Expressions of the Custom of Water Writing

"Water Book" is a unique and embryonic script created by the ancestors of the Shui ethnic group, which is called "dancing" in the language of the Shui ethnic group ("dancing" means writing, "dancing" means writing, and "dancing" means writing of the Shui ethnic group or book of the Shui ethnic group). "Suoi" means water family, and "泐睢" means water family's writing or water family's book. It is a comprehensive record and reflection of the folk knowledge and folk culture of the Water Tribe, involving astronomical calendar, primitive beliefs, ethics and morals, production and life, etc., and is mainly handed down in The water tribe inhabited in the southwest area.

The Shuishu has a unique system of symbols, including Chinese characters similar to oracle-bone inscriptions and jinwen inscriptions, as well as numerous hieroglyphic symbols, and pictorial symbols that indicate the meanings of passages. With a small number of words (only a few hundred) and a unique system of symbols, the text cannot express its meaning independently, but relies on Mr. ShuiShu, a teacher who can read and understand and use ShuiShu, as well as the "priests" (all of whom are male). According to the relevant entries contained in the water book, the interpretation can only be meaningful when combined with the contents of the oral tradition. Therefore, for thousands of years, Shuishu has been passed down through generations of Shuishu masters through oral and hand-copying, and it is a combination of ancient Shui scripts and oral and heartfelt cultural inheritance. Source of Shui Shu The Shui originated from the ancient "Baiyue" ethnic group, and the settlement of the Shui is located in the southeast of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, south of the Miaoling Mountain Range, and in the upstream of the Duliu River and the Long River. With dense forests and picturesque landscapes, the area is suitable for the development of agriculture and forestry, and is the home of fish, rice, flowers and fruits on the Guizhou Plateau. The Shui are good at farming, mainly growing rice. The Shui have an ancient script called "Shui Shu".

About the source of the Shuishu script, the Shuishu people have their own sayings. One of the legends is that the Shuishu script was created by an ancestor of the Shui ethnic group named Lu Duo Gong. According to legend, it took him six years to create the script. At first, there were "so many boxes and stacks of characters that they were piled up all over the house," and then the Emperor sent his generals to burn down the house containing the characters. Fearing that the Emperor would try to trick him again, Mr. Luduo kept the characters in his stomach from then on. Legend No. 2: The Suijin characters were learned by six old men, including Mr. Lu Duo, from a fairy, who created dancing characters based on the various kinds of animals, birds and utensils in the Suijin area. After six years of study, the six elders finally learned the Dance of Suoi and brought it back to their homes on bamboo and cloth tablets. On their way back home, the dances were snatched away. In order to avoid being murdered again, with his memory, Mr. Lu Duo Gong intentionally wrote Sui-Duo with his left hand to change the handwriting, and he also wrote some words backwards, upside down, or added or subtracted strokes, which formed the special Water Script. Classification of Shuishu The structure of Shuishu is roughly of the following three types: first, hieroglyphic characters, some of which are similar to oracle bone and gold characters; second, imitation Chinese characters, i.e., the writing of Chinese characters in reverse, upside down, or changing the writing of Chinese characters in shape; and third, religious characters, i.e., the various cryptographic symbols indicating the primitive religions of the Water Tribe. The writing form is written in straight vertical lines from right to left, without punctuation marks.

