In southern China, is a writing system that is referred to as the ‘wood records’ or the ‘stone records’. But most people who speak the language it represents do not really know how to read it. Taking a manuscript from this writing system, it would appear very much like a page from a comic book. With lines separating glyphs into what could be interpreted as panels, this writing system stands out as among the most unique in the world.

The Naxi language, or Naqxi geezheeq, is spoken by around 300 000 people today, most of whom reside in southern China, particularly in the Yunnan province. It is related to the Nuosu language, which has the world’s largest syllabary you can see here. Belonging to the Loloish branch of the Tibeto-Burman languages, the Naxi language is split into two major dialect clusters, which are pretty much in vibrant use today. While usually spoken in day to day life, not many are literate in Naxi. Today, we will cover the indigenous writing system used to write Naxi, the Naxi Dongba (and Naxi Geba).

No one knows how old the Naxi Dongba is. Even though there are historic claims that it was invented back in the 13th century by the Tibetan King Moubao Azong, some artifacts with Naxi Dongba glyphs on them could be dated back to the 1st century. These glyphs are mostly pictographic in nature, and may be accompanied by Naxi Geba symbols. This would make Naxi Dongba among the only pictographic writing systems still in use today.

There are a total of 1400 Naxi Dongba glyphs identified, although new glyphs may be identified, or even invented. But most of these are pictograms, with some representing certain sounds that contribute the reading in a form of a rebus. For example, the character for ‘water’, dʑi²¹, is a combination of the characters for ‘north’ and ‘south’. There are many more combinations of characters that build more words, but this system of compounding is so complex, it reportedly takes at least a decade or so of practice to gain proficient in Naxi Dongba alone. Nevertheless, there are some resources available online that teach the basics of Naxi Dongba, which you can find here. The Naxi Script Resource Center is perhaps the most developed site for the introduction to Naxi Dongba to English speakers, which I recommend checking out.

These Naxi Dongba glyphs could represent anything from basic representations of physical objects to parts of a body to abstract concepts. There could be variations of a single character that convey different nuances relating to that character, such as a person sitting, or a person indicating left. Additionally, strokes may be added to give more detail to that character, but that combination does not yield a new character. Characters may also represent multiple meanings, such as the physical object, and the corresponding colour.

Besides the 1400 Naxi Dongba glyphs, there are also characters that annotate these glyphs. These are from a syllabary called Naxi Geba. With over 120 Naxi Geba characters identified, these characters generally display derivations from the Chinese script or the Naxi Dongba, and some characters even show similarities with the Yi syllabary. But this script remains to be studied, as few texts featuring the Naxi Geba survive to this day. What is confusing about Naxi Geba is that the phonetic value of each character is not fixed, and depends on the person using it. In a way, the Naxi Geba was essentially a traditional personal mnemonic used to aid reading of the Naxi Dongba, or a Naxi Geba text for ceremonial, religious, or ritualistic purposes.

Naxi Dongba has hardly ever reached the general speaking population of Naxi, as it was traditionally used to recite ritual texts when shamans and priests practiced their faith in the form of ceremonies and rituals. In fact, when Naxi Dongba is used as a mnemonic, a single character could represent phrases or sentences to the user. However, despite this limited use, this has not stopped efforts to try to teach this writing system to more people, with a newspaper being published in the 1980s using Naxi Dongba. These glyphs are even found in road signs in places like Lijiang.

Despite Naxi Dongba’s near extinction, there seem to be efforts in place to keep this writing system alive. Ironically, it is done by the very same regime that seized and destroyed Naxi Dongba manuscripts during the Cultural Revolution. Whether or not the Naxi Dongba would see more widespread use remains to be seen — its traditional intended purposes might not be compatible for non-religious use, which could diminish the importance of Naxi Dongba literacy for the general Naxi speaker. In fact, with Naxi speakers gaining literacy in Chinese and the Latin alphabet, compounded with the complexity of the Naxi Dongba writing system, there are doubts surrounding Naxi Dongba’s survival. Nevertheless, the fight to preserve this unique writing system persists.

Further reading

Poupard, D. (2019). Revitalising Naxi dongba as a ‘pictographic’ vernacular script. Journal of Chinese Writing Systems, 3(1), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/2513850218814405.