Joseph F. Rock (1884–1962), Austrian-American botanist, explorer and ethnographer, based in Lijiang, Yunnan, from 1922 to 1949. He documented Naxi (na-khi) culture and compiled a Na-khi–English encyclopaedic dictionary published in 1963.

Why is Na-khi spelled several ways?

Rock and earlier writers used their own romanisations (“Na-khi”, “Nashi”, “Moso”), which differ from modern Naxi pinyin. This project stores his transcription as a separate field so old and new spellings can both be found.

Joseph Rock and the Naxi

Short answer

Joseph F. Rock (1884–1962) was an Austrian-American botanist, explorer and ethnographer who was based in Lijiang, Yunnan, from 1922 until 1949. He worked on the Naxi (his “Na-khi”) and their Dongba literature, and produced two works that are still cited: The Ancient Na-khi Kingdom of Southwest China (1947) and A Na-khi–English Encyclopaedic Dictionary (1963) — the latter published after his death. His place-name romanisation is a third orthography alongside modern Naxi pinyin and Sinological transcription, which is why this project's gazetteer records his spellings in a separate field.

3,619Naxi headwords in the dictionary

106works catalogued in the library

430place names in the gazetteer

Why he matters for this material

Rock worked when the Dongba tradition was still intact in a way it no longer is. He collected manuscripts (much of the collection went to libraries in the United States and Europe), photographed extensively, and compiled a dictionary of the language as he understood it. For a large share of Naxi material, his record is the earliest systematic one.

Rock's dictionaries and the “Na-khi” spelling

Rock's romanisation predates modern Naxi pinyin and does not match it. A reader searching for a name from a 1930s source has to be able to find the modern form, and the reverse. This project therefore stores Rock's transcription in its own field: each gazetteer place can carry a Rock transcription next to the pinyin and IPA, and the library catalogue records his titles under their published names.

Rock's own acquisition: the “double red” Dongba manuscripts

One concrete case shows how Rock's collecting worked. The Naxi Dongba manuscripts that Rock brought out of Yunnan include a set of “double red” volumes — so called for the two crimson circles painted on them — which are now among the 598 volumes held by the Harvard-Yenching Library. Their transmission has been traced: the scribe was the Qing-dynasty priest Mu Zhi (木知), the set passed to his grandson Mu Fuguang (木福光), and from there to Rock. Li and Peters (2024) establish both the line of transmission and the village the manuscripts came from, Xiachangshui in Huangshan Town, Yulong County. Two volumes of the printed Harvard-Yenching catalogue are digitised in this library. See the collection page for the full account.

Li, Xiaoliang, and Andrew Peters. 2024. “The origin and era of Harvard's collection of ‘double red’ circle Naxi Dongba manuscripts.” Journal of Chinese Writing Systems 8 (4): 282–293. doi:10.1177/25138502241300182.

Rock material in this library

Open the catalogue and search for the author:

The Digital Library — catalogued works include Studies in Na-khi Literature (1937) and The Ancient Na-khi Kingdom of Southwest China; the Harvard-Yenching Dongba volumes are the collection his acquisitions ended up in.
The gazetteer — place records include the Rock transcription field where the source provides one.

Sources and caveats

Rock's ethnography, like most of its era, reads the Naxi through the lens of a collector and a foreign observer; his linguistic work is uneven by modern standards. It is used here as a historical record, not as an authority on the language.
The dates and titles above follow the catalogue entries in this library and standard bibliographic records. Where a reprint or a translation of a work dates from a different year, this library records the edition it holds.

How to cite this page

NaxiAI. “Joseph Rock and the Naxi” https://naxiai.com/joseph-rock-naxi.