant written on jade and stone pieces, Spring and Autumn Period.
	Spring and Autumn Period (770-256 B.C.) was a time when the amount of writings and characters increased in great number. Hence the emergence of new mediums, Houma Covenant written on jade and stone pieces, Spring and Autumn Period.
	Silk was used by ancient aristocrats for writing. Recipes for 52 Kinds of Disorders, silk writing unearthed from a Han tomb.
	Inscribed wood slips of the Han dynasty.