Previously, we have looked at the Naxi Dongba script, one of the few writing systems in the world where manuscripts sort of looked like comics. But within a similar region of China, is another writing system that resembled comics, and it managed to incorporate colour into meaning. We have briefly given this writing system a mention almost 7 years ago by now, and so, it is time to take a deeper dive into this script called Ersu Shaba.

The Ersu language is spoken by around 13 000 people, most of whom live in the province of Sichuan in China. Classifying it is kind of messy; the traditional branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages Ersu is classified as is called the Qiangic branch, but more recent research suggested that such a branch might be dubious, and that Ersu does not belong to the Qiangic branch.

Like Naxi, Ersu is predominantly a spoken language, with few written records in Ersu throughout its history. However, the Shaba of the Ersu used a writing system primarily for religious purposes, such as divination and healing rites, although the most famous diagram or frame of Ersu Shaba writing is from an astronomical or astrological almanac. Today, an extremely limited few can still read it, let alone properly interpret and understand these glyphs. Revival attempts are not as documented as that for the Naxi Dongba, if at all. In fact, literature on Ersu Shaba is even scarcer than that for Naxi Dongba, with the most comprehensive paper being “The Ersu Shaba Pictographic Writing System” by Sun Hongkai, which translation of the original 1982 article was published in 2009 in the journal Asian Highlands Perspectives.

We do not really know the history of Ersu Shaba writing either. While Wikipedia’s uncited estimate suggested the start to be the 11th to 15th century CE, Sun’s compilation of accounts revealed a much more varied estimate. Not even Ersu folklore could pinpoint its precise origins. Nevertheless, the lower bound appears to suggest less than 10 generations, or perhaps about 2-3 centuries, while there are accounts of Ersu Shaba writing existing way back in the 2nd or 3rd century CE. With so few books or manuscripts surviving to the present day, it is nearly impossible to construct a detailed history of Ersu Shaba writing.

While Ersu Shaba is a pictographic writing system like Naxi Dongba, what sets Ersu Shaba as a unique writing system, even among the writing systems that resemble comics, is the incorporation of colour to distinguish meaning. Red conveys the meaning of fire or auspiciousness, while black could mean dim or dark, and white could mean shining. Other colours incorporated into Ersu Shaba writing include blue, green, and yellow. These could correspond to the traditional elements, such as water (likely represented by blue), wood (likely represented by green), and earth (likely represented by yellow).

As a purely pictographic writing system, no frame nor part thereof really represents any Ersu sound. Most, if not, all of these glyphs identified so far are not accompanied by Ersu pronunciation guides, furthering the complexity of translating each frame containing these elements into sound. Entire paragraphs could be represented by just one Ersu Shaba frame, which does take “a picture paints a thousand words” in a more literal sense.

There are more marked similarities between Ersu Shaba and Naxi Dongba. One of them is the lack of a clear or standardised number of strokes and stroke order for each glyph. A glyph could appear as written using more strokes than the same glyph from another writer. Furthermore, strokes could be added to a glyph to add details or nuances regarding the modified glyph. A glyph depicting the sun modified by adding a circle within it could mean a ‘normal sun’, while diagonal strokes across the sun glyph could mean a ‘brilliant’ or ‘bright sun’. However, these modifications do not constitute a separate glyph.

Despite the lack of a stroke order, there is an order in which each frame is read and interpreted. The first element to be interpreted is in the center of the frame, before moving to other elements within the frame in a clockwise order.

Given the purely pictographic nature of Ersu Shaba, there are questions surrounding the potential for Ersu Shaba to join the ranks of other pictographic scripts to explore the origins of writing. After all, many writing systems today ultimately trace back to some form of pictographic representation of a thing which may be physical or abstract. But Ersu Shaba is remarkable for one thing — there seems to be no glyph that depicted an abstract object, like an ‘idea’ or a ‘concept’. However, even among the physical objects Ersu Shaba could have depicted, there are only 200 single-formed words or glyphs identified. This pointed to the interpretation that there is a rather limited scope in which things could be depicted, like certain celestial bodies, certain animals, and certain tools or religious implements.

Given the limited scope of Ersu Shaba glyphs or pictographs, the limited use of Ersu Shaba, and the nature of Ersu Shaba pictographs, Sun suggested that Ersu Shaba is a rather ‘primitive’ writing system, in the development process of transitioning from drawing to writing. With a slow development process from perhaps centuries or millennia back, Sun appears to imply that writing systems would have ultimately originated in drawing. Perhaps with further historical evidence, we could piece together the development and history of writing, forming a much better understanding of how writing systems could have come to be.

Further reading

Sun, H., Mtsho mo skyid, Roche, G., & Roche, T. (2009). The Ersu Shaba pictographic writing system. Asian Highlands Perspectives, 1, 159–186. https://archive.org/details/SunHongkaimtshoMoSkyidAndGRocheTranslatorsWithAnIntroductionByT