A Comparative Study of the Pictographs of Naxi Dongba Script and Oracle Bone Script
Wang Ji compares the pictographic characters of Naxi Dongba script and Shang-dynasty oracle bone script, arguing that despite arising in different times and places, a shared ancestral connection between early Naxi and Han populations makes comparison meaningful. The article first distinguishes two layers within Dongba writing itself -- an earlier 'pictorial writing' stage (unfixed reading order, meaning-only signs, combined images conveying whole ideas, partial transcription requiring a priest's recitation) and a more mature one-syllable-per-character 'pictographic writing' stage -- paralleling stages within oracle bone script's own development. It then compares character-formation methods, finding both scripts use pictographic techniques, but Dongba pictographs are more detailed and pictorial, record finer-grained subcategories, and rely far more on differentiation techniques (splitting, reduction, deformation, positional variants) than oracle bone script, reflecting Dongba's more primitive, less phonetically-based stage. Finally it compares agricultural/pastoral vocabulary, showing Dongba script records far richer and more localized crop and livestock terms, attributed to differences in era, geography, textual transmission, scope of use, and cultural background.
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