Before the invention of writing systems, people could only communicate and record the various happenings in their lives via speech and respond to every situation by means of some extension of speech, such as crying, yelling, hand gestures, and singing and dancing. The only way for every ethnic group to preserve its history is to put it in stories and songs to pass on generation after generation. Whatever managed to survive through time must have done so because someone kept it in his or her memory. As Maurice Fabre once pointed out, “History was the remembered word.”

The “Lumanlusa” Scripture of the Naxi ethnic group

This is one of the most famous classics in the Dongba script of Naxi people. In the past, whenever young Naxi lovers committed suicide together, a Dongba priest would chant this scripture to set their spirits free, so that they would be able to rest in peace in the legendary beautiful land of Xue Shan. Because of the scripture's idealized depiction of Xue Shan, “love suicides” became a trend among young couples, which then led to the banning of this scripture.

Writing was invented by the ancients as a way to compensate for their limited memory; it was originally meant to be used for recording rather than relaying information. Before paper was invented, text was mainly recorded on materials gathered directly from the natural world. The choice of material, which changed from turtle shells and cattle bones to stone to bronze to bamboo to wood as time went on, reflects the gradual maturing process of a written language, the shifts in the choice of content to record, as well as the societal transformations. We can see the wisdom of the human race in these carvings.nally meant to be used for recording rather than relaying information. Before paper was invented, text was mainly recorded on materials gathered directly from the natural world. The choice of material, which changed from turtle shells and cattle bones to stone to bronze to bamboo to wood as time went on, reflects the gradual maturing process of a written language, the shifts in the choice of content to record, as well as the societal transformations. We can see the wisdom of the human race in these carvings.

Monthly and Seasonal Records of Military Supplies from the Guangdi South Platoon in the Yongyuan Era (93 – 95 A.D.)

This is the best-preserved and most complete wooden slip text extant, with the wooden pieces, strings, and ink all intact. The slips are made with four sets of strings and seventy-seven wooden slips.

In an age without paper, there was a rich variety of writing materials, but they were usually bulky and difficult to write on. People desired something lighter and cheaper to use for writing, and under the society's urgent demand, paper was born. This light and inexpensive material lowered the production cost of books and fulfilled the needs of the middle and lower-class people. As a result, books become widely available and society and culture progressed at full speed. In 105 A.D., Cai Lun developed a groundbreaking technique for manufacturing paper, which allowed for higher paper quality and production efficiency. Cai's paper-making technique is considered a huge contribution to human civilization, and is honored as one of China's “Four Great Inventions.”

On December 20, 1722, the Kangxi emperor died and proclaimed Yinzhen his heir in his last testament. This is a crucial document for scholars attempting to determine whether the Yongzheng emperor acceded to the throne by fraud. Some scholars, on the basis of this and other documents, argue that Yongzheng was the legitimate heir to the throne. Others, however, claim that this document was forged by Yongzheng.

Printing technology is the wealth of all mankind—people from all over the world refer to it as “the light of wisdom from the East.” Mass production of books allow for the spread of knowledge and the preservation of culture, but because there are limitations to copying books by hand, people were forced to figure out new means of manufacturing publications. As a result, block printing was invented and replaced the manual copying of books. The Song Dynasty can be considered the most vibrant period for printing due to improvements made to block printing and Bi Sheng's (990 – 1051 A.D.) revolutionary invention of movable type printing, which is an important milestone in the history of printing.

For thousands of years humans relied mainly on drawing and printing to record and disseminate images. However, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, scientists gradually developed a brand new set of techniques for saving imagery. After nearly one hundred years of research, in 1826 Frenchman Nicephore Niepce (1765-1833) finally shot the first photograph in the history of mankind. From then on, in addition to drawing by hand and printing, people had a way to more realistically preserve and disseminate images and memories associated with images. What used to only exist as one's personal visual experience or a fleeting “decisive” moment could now be permanently preserved and passed on with the help of photography and filming techniques, which were invented later.

The demands of complex mathematical operations grew as various fields of application progressed. The British mathematician Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was the first person to address the concept of computers. During World War II, the American government invested a lot of manpower and resources to develop computers for military uses. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first computer, capable of handling highly complicated calculations, was born in 1945. Within 20 years, the computer was brought into commerce; by the 1970s, as the microprocessor industry expanded, the concept of personal computers gradually materialized. With the advancement of computing technology, computers nowadays are processing amazing amounts of information at a dizzying speed. The Internet has also, after nearly half a century of development, become a part of most people's daily lives in the 1990s, linking individuals, cultures, and ideas around the world.