BOOK REVIEW
This book review evaluates Yu Suisheng's "A Collection of Studies on Naxi Dongba Script (Second Series)," compiling his Dongba script research papers from 2003–2008. The Second Series realizes the research vision Yu proposed in the First Series, emphasizing responsibility, source materials, research methods, team-building, and heritage transmission. Unlike prior scholarship, which relied heavily on dictionaries (e.g., Fang Guoyu and He Zhiwu's compilations), Yu's work draws entirely on original Dongba scriptures—both previously published texts and materials personally collected through fieldwork. The volume decodes difficult characters, publishes and organizes applied documents (land deeds, contracts, IOUs, inscriptions, sacrificial texts) gathered during arduous expeditions to remote Naxi regions like Eya, and conducts detailed dating and transmission analysis of scriptures using colophons compared against the Naxi calendar. The review highlights this shift from dictionary-based to original-text-based research, and from scripture-focused to applied-document-focused materials, as a significant contribution advancing Dongba script studies methodologically and substantively.
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