Shuishu, a Chinese ethnic minority language complete
with a written form, has been recognized as a living fossil of
pictographic characters and was recently protected by publishing
the book Chinese Shuishu.
Fifty copies of the book were published on January 12 by Sichuan
Publishing Group. In total there are 160 volumes in this
photo-offset publication.
The publication kept the original appearance of all 1,353
Shuishu characters by selecting them from the collections of
handwritten copies found in Sandu Shui Autonomous County and Libo
County where Shui ethnic people live.
Although not as famous as the Dongba characters of Naxi ethnic group, Shuishu's
pictographic characters are considered equally important. In fact,
Shuishu was included in the first list of items necessary
to protect as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of China in
June 2006.
China is preparing to submit Shuishu to the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
as an example of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.
Pan Chaolin is a noted folklorist specializing in
Shuishu and the academic consultant for the Chinese
Shuishu. He explained that the language is only written by
Shuishu teachers who then secretly pass along the
knowledge to their students. Shuishu is deeply rooted in
religious and folk traditions, so they won't reveal their works to
strangers. This is a great obstacle for those researching
Shuishu.
Chinese experts discovered that a dozen symbols in the written
language of the Shui ethnic minority are exactly the same as
symbols found on pottery unearthed from the Xia Dynasty (2100 BC
--1600 BC), the earliest recorded historical period in China. The
finding indicates that the written characters of this ethnic group
belonged to a section of the ancient Xia culture.
Currently the approximately 407,000 members of the Shui ethnic group live on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in southwest China.
(China.org.cn by Chen Lin, January 30, 2007)