From Rock Art to Dongba Pictographs
This article by Yang Zhengwen investigates the origins and historical development of Dongba pictographs, the living pictographic writing system of the Naxi people and a rich repository of their religious, historical, cultural, economic, and social heritage. The author critiques prior scholarship—which dated the script's emergence anywhere from the 16th century BCE to the Ming dynasty—for relying on inconsistent or later-supplemented textual evidence. Arguing that no ethnic group could remain in a "primitive" stage while neighboring cultures achieved literacy, the author proposes, based on over twenty years of research, that Dongba pictographs originated around the 3rd century BCE in the "Ruoka" region spanning southern Sichuan and northwestern Yunnan. Central to this argument is newly discovered rock art evidence: multiple petroglyph clusters near Zhongdian (Zhaji, Hengduoluo, Baiyunwan, etc.) depicting animals such as goats, cattle, and wild boar along ancient Naxi migration routes, which the author presents as precursors linking rock art imagery to the later pictographic script.
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