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Nüshu
Nüshu (𛆁𛈬; simplified Chinese: 女书; traditional Chinese: 女書; pinyin: Nǚshū; [ny˨˩˨ʂu˦]; 'women's script') is a syllabic script derived from Chinese characters that was used by ethnic Yao women for several centuries in Jiangyong, a county within the southern Chinese province of Hunan. From the early 21st century there have been official efforts to revitalise the script, as well as indications of renewed interest among the wider public.
Nüshu is phonetic, with each of its approximately 600–700 characters representing a syllable. Nüshu works were a way for women to lament by communicating sorrows, commiserating over Chinese patriarchy, and establishing connections with an empathetic community. Typically a group of three or four young, non-related women would pledge friendship by writing letters and singing songs in Nüshu to each other.
It is not known when Nüshu came into being, but it seems to have reached its peak during the latter part of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). To preserve the script as an intangible cultural heritage, Chinese authorities established a Nüshu museum in 2002 and designated "Nüshu transmitters" starting in 2003. Fears that the features of the script are being distorted by the effort of marketing it for the tourist industry were highlighted by the 2022 documentary Hidden Letters.
Nüshu was used to write a distinct Chinese variety known as Xiangnan Tuhua that is spoken by the sinicized Yao people of the Xiao River and Yongming River region of northern Jiangyong, Hunan. This dialect, which differs enough from those of other parts of Hunan that there is little mutual intelligibility, is known to its speakers as [tifɯə] 'Dong language'. There are differing opinions on the classification of Xiangnan Tuhua, as it has features of several different Chinese varieties. Some scholars classify it under Xiang Chinese or Pinghua, and other scholars consider it a hybrid dialect. Most Jiangyong residents are bilingual in Xiangnan Tuhua and the Hunan dialect of Southwestern Mandarin. Xiangnan Tuhua was only written using Nüshu, and it was not used to write other languages, such as the Southwestern Mandarin spoken in Hunan, or the local Yao language.
Unlike standard written Chinese, where each Chinese character is logographic, representing a word or part of a word, Nüshu is phonetic, with approximately 600–700 characters representing Xiangnan Tuhua's spoken syllables. This is about half the number required to represent all the syllables in the language, as tonal distinctions are frequently ignored, making it "the most revolutionary and thorough simplification of Chinese characters ever attempted". Zhou Shuoyi, described as the only male to have mastered the script, compiled a dictionary listing 1,800 variant characters and allographs.
It has been suggested that Nüshu characters derived from be italic variant forms of regular script Chinese characters, as can be seen in the name of the script, though some have been substantially modified to better fit embroidery patterns.[citation needed] The strokes of the characters are in the form of dots, horizontals, virgules, and arcs.[citation needed] The script is traditionally written in vertical columns running from right to left, but in modern contexts it may be written in horizontal lines from left to right, just like modern-day Chinese. Unlike in standard Chinese, writing Nüshu script with very fine, almost threadlike, lines is seen as a mark of fine penmanship.
About half of Nüshu are modified Chinese characters used logographically.[dubious – discuss] In about 100, the entire character is adopted with little change apart from skewing the frame from square to rhomboid, sometimes reversing them (mirror image), and often reducing the number of strokes. Another hundred have been modified in their strokes, but are still easily recognisable, as is nü (女; 'woman') above. About 200 have been greatly modified, but traces of the original Chinese character are still discernible. The rest of the characters are phonetic. They are either modified characters, as above, or elements extracted from characters. They are used for 130 phonetic values, each used to write on average ten homophonous or nearly homophonous words, though there are allographs as well; women differed on which Chinese character they preferred for a particular phonetic value.
The exact origins of Nüshu remain uncertain, as no written records document the genesis of this script. Gong Zhebing, a pioneer researcher of Nüshu, collected oral traditions and stories passed down through generations in Jiangyong County. These accounts reveal that the genesis of Nüshu is deeply rooted in local folklore and cultural traditions, blending myth and history.
