Chinese character symbols

See Word notation system also the Word and Songlines.

I think the very very early Chinese character system was one of the means by which ‘spells’ were encoded.  It is one of the many notation systems used to record the Word.

I am less sure of my ground here than I am of the other systems, so I have not included a great deal of detail, but there is a connection here with the old characters used in the I Ching, which is essentially a system for recording cause effect – function dependency or songlines if you prefer.

The earliest known examples of text referring to music in China are inscriptions on musical instruments found in the Tomb of Marquis Ye of Zeng (d. 433 B.C.E.).

Sets of 41 chimestones and 65 bells bore lengthy inscriptions concerning pitches, scales, and transposition. The bells still sound the pitches that their inscriptions refer to.

Although no notated musical compositions were found, the inscriptions indicate that the system was sufficiently advanced to allow for musical notation. Two systems of pitch nomenclature existed, one for relative pitch and one for absolute pitch. For relative pitch, a solmization system was used.