Jiangyong County, Yongzhou, located in Nanling Mountains bordering Guangxi, is an isolated paradise. If you go to Jiangyong, you may meet some grandmothers, who are old and rare. They collect ancient books, fans and coins, all of which have a strange but beautiful font. These fonts are diamond-shaped, beautiful and clear, with only four strokes: point, vertical, oblique and arc, similar to the modern popular stick figure. Don't underestimate these symbols, it is the only word in the world that exists only for women-women's books.

Nvshu is rarer and more mysterious than Oracle Bone Inscriptions. It's less than 2000 words, except for some typos and variant characters, only about 600 words can really be used. In some remote areas of Hunan and Guangxi, local women use this font to record their marriage and family life, as well as some anecdotes about always in my heart and the countryside. And this kind of writing, mostly passed down from generation to generation, has no official textbooks and documents, and is passed down from women to men.

It is precisely because the origin of Nvshu is not recorded in the genealogy of local chronicles and ancient history books that when and by whom this mysterious writing was created has always been a mystery. There is such a record in the book "Gowen" preserved by the Chinese History Museum, "Wen Yi Zhi Yun is a Yao women's book, but I don't know a word, so I can't understand its sound and meaning." This passage describes women's books.

According to legend, there was a beautiful woman named Hu in Yongzhou in the Song Dynasty, who was chosen as the imperial concubine. But after entering the palace, I forgot this wild girl from the countryside, and let Hu live alone in the palace and live a poor life. She wants to write to her family to explain her recent situation, but she is afraid that if she complains, it will be discovered by the palace people, which will lead to great disaster. Hu created this kind of women's book, wrote it on a handkerchief and sent it to his family, and pointed out that only by looking sideways and understanding it according to his hometown dialect can he understand the meaning of the letter.

The earliest existing women's book is Carving Mother's Money, which was published during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. On the back, the words "Women in the World, Sisters" are all written by women's books. After many years' research, Chinese scholar Xianghe believes that the history of Nvshu can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, and it is a very old script. Moreover, he also believes that today's Japanese "katakana" is probably to learn the structure of women's books.

1995, an old man from China came to Beijing to attend the United Nations World Conference on Women. Her name is Yang, and she is called "the last old woman writer in China". At this international event, Yang Lao performed and wrote women's calligraphy in front of academic leaders from all walks of life. The charm of filial piety and ancient characters in southern Hunan shocked everyone present. Perhaps no one knows what the old man wrote, but the profound sense of history and civilization is vividly reflected through that stroke.

In the years of war and turmoil, the inheritance of women's calligraphy has been greatly destroyed. After the founding of New China, because of the improvement of education level, fewer and fewer people use women's books. After the death of old man Yang, there are actually very few real female calligraphers, and they are all over seventy. In 2006, "Jiangyong Nvshu" was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage. With the efforts of the country, Nvshu has come back to life. As a unique cultural symbol, it represents China to the world.