The word "Nvshu" records the language of female groups based on Jiangyong dialect, which is generally considered as a variant of Chinese. But whether it belongs to the "Chinese character cultural circle" is controversial. According to the fact that nearly half of the characters in Nvshu are transformed from Chinese characters, some people think that it is a "variant" system copy of Chinese characters borrowed from square characters. Opponents believe that the similarities and differences between strokes and their combination structures are the direct basis for judging whether there is a source-stream relationship between different characters. Compared with the regular script of Chinese characters, the basic strokes, stroke structure and language function of "Nvshu" are very different, and the pictographs, knowing words and Oracle bones left in "Nvshu" are also very different, so the source of "Nvshu" is by no means ordinary Chinese characters.
When and where "Nvshu" originated, the exploration of many scholars at home and abroad has aroused people's enduring association. According to the fact that Huashan Temple, a local women's shrine, rose in the middle of Qing Dynasty, and the earliest discovery of "Nvshu", it is speculated that "Nvshu" originated in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties.
Some people think that "the composition of women's characters is derived from the note symbols of Baiyue" based on the existence of characters similar to the weaving symbols on the tapestries of Zhuang and Yao nationalities in Nvshu. According to a large number of characters similar to carved symbols and painted pottery patterns unearthed in Nvshu, some people think that its origin can be traced back to Yangshao culture in Neolithic Age, which was formed after Qin Shihuang unified China characters.
Some people think that "Nvshu" is the official script of Shun Di era, because its basic strokes are similar to the original ancient Chinese characters. According to the obvious characteristics of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the words borrowed from inscriptions on bronze in the vocabulary of Nvshu. It is believed that Nvshu is a variant of ancient Chinese characters in Shang Dynasty, which is closely related to Oracle Bone Inscriptions.
Some people think that the modern "Nvshu" is the legacy and evolution of the ancient Yue script. This view holds that hieroglyphics and ideographs are the earliest cultural phenomena in the writing system, and they are the direct reflection of the writer's living environment and social culture. According to the custom of tattooing, the characteristics of "Gan Lan" residential buildings, rice culture and bird totem culture are embodied in the composition of hieroglyphics and knowing words of "Nvshu".
In addition, some experts have investigated the geography, history, ethnic composition and folk customs of the popular areas of "Nvshu", and believe that "Nvshu" is an ancient Yao script influenced by ethnic integration and immigrant culture. Yao people used to have their own language, but whether they ever had their own writing is exactly what the academic circles have been discussing. Scholars have different opinions about the origin of Nvshu, which is not a folklore. There are four kinds widely circulated in Jiangyong:
First kind
According to legend, the female script was adapted from the gobbledygook by Yao Ji.
Who is Yao Ji? Yao Ji is the daughter of the Queen Mother, whose name is Moji. Later, because I traveled around the world and fell in love with the beautiful scenery of Pumei Village at the end of Shangjiang River, I secretly lived down. Because the fairyland of the Queen Mother is called Yaochi, she told mortals that her name was Yao Ji.
Yao Ji is not only beautiful, but also clever, and won the favor of the queen mother. Yao Ji is lively and willful in his words and deeds. No one dares to stop what she wants to do, even the queen mother wants her to score three points. One morning, before the ladies-in-waiting got up, Yao Ji had finished grooming. Open the next account, push the window to open the door, and see beautiful scenery, birds and flowers, rural buildings, beautiful spring, smoke curling up, people coming and going, much more free than the Heavenly Palace. Yao Ji has long wanted to leave the boring heavenly palace and find a quiet place to enjoy himself. Now the beauty of the lower bound is just in front of her, which makes her feel excited. She decided to explore a novelty there. So Yao Ji left the Heavenly Palace and set foot on Xiangyun, and came to a place that turned out to be a beautiful water town in the hinterland of Pangling, with a vast territory and few people. This is Pumei Village. Yao Ji and the people in the lower world don't speak the same language, but mortals pay special attention to etiquette. Especially the girls are smart and capable. Although they don't know the language, they all get along well.
