Written Chinese comprises the written symbols use to represent spoken Chinese and the rules about how they are arranged and punctuated. These symbols are commonly known as Chinese characters (traditional/simplified Chinese: 漢字/汉字; pīnyīn: hànzì), many of which have been traced back to the 商 Shāng Dynasty about 1500 BCE. The process of creating characters probably began some centuries earlier. Over the millennia, these characters have evolved into well-developed styles of Chinese calligraphy.