**The Value and Significance of "Character Glosses" (*zishi*) in the Naxi Dongba Scriptures**
This article examines the relationship between script and language in Naxi Dongba scriptures, a pictographic writing system used by the Naxi people of the Yunnan-Sichuan-Tibet border region. The author argues that Dongba texts, unlike most other written traditions, rarely record language word-for-word: most scriptures show a "word without character" or "character without corresponding word" pattern rather than strict word-character correspondence, and characters are often arranged according to real-world logical/spatial relationships rather than linear speech order. Using examples from "The Flood Story of the Moso People," the author shows how symbols are placed pictorially (e.g., "sky" above, "earth" below) rather than sequentially, reflecting oral transmission practices where Dongba priests memorized texts and used written characters merely as mnemonic prompts. This primitive characteristic makes annotated translation ("character interpretation") essential and challenging, given the vast, UNESCO-recognized corpus of roughly 1,000 Dongba texts still needing systematic scholarly decipherment.
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