"The book offers its readers a comprehensive historical, archaeological, and theoretical exploration of decor and pictographs. In it, Xiaoneng Yang challenges the "clan sign" theory and offers new interpretations of the functions and meanings of bronze decor and pictographs based on archaeological data and the social settings of the peoples of early China.

Yang also introduces the new discovery of a previously unidentified medium that is located in the gray zone between writing and decoration, which he calls "pictorial inscriptions." Further, Yang discusses the sources, contexts, and correlation among the three media."--BOOK JACKET.