Dongba Genealogy

Author: Gao Agan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-03-01
Features: Text and painting have an inseparable connection since their inception, which is known as the origin of calligraphy and painting being intertwined. In the oracle bone script of the Han Chinese, we can still see some traces of this, but the origins of the oracle bone script have not yet been confirmed by archaeological evidence. In Han culture, the divergence of calligraphy and painting appeared even before the oracle bone script. The living Naxi hieroglyphs still retain the characteristics of being both words and pictures. The Naxi people live in the southwestern part of China, adjacent to Yunnan, Sichuan, and Tibet. They have created and preserved ancient hieroglyphs. The Dongba of the Naxi ethnic group use these living ancient hieroglyphic symbols to write and pass down nearly a thousand volumes of cultural and national classics, including epics, myths, history, religion, astronomy, folklore, as well as painting and dance manuals. This book includes some Dongba illustrations.