2010, No. 3
This article by Zhong Yaoping presents a preliminary study of the Dongba scriptures and script of the Ruka (also "Ruoka"/"Ruanke") subgroup of the Naxi ethnicity, whose language, music, dance, and soul-guiding scriptures differ from mainstream Naxi tradition. Previously, only 123 Ruka characters, collected decades ago by Li Lincan and He Zhiwu around Luoji Township, Shangri-La County, were known to scholars, and Ruka scriptures had never been publicly published or included in major Dongba canon compilations. Based on five fieldwork trips and translation of nine Ruka Dongba texts (including the "Soul-Guiding Route Scripture"), the author conducts an initial analysis of the characters used. Findings show Ruka Dongba script employs pictographic, indicative, associative, phono-semantic, phonetic-loan, and shape-loan structures, with pictographs dominant and phono-semantic characters rare. Some characters retain original coining rationales, while others diverge from or are simpler than standard Dongba script, indicating the Ruka corpus's distinct linguistic and paleographic significance.
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.