# An Analysis of Fu Maoji's *A Study of the Naxi Pictographic Script* Record of the White Bat's Search for Scriptures
This article examines Fu Maoji's "A Study of the Naxi Pictographic Text 'The White Bat's Search for Scriptures,'" published in Tokyo in 1984, praising it as a rare and valuable annotated edition of Dongba scripture. Unlike other translations that offer only literal and free renderings, Fu's work uniquely provides character-by-character explanations, traces etymologies, and outlines textual layout and grammatical conventions, making it accessible to both specialists and general readers. The author discusses two main insights gained from the book: first, how phonetic loan characters played a crucial role as Dongba script evolved from pictographs into writing, revealing the script's immature, transitional features (e.g., sparse characters representing lengthy spoken passages, silent characters, variable reading directions); second, an exploration of Dongba color characters, tracing their etymological origins through Naxi history, culture, and clan traditions.
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.