When did Chinese characters first appear?

Was it the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty? But wasn't it said that Cangjie created the written language during the Yellow Emperor era? Why was the difference so huge?
I don't need a long explanation, as long as you can tell me whether the earliest characters in China were written by the oracle bones or Cangjie, or you have another answer.
So Cangjie's creation of characters is a legend? My history textbook says it's Shang's oracle bone inscriptions.

Answer 1

The earliest characters in China can be traced back to the Xia Dynasty about 5000 years ago. At that time, people began to use characters carved on tortoise shells and animal bones, called oracle bones. The inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells were one of the earliest characters in ancient China. Their unique forms and complex strokes reflected the political, economic, and cultural information of the Xia Dynasty. In oracle bone inscriptions, people began to record divination results, historical events, legends, and so on, which became an important milestone in the history of Chinese characters.