The water book, in terms of its nature, is divided into two categories of good and bad. Its catalog can be divided into reading book, reading book, recluse book, time book, orientation book, star book and so on. The reading book is the basic reading book for learning ShuiShu. The reading book is the main part of the water book, which is the main basis for choosing various auspicious days. There are more than 40 entries in the category of auspiciousness, such as Daiwang, Hataka, Hatbun, etc., and nearly 600 entries in the category of evils, such as Rinhang, Hatfire, Huafu, Duju, etc. The Water Book is known as the encyclopedia of the water tribe. The Water Book is known as the encyclopedia of the Water Tribe. The people of the Water Tribe, including those who are buried, sacrificed, married, built, traveled, divined, and produced, all of them find out the basis from the water book by Mr. Shuishu, and then act strictly according to its constraints, and thus form the custom of water book. Inheritance of Shuishu The symbol system of Shuishu is unique, including a kind of Chinese characters similar to oracle bone script and jinwen, as well as numerous hieroglyphic symbols and pictorial symbols that indicate the meanings of passages. With a small number of characters (only a few hundred) and a unique system of characters and symbols, the text cannot express its meaning independently, but relies on Shuishu masters (all of them male) who have a relationship with their teachers, i.e., "priests" who can read and understand Shuishu and use it. The text of the water book can only be meaningful if it is interpreted by the water writer according to the relevant entries in the water book and the contents of the oral tradition.

ShuiShu is passed down from generation to generation through the oral and hand-copying of Mr. ShuiShu, and it is a combination of the ancient scripts of the Shui ethnic group and the cultural inheritance of the oral and heartfelt teachings. The combination of Mr. ShuiShu and ShuiShu is an important prerequisite for the inheritance of traditional culture of the Water Tribe.

The custom of water book is the formation, development and inheritance of water book, which constitutes the custom related to the life of the water tribe. The way of passing down the water book custom has formed two major components of the water book: one is the handwritten book compiled with the ancient script of the embryonic water tribe, and the other is the oral teaching by the water book masters to make up for the large number of essentials, ceremonies, and blessings that could not be recorded due to the imperfect development of the script.

There are many different kinds of volumes of water books, mainly recitation volumes, application volumes of two categories, each of which has more than ten kinds. Called the encyclopedia of the people of the water tribe "" dance although "" Wannian Jingjing ", the book is divided into the upper, middle and lower three, the book 844 pages, a total of 3,616 entries. The book is divided into upper, middle and lower parts, with 844 pages totaling 3,616 entries. "Dancing" Ten Thousand Years of Scriptures and Mirrors" was authenticated as a handwritten copy in 1661-1722 (during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty). Its content involves the ancient astronomical calendar, meteorology, religious beliefs, folklore and ethics, linguistics, philology, philosophy, etc., which is the most extensive and the richest scripture with the highest content of ancient information among the known water books. The other book "Yin Yin Yang" is a beautifully illustrated colorful volume, which was written in 1875-1908 (during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty), and its content is philosophical. The book has 59 pages, with 5 kinds of colors, and the painted figures, buildings, cows, horses, dragons, snakes, birds and beasts are lifelike, exquisite and skillful in colors, reflecting the symbols of the ancient aquatic people's pursuit of a better life and a better culture and art. Ruyi divination cardboard" is a fine product, which is the only aquatic divination cardboard found in the country. Cardboard *** dozens of cards, cards painted with a variety of characters and other stylized patterns, is the people of the water tribe in ancient times out of the office, office, marriage to meet the wedding divination used. In addition, later cracked four volumes of water book, also revealed the ancient way of life of the people of the water tribe. The "Calendar Volume" is the volume of the ancestors of the Water Tribe who used astronomical calendar knowledge to deduce good and bad luck and predict misfortune in funerals; the "Hour Volume" is a water book of secrets, which is based on the doctrine of the five elements and the operation of the celestial bodies to expound on the theory of yin and yang in ancient times; "Shouyin Volume" is a volume of the ancestors of the water tribe according to the theory of "everything has its own spirit", which highly summarizes the contradiction between the habits of animal life and the reality of human life to avoid evil; "Jintang Volume" is a volume of the ancestors of the water tribe to choose an auspicious day. The "Jintang Scroll" is the scroll of the ancestors of the Shui ethnic group for choosing auspicious days. The value of the water book The water book is usually regarded as a kind of witchcraft book. The manufacturing era of the water book is extremely ancient, and some scholars speculate that the source of the water book can be traced back to the Xia Dynasty, and that "the water book and the ancient Yin oracle bone inscriptions should have a number of affinities". Water book manufacturing location, "the first in the northwest, from the north to Jiangxi, and then moved from Jiangxi into Guizhou Province". Water book, including the heavenly stem, the earth's branches, gossip, the sky, seasonal weather, birds, animals, fish and insects, the body of the five senses, the rate of the genus designation, the number of directions, etc., this kind of text in the Duyun and the three counties of the local records are recorded. The form is very ancient, resembling the Yinshang oracle bone script and the ancient seal script. Early copy of the water in the text, written with a bamboo tip dipped in ink, recent copy has been written with a brush, some of which are pictorial hieroglyphs, some of which are upside down, oblique or reverse writing of the regular script. Some ghost masters also specialize in writing some of the confidential text, known as "anti-script" and "secret word".