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Nüshu
Nüshu (𛆁𛈬; simplified Chinese: 女书; traditional Chinese: 女書; pinyin: Nǚshū; [ny˨˩˨ʂu˦]; 'women's script') is a syllabic script derived from Chinese characters that was used by ethnic Yao women for several centuries in Jiangyong, a county within the southern Chinese province of Hunan. From the early 21st century there have been official efforts to revitalise the script, as well as indications of renewed interest among the wider public.
Nüshu is phonetic, with each of its approximately 600–700 characters representing a syllable. Nüshu works were a way for women to lament by communicating sorrows, commiserating over Chinese patriarchy, and establishing connections with an empathetic community. Typically a group of three or four young, non-related women would pledge friendship by writing letters and singing songs in Nüshu to each other.
It is not known when Nüshu came into being, but it seems to have reached its peak during the latter part of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). To preserve the script as an intangible cultural heritage, Chinese authorities established a Nüshu museum in 2002 and designated "Nüshu transmitters" starting in 2003. Fears that the features of the script are being distorted by the effort of marketing it for the tourist industry were highlighted by the 2022 documentary Hidden Letters.
Nüshu was used to write a distinct Chinese variety known as Xiangnan Tuhua that is spoken by the sinicized Yao people of the Xiao River and Yongming River region of northern Jiangyong, Hunan. This dialect, which differs enough from those of other parts of Hunan that there is little mutual intelligibility, is known to its speakers as [tifɯə] 'Dong language'. There are differing opinions on the classification of Xiangnan Tuhua, as it has features of several different Chinese varieties. Some scholars classify it under Xiang Chinese or Pinghua, and other scholars consider it a hybrid dialect. Most Jiangyong residents are bilingual in Xiangnan Tuhua and the Hunan dialect of Southwestern Mandarin. Xiangnan Tuhua was only written using Nüshu, and it was not used to write other languages, such as the Southwestern Mandarin spoken in Hunan, or the local Yao language.
Unlike standard written Chinese, where each Chinese character is logographic, representing a word or part of a word, Nüshu is phonetic, with approximately 600–700 characters representing Xiangnan Tuhua's spoken syllables. This is about half the number required to represent all the syllables in the language, as tonal distinctions are frequently ignored, making it "the most revolutionary and thorough simplification of Chinese characters ever attempted". Zhou Shuoyi, described as the only male to have mastered the script, compiled a dictionary listing 1,800 variant characters and allographs.
It has been suggested that Nüshu characters derived from be italic variant forms of regular script Chinese characters, as can be seen in the name of the script, though some have been substantially modified to better fit embroidery patterns.[citation needed] The strokes of the characters are in the form of dots, horizontals, virgules, and arcs.[citation needed] The script is traditionally written in vertical columns running from right to left, but in modern contexts it may be written in horizontal lines from left to right, just like modern-day Chinese. Unlike in standard Chinese, writing Nüshu script with very fine, almost threadlike, lines is seen as a mark of fine penmanship.
About half of Nüshu are modified Chinese characters used logographically.[dubious – discuss] In about 100, the entire character is adopted with little change apart from skewing the frame from square to rhomboid, sometimes reversing them (mirror image), and often reducing the number of strokes. Another hundred have been modified in their strokes, but are still easily recognisable, as is nü (女; 'woman') above. About 200 have been greatly modified, but traces of the original Chinese character are still discernible. The rest of the characters are phonetic. They are either modified characters, as above, or elements extracted from characters. They are used for 130 phonetic values, each used to write on average ten homophonous or nearly homophonous words, though there are allographs as well; women differed on which Chinese character they preferred for a particular phonetic value.
The exact origins of Nüshu remain uncertain, as no written records document the genesis of this script. Gong Zhebing, a pioneer researcher of Nüshu, collected oral traditions and stories passed down through generations in Jiangyong County. These accounts reveal that the genesis of Nüshu is deeply rooted in local folklore and cultural traditions, blending myth and history.