Starting at around 1400 B.C, the Shang Dynasty started using what is classfied as "Shell-Bone Characters". These characters are carved onto turtle shells and cattle bones (usually shoulder blades), and are used either as a fortune-telling device or to record a series of events.

The Bronze Age began at around 1200 B.C, but actual bronze character etchings weren't until 1000 B.C. Those are called "Jin Wen" or "Zhong Ding Wen", (metal characters or bell-vessel characters). Most of this is used in ceremonies.

When the Qin dynasty unified China at around 200 B.C, the Emperor (Qin Shi Huang) standardized the writing into Xiao Zhuan.

With the development of brushes in the Han Dynasty, the scribes modified the stone-carving squigglies of Zhuan into Li.

This then developed into "cursive", the messiest and fastest kind, Cao Shu.

Then they wanted to slow it down a little, so Kai Shu was extrapolated from Cao Shu:

Finally, someone with sense found the middle path between wild, drunken Cao and stately, formal Kai. --- Xin Shu

These developments from Cao to Xing happened mostly in the Han and maybe early Jin Dynasty.

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