Water book, most of the primitive religious beliefs of the date, location, signs of good and bad luck and the method of driving away ghosts and evil spirits, is generally appropriate to the year, avoid the month, the month and day appropriate to avoid the time square, and with the song or things marked with signs of good and bad luck belongs to it, so much as sorcerers to carry out the rituals of the tool. Just because the water tribe believes in ghosts and gods, so the water book has a wide range of uses. This unique function of the water book promotes the worship of ghosts and gods of the water tribe for generations. In addition to the water book contains a large number of primitive religious beliefs, it also preserves the urgent need to excavate and decipher the sky, calendar data and water ancient written materials. The celestial and calendar information reflected in the water book is an extremely precious historical and cultural heritage. Some of its basic theories, such as nine stars, twenty-eight hosts, eight trigrams and nine palaces, heavenly stems and earthly branches, sun, moon and five stars, yin and yang, sixty ja zi, four times and five parties, seven yuan calendar system and the first month of the water calendar to build the eleventh, etc., is the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancestors and art of the water tribe.

The main carriers of the ancient scripts of the Water Tribe that have been seen are: oral tradition, hand-copying of paper, embroidery, inscriptions, wood carvings, ceramic calcination and so on. Because of its mysterious structure and special use, the Shuishu has been growing and surviving in this remote place and circulating due to its hand-copying and oral transmission. Because of its hieroglyphic structure, mainly written and depicting things in nature such as flowers, birds, insects and fishes as well as some totems such as dragons, it still retains the information of the ancient civilization and is still widely used in the Water Tribe area.