Girls in the world are good at painting flowers, weaving ribbons and quilts. Their embroidered shoes, skirts and headscarves are simply more beautiful than the rosy clouds in the sky. The girls put on their own colorful clothes. They look as bright as fairies. Yao Ji was so impressed that he worshipped them as teachers. Yao Ji thinks that the sisters here are all good, except that they can't read, can't express their thoughts and can't write. Yao Ji wanted to help them improve their ability to remember their feelings, so he moved down a set of complicated gobbledygook. Although the two sisters want to learn, they are both illiterate. Yao Ji simplified this abstruse gobbledygook one by one, combined with needlework and embroidery, and sang in the local dialect, so that these sisters who looked like fairies could write, compose poems and sing freely. Since then, this changed gobbledygook has been circulated among women, and men disdain to use it, and they don't know how to use it, so they named it Nvshu.
The second type
Legend has it that a long time ago, a peasant woman at the end of Shangjiang gave birth to a baby girl, weighing nine Jin, so she was named Jin Jiu girl. This Jin Jiu girl has talent and wisdom since she was a child. She is good at spinning, weaving and embroidery. She is omnipotent and meticulous. She also whimsically created a female character to write dialects. Therefore, Yi Nianhua said in reply to the visitor: "I only heard an old saying from my predecessors that a girl of nine pounds is the cleverest. Women's books are made by girls and passed down from generation to generation. "
The third kind
According to legend, in the Song Dynasty, a woman named Hu was born in the village, and she was elected as a princess by-election. Soon after entering the palace, he was given a cold reception and his mood was extremely low. She wanted to write home and pour out her grievances, but she was afraid that the eunuch would find out. So I made up a set of words according to the female red, wrote them on the handkerchief in the style of singing, and asked my relatives to look sideways and read them in dialect. So this kind of writing spread among women.
However, according to local records, Hu did not enter the palace as a princess, and her name was mentioned in local records by her brother's sister. Hu's younger brother became an official in the DPRK, and later retired from the army. The court gave him a house. There are rumors that it is for his sister, as can be seen from his local chronicles. This statement is groundless.
The fourth kind
This legend was created by Pancho. A long time ago, a clever girl named Pancho was born in Tongkou. She can sing at the age of three and embroider at the age of seven. The songs she sings are intoxicating, and the embroidered flowers can be confused with the real ones. Later, she was robbed by the government to Daozhou. In order to inform her family, she took great pains to create words according to the female red pattern and wrote a letter for a dog to take home. My girlfriend in the same village spent a long time reading this letter, and this writing has been passed down from generation to generation. No wonder Yi Nianhua said, "A man has a thousand miles of ambition, how can a charming mother flirt?"
Jiang Yong's female calligraphy works are generally written on self-made calligraphy, fans and cloth towels, and their functions include self-entertainment, singing in class, correspondence, religious sacrifice, becoming sworn sisters, complaining and memorizing. As a private property of women, Jiangyong Nvshu is often burned or buried with others, so it is impossible to find works that have been circulated for more than three generations or earlier. Therefore, when did Nvshu come into being, where did it really originate, the relationship between Nvshu and Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the relationship between Nvshu and Yao, and so on. Opinions vary and there is no conclusion, which has become a mystery.
According to relevant research, "Nvshu" originated in prehistoric Wen Tao, and its birthplace should be in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River basin, especially in Guanzhong area or Shangxian area of Shaanxi Province. "Nvshu" may be an ancient script that Cangwu people living in Shangxian County, Shaanxi Province brought to Jiangyong Mountain area in Hunan Province. Then, the history of China characters should at least be counted from the Yangshao cultural stage of the Neolithic Age, with a history of about six or seven thousand years, more than three thousand years earlier than that of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. It can be said that prehistoric Wen Tao in China is the earliest ancient writing in the world. The archaeological age of Wen Tao proves the origin of "Nvshu", so it can also be said that "Nvshu" is an ancient writing in the world, and it is a writing that lives to this day, and it is a miracle in the history of writing. Although there are different opinions, one thing is the same: Jiangyong Nvshu was created by women, reflecting their mentality.
