Distinguishing the Turtle and the Frog in the Bage Diagram of Dongba Culture
This article examines the "sacred frog" (含失罢美) figure in Dongba classics of the Naxi people, questioning whether it is truly a totemic "divine frog" and how its role relates to the formation of the Bagua (Bage) eight-trigram divination system, Naxi cosmology, and ethnic origins. Drawing on texts such as the Divination Scripture, Dongba Dance Manual, and Biexue Guasong, the author traces the frog's mythic status as ancestor of dance and as the source of the five elements (wood, fire, metal, water, earth) and five directions/eight positions, generated from its body parts after it was slain by celestial archers while guarding scriptures. The paper also discusses a lesser-known account of the frog producing 360 eggs/crowns, and analyzes the multiple pictographic forms (full, semi-abbreviated, abbreviated) used to write its name, questioning translators' rendering of it as "golden giant frog" and totemic interpretations.
This page publishes the bibliographic record and the project's summary. The scanned article text belongs to its publisher and is shown to readers under a research-use policy; it is not reproduced in this record.