There were casters of bronze vessels, and workers in gold, silver, and iron; jade and other stones were cut and polished for ornaments.

The written language was already highly developed, being much the same as we now find it.

Indeed, the chief difference lies in the form of the characters, just as an old English text differs in form from a text of the present day.

What we may call the syntax of the language has remained very much the same; and phrases from the old ballads of three thousand years ago, which have passed into the colloquial, are still readily understood, though of course pronounced according to the requirements of modern speech.

We can no more say how Confucius (551-479 B.C.) pronounced Chinese, than we can say how Miltiades pronounced Greek when addressing his soldiers before the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.).
The "books" which were read in ancient China consisted of thin slips of wood or bamboo, on which the characters were written by means of a pencil of wood or bamboo, slightly frayed at the end, so as to pick up a coloured liquid and transfer it to the tablets as required.