Some people also say that Nvshu is a variant of Chinese characters and Yao language. Because most female scripts are burned or buried because of the death of the screenwriter, female scripts are extremely rare roles. The existence of women's books is mainly due to the old idea in China that local women can't read and write: what they call "men's books", so local women invented women's books as a means of communication between sisters-in-law. And the average man will also regard women's books as ordinary tricks and disdain them. Nvshu has existed for hundreds of years.
form and content
In the old society, many talented local women poured out their hearts with this kind of female book that men didn't know, and embroidered, carved, stamped and wrote on paper towels. Most of the nearly 200,000-word "Nvshu" works are songs, and their carriers are divided into four categories: paper, books, fans and towels. There are female calligraphy, seal cutting, laser micro-carving, stone carving, wood carving, bamboo carving, postcards, female towels, female fans, female book bags and so on.
The works of Nvshu are mostly songs, and their carriers are divided into four categories: paper, books, fans and towels. No matter what kind of back method, it pays great attention to formal beauty. For example, the four corners of paper are decorated with patterns, flowers and birds are inserted on paper fans, and the embroidery on towels, handkerchiefs, ribbons and clothes is exquisite embroidery. Although the carrier is different, the font is beautiful and exquisite, the shape is strange and full of ancient meaning. There are four kinds of strokes: one point, vertical, oblique and arc, and the writing is rhombic.
Its content mostly describes the life of local women, and it is also used for letters, notes, making friends, and the bride's return to congratulate the Three Dynasties. Most of the styles are seven-character poems. On holidays, women get together and recite women's books. There are no standardized teaching materials, no regular teachers and schools, hand-copied from generation to generation, and there is a custom of martyrdom among the people.
The main contents of women's books are writing about marriage and family, social communication, bitterness and love affairs, rural anecdotes, ballads and riddles. Some of them have been compiled into Chinese song books. The narrative works recorded in women's books are not original by women in content, but become the projection of women's spiritual world after entering women's books through oral inheritance. The work completely describes and laments the tragic situation that the heart is higher than the sky, the life is as thin as paper, and the good intentions are dashed in the dark, and the gods in folklore are invited to help turn the tide. The heroines in these works are not only "strong women" with flamboyant personality, but also strongly demand equal status with men, and are extremely disgusted and despised by men's keen fame and fortune. The Legend of Nvshu, edited by Ouyang Hongyan and Dong, member of the Standing Committee of Yongzhou Municipal Committee and propaganda minister of Yongzhou Municipal Committee, was published by Shandong People's Publishing House in May 2008 and is one of Yongzhou series. Yongzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles sells in limited quantities. The content is as follows:
First, the hometown of "Nvshu"
(A) Jiangyong County and its "Three Thousand Cultures"
(B) "Nvshu" distribution and excavation
Second, explore the singularity of "Nvshu"
(A) "Nvshu" and its essential characteristics.
(2) Unique female figures in the world
Third, the custom of female calligraphy
(1) needlework
(2) Sitting in a karaoke bar
(3) Sisterhood
Fourth, the art of "Nvshu"
(A) the literary characteristics of "Nvshu"
(B) "Nvshu" calligraphy art
The Inheritance of verb (abbreviation of verb) "Nvshu"
(A) "Nvshu" way of inheritance
(2) Descendants of "Nvshu"
Sixth, the protection of "Nvshu"
Seven, the original "Nvshu"
The only female figure in the world-Nvshu, published by Minghua Publishing House in February 2009, was edited by Zhou and Gong Butan, which recorded in detail the discovery, emotion, belief and art, inheritance and protection of 1982 Nvshu and its related female customs, and introduced the famous successors and famous Nvshu in chapters.
Nvshu is a kind of writing created by folk women, which is not standardized. "Nvshu-A Reference Book of Nvshu Characters" was published in 2007, with the standardized characters of Nvshu as the standard scheme. Nv Shu Tong has the function of converting female scripts into Chinese characters and vice versa. Through the syllable index of standard characters of female scripts, we can find out: for each syllable and tone of Jiangyong dialect, which is the corresponding female script, which is the standard character, and what is the standard writing method of this standard character of female scripts; Through the stroke index of standardized characters in women's books, we can find the meanings of various Chinese characters represented by a standardized character, its homophones, and its writing methods in other seven dictionaries or vocabulary of women's books. Through the Chinese character translation index, we can find out how to write and read the standard words of a female script corresponding to a Chinese character, and what homophones are there in the standard words of the female script corresponding to this Chinese character.
