September 2002
This article revisits the long-standing debate over the nature of Dongba script (Naxi pictographic writing), surveying sixteen distinct scholarly positions on whether it constitutes true writing and, if so, what type. The author reviews foundational views from Fang Guoyu ("pictographic script" at a primitive stage), Li Lincan ("both script and picture"), Joseph Rock ("picture puzzles" not yet true writing), Fu Maoxun ("two scripts"—picture-writing and pictographic script), as well as positions by Dong Zuobin, Cishai dictionary, Qiu Xigui, Wang Ningsheng, Shi Jinbo, and Wang Boxi, among others, each emphasizing different features such as retained pictographic/mnemonic elements, phonetic loan and semantic-phonetic characters, or transitional status between logogram and phrase-level script. Through comparative analysis of two Dongba scriptures and their variant texts, the author traces the script's developmental trajectory, arguing that Dongba script formed independently as a self-contained system evolving from pictures and orally recited scripture, exhibiting long-term coexistence of primitive and mature writing forms—making it a "living fossil" for understanding how pictures evolve into writing.
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