The ancient script of the Water Tribe has a sacred and noble status in the Water Tribe society. For the water book written with the ancient Shuibi script, even if it is a piece of paper, people can't cross it; there are a series of specific ceremonies for worshiping the water book; when the water book is used for major events such as the establishment of houses and other major ceremonies, the first ceremony should be held to invite Lu Duo Gong, the creator of the ancient Shuibi script, to be "on the spot". It can be said that the concept of valuing the water book and viewing the water writing as sacred is y rooted in the Shui society. Shuishu, a writing system with only a few hundred single words, has become the spiritual pillar of a nation, supporting the history of the nation's writing and civilization. The unique charm of the water book lies in: first of all, the water book is the inherent culture of the water tribe, the water book has its own unique writing system, is an important part of the ancient Chinese culture is inseparable, although this writing system seems very "tender" and fragile, but can be passed through time and space, itself seems very mysterious. The amount of information stored in the water book has far exceeded the scope of the aquatic society, and some of the information contained in the water book helps to unravel the connotation of the ancient culture of the Central Plains. In addition, of the 56 ethnic groups in the country, about one-third have their own languages and traditional scripts, and the Water Tribe accounts for one of them, which is worth studying. Moreover, the Water Book is a major integration of the beliefs and culture of the Water Tribe, and is a precious book for studying the religious beliefs, astronomy and calendar, philosophical thinking, literature and art, production and life of the Water Tribe. Water Book Revealed Legend has it that the Water Book was created by a man named Lu Duo Gong. In Shuidong Village, Shuiyan Township, Dushan County, Guizhou Province, the local Shui and Buyei people chant an old folk song in Buyei and Shui languages, which translates into Chinese as follows: "There is an old man named Lu Duo, who lives in a cave in all seasons. He made words on the green stone slabs, and the words he made measured good and bad luck. He gave away all the good days and waited until he built his own house. There were no more good days in the book, so he had no choice but to live in a cave. If you ask where the deep hole is, it is in Shuiyan and Shuitong." A Brief History of the Water Tribe, published in 1986, claimed there were more than 400, and A Study of Chinese Water Tribe Culture claimed there were more than 500 words. In the more than 2,000 volumes of water books reviewed by experts, it was found that the variant characters were mainly concentrated in the 12 earthly branches, spring, summer, autumn and winter, the heavenly stems, the nine stars and other single characters, for example, it was found that there were more than 30 variant characters for each of the words "Yin, Mao". In addition to single characters and variant characters, there are also pictorial characters with paragraph-type meanings, which breaks the original view that there are only more than 400 ancient characters of the Water Tribe. The "marriage relationship" between Shuishu and Oracle Bone Script and Jinwen is recognized by academics. Wang Yirong, the father of oracle bone writing, discovered oracle bone writing in 1899. Water in the region of the water character tablets, the Ming Dynasty has found two; and found 1488-1505 (Ming Dynasty Hongzhi years) water book woodcut. From this, we can see that it was not after the discovery of oracle bone inscriptions that the Water Script came into existence, but as early as in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, there were ancient scripts of the Water Tribe. Later, due to the epoch-making two great national migrations, the language and culture of the Water Tribe were differentiated from the homologous ones, and then the phenomenon of absorption and gradual fusion occurred. The 24 symbols on the pottery tablets of the Xia Dynasty, which have been troubling the archaeological community for many years, were provided to the Guizhou Provincial Archives Bureau to request identification after the relevant units in Henan Province saw the reports of the Shuishu, and as a result, more than a dozen corresponding textual symbols were found. The ancient script of the Water People is in the same lineage with the symbols of the cultural heritage of the Xia Dynasty, thus showing that during the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the Chinese Xia ethnic group contained the ancestors of the Water People. The mystery of the water book also lies in its "ancient" and "anti-". The water book is called "dancing suoi" in the water language. "Dancing" originates from the ancient script, which is the remnant of the mother tongue; "Suo" is the self-proclaimed pronunciation of the water tribe, which is the brand of the Suo water basin. The Tang Dynasty set up Fushui Prefecture to pacify the human group that called itself "Suu" as the main object, and from then on, "Suu" was used as the substitute for "Suu". This is the beginning of the central dynasty's recognition of the Shui ethnic group, and also the historical witness of the evolution of the Shui ethnic group into a single nation. The water book is also called "anti-book", which is not a book of rebellion. The "anti" of the water book is manifested in several aspects: firstly, the structure of some water characters is opposite to that of the Chinese characters of the Earth's branches, such as the characters of "Zi, U, Wu, Jiu, Wu", etc., and the composition of the characters can be written in reverse, sideways, upside down, and even many patterns are reversed to be positive. Secondly, the opposite of the concept of water book, a strong sense of God. Because the original intention of the creation of the water book is to pass the ghosts and gods, explore the mystery, deal with the ghosts and gods, and ghosts and gods dialogue, so the water book canonical symbols of the gods and rituals intermingled with them. Third, the month of the water book and the Han Chinese calendar order projected misplaced. For example, the year-end December and the first month of the new year of the water calendar correspond to the August and September of the summer calendar. Fourthly, it is the reflection of the reverse psychology of the Water Tribe. From the history of forced migration of the ancestors of the water tribe, especially forced to move out from the land of the Hundred Yue conquered and annihilated by the Qin, the water book of the unique anti-writing text, from the people of the water tribe in the brutal rule of the feudal dynasties, the formation of a strong anti-reactionary mentality of the long-term discrimination.