Zhao Liming, editor-in-chief of China Collection of Women's Books, has collected more than 90% of the original materials of women's books. Another monograph on women's books, A Collection of Women's Books in China-A Unique Collection of Women's Texts, is not divided into ten volumes, and is edited, translated and revised by Zhou. Include 82 books by He Sanchao, 36 autobiographical songs about complaining, 22 books about making friends with old friends, 32 legendary narrative songs, 7 sacrificial songs, 56 wedding songs, 87 folk songs, 47 riddles, 29 translations and 30 letters.
Peng Zerun's book "Research on Jiangyong Nvshu Characters", published by Yuelu Bookstore on 20 1 1. Content abstract: The author has long been concerned about the language and characters in ethnic areas and has done a lot of on-the-spot investigations. These research results are aimed at women's unique figures in Yao areas such as Jiangyong and Jianghua in southern Hunan. After statistical analysis, the author thinks that this kind of words belongs to an immature syllable word, belonging to phonography. In the past, the research results of female calligraphy mainly came from feminist research and sociology. Even the research on writing is mostly informative, and the researchers are all from linguistics, so this is the most professional research result of the theory of writing in Nvshu. 1982, discovered by Professor Gong Zhebing of Wuhan University in Jiangyong County, Hunan Province. Gong Zhebing immediately published the world's first academic paper "Investigation Report of a Special Person" in the third issue of Journal of South-Central University for Nationalities (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) 1983, and published the paper "Discrimination of Yao Characters in Pingyao, Jiangyong, Hunan" at 166 International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Linguistics (USA) 1983.
1983, the news that Jiang Yong discovered "Nvshu" was announced to the whole world, causing a sensation. Experts and scholars at home and abroad went deep into Jiangyong for investigation, research and excavation. 2/kloc-0 At the beginning of the 20th century, Yongzhou actively implemented the project of rescuing and protecting women's calligraphy culture. Through the construction of women's calligraphy culture village, the establishment of women's calligraphy museum, the organization of women's calligraphy handicrafts, the development of women's calligraphy culture industry, so that women's calligraphy culture can be passed down from generation to generation and carried forward. At the end of the 20th century, through the efforts of a group of scholars, this rare female role was recognized and recognized by the world, and aroused great interest and widespread concern at home and abroad. As a unique and rare cultural heritage, China government has also begun to pay attention to the protection of women's books. China Nvshu Village, which integrates scientific research base and sightseeing, settled in Jiangyong at the end of 2003.
2001May 18, the symposium of China women's calligraphy culture rescue project and the national women's calligraphy academic seminar held in South-Central University for Nationalities put forward the "China women's calligraphy culture rescue project".
On September 20th, 2004, Yang, the last female writer in China, passed away. Female writers are a unique cultural "fossil", which is of great value in studying the origin of human characters and civilization, the origin of female culture and nation, the development of civilization, and in anthropology, ethnology, sociology, linguistics, philology, folklore, archaeology and other fields.
The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20th, 2006, this folk custom was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. Sitting in karaoke bars, female red, wedding banquet, three dynasties books, etc. It shows that the female script has the function of manners and customs. Etiquette is the standardization, stylization and institutionalization of social values. This solidification of etiquette and vulgarization makes women's calligraphy culture become a necessity of the whole society from the needs of women.
