Journal of Jianghan University
This article reexamines the origin of writing, particularly Chinese characters, drawing on newly discovered primitive scripts of Chinese ethnic minorities (e.g., Naxi Dongba and Ersu Shaba writing) alongside advances in Chinese paleography. The author challenges the prevailing "purpose theory" in comparative philology, which holds that writing was deliberately invented to let language overcome time and space. This theory, while superseding earlier myths of divine or sage-created writing, fails to adequately explain "visual signification" phenomena preceding true writing—object-based signs (direct, like preserved animal trophies, and indirect, like knotted cords or strung shells) and pictographic/symbolic signs. The author reclassifies these as "object signification" and "symbol signification" rather than traditional categories like "memory aids" or "pictographic writing," noting their communicative functions persisted even after writing emerged (e.g., tallies, beacon fires, tiger tallies, flags, medals). The unresolved debate over whether "pictographic writing" qualifies as true writing, and the purpose theory's internal contradictions, are highlighted as needing new explanation.
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