Research on the Bamboo Script of the Lisu Ethnic Group

Author: Gao Huiyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: In the Wexi County of Yunnan Province, a Lisu ethnic person named Wang RENBO independently created the script for the Lisu ethnic group in the 1920s. Since this script was carved on bamboo slips, it was called "Bamboo Script." The author takes Wang RENBO's "Literacy Textbook" as the research object and, through field surveys, provides a relatively comprehensive and systematic study of this unique case in the history of human writing, aiming to offer some reference for the study of general paleography, comparative paleography, the history of writing, and the paleography of other ethnic scripts. This book is divided into the following parts:
Chapter 1 is the Introduction. This chapter mainly introduces the general overview of the creation of the Bamboo Script, the writing materials, as well as the history and current state of research on the Bamboo Script. It clarifies the special significance of studying this script and explains the research ideas and methods.
Chapter 2 is the Interpretation of Bamboo Script. This chapter takes the classification of Dongba script in Fang Guoyu's "Naxi Hieroglyphic Script Spectrum" as the standard, interpreting a total of 243 characters of the Bamboo Script. It strives to comprehensively interpret the methods of formation for each character and explains the methods used in the interpretation.
Chapter 3 is the Correspondence Between Bamboo Script Symbols and Lisu Language Units. This chapter analyzes the linguistic characteristics of the Lisu language and, for the first time, organizes the syllables of the Lisu language corresponding to the characters in the "Literacy Textbook." It explains that the Bamboo Script can completely record all syllables of the Lisu language, making it a syllabic script.
Chapter 4 is the Study of Self-Invented Characters in Bamboo Script. The self-invented characters in Bamboo Script mainly include pictographs, ideographs, and phono-semantic compounds. The text analyzes these methods of formation separately. The basic conclusions are as follows:
1. The pictographs in Bamboo Script have a high degree of abstraction, and their script has basically reached a level of linear strokes from the very beginning of its creation.
2. Bamboo Script has a large number of ideographs, with a variety of types, which can be divided into pure symbol ideographs and symbol-added ideographs. Pure symbol ideographs can be further divided into monosyllabic pure symbol ideographs and compound pure symbol ideographs. Symbol-added ideographs can be divided into two types based on the structure of the characters: one is pictograph + abstract symbol ideograph, and the other is phono-semantic compound + abstract symbol ideograph.
3. The phono-semantic compounds in Bamboo Script can be divided into the following types: pictograph + pictograph, pictograph + indefinite object, and pictograph + ideograph.
4. The process of character formation in Bamboo Script is a leap in abstraction. It did not go through a long process of pictograph symbol → pictograph abstract symbol → abstract symbol. Most characters directly adopted abstract symbols for meaning and sound from the very beginning of their creation. Through the study of self-invented characters in Bamboo Script, it can be concluded that Bamboo Script is a primitive syllabic script with expressive functions.
Chapter 5 is the Study of Borrowed Characters in Bamboo Script. This chapter studies the two major types of borrowed characters in Bamboo Script: borrowed compound characters and borrowed characters. Borrowed compound characters can be further divided into simple borrowed compound characters and symbol-added borrowed compound characters. Borrowed characters can be divided into simple borrowed characters and transformed borrowed characters. The study of borrowed characters proves that Bamboo Script adopts the symbolic form of Chinese characters while imitating the feature of Dongba script, where one character records one syllable, and borrows some characters and a national self-invented script from Dongba script.
Chapter 6 is the Study of Variant Characters in Bamboo Script. The homophones of Bamboo Script are variant characters. There is a fundamental difference between the variant characters of Bamboo Script and those of Chinese characters: it is not caused by different ideas of character formation in different times, regions, and using different materials, but rather a unique creation under the influence of Naxi culture and Chinese culture at a specific time. It carries the characteristics of the times, region, and the integration of diverse cultures. The diversity of sources of imagery in Bamboo Script is the fundamental reason for its variant characters. The numerous variant characters play a mirror role and a confirming function for the culture of the era of character formation in Bamboo Script. The existence of variant characters in Bamboo Script indicates that Bamboo Script is an incomplete and immature syllabic script.
The conclusion summarizes the nature and characteristics of Bamboo Script.