Agricultural songs and children's songs show that as a mother's culture, women's books have the functions of education and teaching. The social and historical knowledge, production and life skills and moral cultivation of the working people at the bottom can only be obtained through word of mouth of elders, their own experiences and appreciation of folk literature and art. The rich contents of women's books not only sublimate and cultivate women's intelligence. At the same time, it also inherits knowledge and ethics. Gao Yinxian (deceased)
Yi Nianhua (deceased)
Yang (deceased)
He Yan Xin
He jinghua
Hu
Ouyang Hongyan
Pu Lijuan
Lin Ying (At present, He Jinghua, Pu and Lin Ying are the natural descendants of three generations of Nvshu)
Related movies and songs
Snowflakes and the Secret Fan is adapted from the English novel of the same name by Lisa See, an American Chinese woman writer, and tells a sad emotional story between two women in the late Qing Dynasty and contemporary times. Nina and Sophie are very good friends in modern drama. By chance, Sophie heard a story from her aunt. In Jiangyong, Hunan, a long time ago, women bound their feet, and their lives were almost isolated from the outside world, but they had a unique communication password: women's calligraphy. Some young girls get married and become "old friends", embroidering and writing women's books on fans or towels to exchange ideas. They are like a spiritual marriage, and friendship can last a lifetime. Sophie and Nina became "old friends" under the organization of their aunt. Back in Jiangyong, 1800, Lily and Snowflake became "old partners" when they were only seven years old. After the famine and rebellion, they reflect on the marriage of the matchmaker and the joys and sorrows of being mothers, and seek comfort from each other. However, a misunderstanding threatened their lifelong friendship. ...
Produced jointly by Shanghai Film Group and Fox Searchlight, the film Snowflakes and the Secret Fan directed by Wang Ying, the wife of media tycoon Murdoch and MGM, is scheduled to be released on 20 1 1 summer. Previously, the film was kept secret, and only foreign media exposed some stills of Li Bingbing and Gianna Jun in modern drama.
As a communication tool for "old comrades", "Nvshu" is only written on folding fans and towels, and is only circulated among women, but not known to men. It is understood that in the film, Li Bingbing and Gianna Jun have many scenes of writing female scripts. Because of the strange font of the female script, both of them did their homework and practiced calligraphy all night before the actual shooting. Li Bingbing revealed that she practiced for several nights to write beautiful and exquisite female calligraphy. "I also like to practice calligraphy at ordinary times, but female calligraphy is different from Chinese calligraphy. This is a kind of "fossil" writing, which looks a bit like Oracle Bone Inscriptions. It takes a lot of time just to remember the glyphs. I practiced for several nights, holding hands all the time. Every time I finish practicing, my hands will tremble with acid. "
The "women's book" cheongsam designed by college girls won the national patent.
2012165438+1October 15, five students of Hunan women's college appeared in the campus wearing "women's book" cheongsam. According to Zhou Jingjing, the designer of these five sets of cheongsam, the "Nvshu" cheongsam is divided into five different colors: red, yellow, blue, blue and purple. There are "women's books" of different sizes on the cheongsam, which form exquisite and beautiful patterns with each other. After examination and approval by China National Intellectual Property Administration, five pieces of women's cheongsam were awarded patent certificates for design respectively. "Nvshu" is a mysterious character dedicated to women in Jiangyong County, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province, and its neighboring Dao County and parts of Jianghua. They are called "girls" locally. The picture shows the appearance of five different colors of "Nvshu" cheongsam. On May 20th, 2006, this folk custom was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
Nvshu was performed by Tan Dun in collaboration with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and premiered in Shenzhen on May 29th.
Phonetic interpretation of ancient culture in southern Hunan
The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra premiered in Shenzhen on May 29, which coincided with the retaliatory rebound of the temperature after the rain and walked with the high emotions of the audience. The road outside the Shenzhen Concert Hall is heavily congested because a large number of spectators drive in. The ground and underground parking lots of the concert hall and a temporary parking lot were all full, and many people were forced to detour to the opposite underground garage of the library to queue up slowly, resulting in at least hundreds of people being late. More than half of the people missed "Nvshu".
Whether you like it or not, Nvshu: The Mysterious Song of Women was included in the top priority of Feijiao's first concert in Shenzhen. This is the latest work of Tan Dun, the most creative composer in China. He sublimated an ancient and incredible female writing into a cultural phenomenon in Jiangyong Mountain area at the junction of Hunan and Guangxi, and then created a large symphony completely played by western instruments in epic musical language. The world premiere in cooperation with it is the prestigious Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra in the United States.
After playing the national anthems of China and the United States, the young and energetic music director Janick Niejie-Segun quickly jumped on the podium again. On the soloist's left, sat the harpist Elizabeth Heinon. The tall blonde, wearing a bright red tube top dress and holding an antique amber harp in her arms, looks like a radiant and beautiful statue. The following music shows that she and the harp in her hand are important symbols that the composer especially wants to emphasize, whether it is stage vision or music creation.
