The Origin and Use of Dongba Pictographic Writing
This article examines the origin and use of the Naxi Dongba pictographic script, a rare surviving pictographic writing system that has drawn international scholarly attention since the 1930s. Rather than analyzing specific characters, the author investigates the script's origins as a whole using materials from Dongba classical texts. The author challenges the common attribution of the script's invention to Mai Qiong, a Lijiang Mu-clan chieftain, showing that the claim "created a regional script" in the Ming-era Lijiang Mu Clan Genealogy was a later embellishment not found in the original Yuan-dynasty source (Yuan Yitongzhi), which only records his general literacy. The author also refutes the folk belief that Dingba Shiluo, a legendary figure in Dongba religion, invented the script, arguing he personifies the earliest generations of Dongba priests rather than a historical individual. The author concludes the pictographs evolved gradually from primitive prehistoric image-making by early ancestors over many centuries, paralleling the relationship between pictures and writing seen in Chinese oracle-bone script.
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