The music started. Against the background of ethereal and slippery notes in the high-pitched area of the violin, the harp clinks like an ancient legend floating slowly from a distance. The music is avant-garde and modern, and the melody is elusive. But the harp soon turned to China tradition, with pentatonic scale and ancient rhyme ringing in the ear, as well as the "string sweeping" and plucking like the guzheng. This voice is accompanied by the old woman's singing and the woman's crying, running through, sometimes beautiful, sometimes just a sound element. I can't help but wonder if Tan Dun used this plucked instrument, which rarely appeared in the foreground, to dominate the whole work, or did he use granular incoherent notes to describe the small ink in ancient women's books? And does the enhanced female performer's identity also imply the modern inheritance of female culture? After all, the female script is the only word marked with gender in the world and written and used by women. Perhaps, she is the symbol of "Nvshu"?
This symphony is about 50 minutes long and consists of 13 title movements. There is a dramatic logical connection between movements, and as always, with the help of sound, light and electricity, a set of three-dimensional spaces is formed, with the intention of stimulating and mobilizing the audience's rich associations through various sensory stimuli. The biggest difference from Tan Dun's previous works is that this work introduces original ecological country songs, which forms a sharp contrast and interesting blend with the modern music style of large bands. Thanks to Tan Dun's imagination, he used three small screens at the top of the stage to play the original songs of rural old ladies and women, so that the conductor could lead the band to follow, echo, contrast and blend. To this end, the conductor specially put two small speakers in front of him. Women in southern Hunan are full of ravines, tearful expressions, simple and natural singing, joy immersed in desolation and loneliness in noise, forming a special cultural appeal. Tan Dun said in Weibo more than a month ago that Nvshu caused a sensation when it premiered in the United States. Earlier, he said that some musicians in "Flying Corner" cried during the rehearsal. I believe all this. Such a gorgeous work is both novel and moving.
13, I personally like Deep Lane, Daughter River, Peiyuan Bridge and Living in a Dream. In my opinion, there are many reasons, for example, they are more musical and shine with wisdom, and their harmony, orchestration and melody are more pleasing to the ear, mainly because of the appeal of music itself. Of course there is water in the Daughter River. In the picture, Nvshu Village is surrounded by water, and Tan Dun's unique musical instrument "water" plays a role again. Two American percussionists, absorbed in the rhythm of music, flapped, flapped, their hands dripping evenly into the basin, and the gurgling was integrated with the music.
Tan Dun is smart and strategic. Two years ago, he decided to promote the "application for heritage" of women's books, and conceived and completed this work. Later, entrusted by Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam Concert Hall Symphony Orchestra of the Netherlands and NHK Symphony Orchestra of Japan, she performed in some international art festivals, and used music, the most borderless common language, to push the female calligraphy culture to the world step by step.
In the second half, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6 (Pathetique) was eagerly awaited by fans, and it can be called the most representative work of "The Voice of Philadelphia". If Canik, the conductor in Nvshu, was a little stiff (he could only passively follow the screen for quite a long time), Chai Liu made him instantly enter the realm of freedom. This clever and energetic little man, with strong control and incitement, volatilized the tension of Laochai's music to the extreme, especially in the third movement. I was deeply impressed by the clarinet solo in the first movement. The subtle change of timbre and the precise control of breath give this woodwind instrument thrilling power.
Maybe my expectations are a little too high, and I don't have a good grasp of the delicacy of the band, especially the famous cello ensemble in the second movement. I can't help but flash in my mind the footage of Seiji Ozawa commanding Berlin Philharmonic. I prefer Ozawa's version. Nevertheless, this song "Chai Liu" made the audience in Shenzhen have a classic addiction of a top band. During the intermission, several friends from cultural circles argued that Fei Jiao should perform more such classics when he came to Shenzhen for the first time, which is the greatest expectation of people. I believe this idea is quite representative.
The play is still the work of Lao Chai, and Polonaise dance music from the opera yevgeni onegin is selected. This is one of the most frequently heard tracks in the concert, and its lightness and beauty are in sharp contrast with sadness, which has drawn a satisfactory conclusion for the music feast that night. Gu xiaojin