Pictographic script of Shui people reveals ancient connections with Central Plains

Pictographic script of Shui people

"Shui writing," an ancient pictographic and ideographic script used by the Shui ethnic group in Southwest China, has been found to share similarities with symbols unearthed in various locations across China, including the Liangzhu and Erlitou cultures, two early cultures of the Chinese civilization.

The Shui script is the unique pictographic writing system used by the Shui people in today's Guizhou Province in Southwest China to keep records of their culture. Like ancient China's bronze and oracle bone inscriptions, the Shui script consists of logograms invented a long time ago and is one of the few pictographic writing systems still in use. In 2006, it was listed as one of China's national intangible cultural heritages, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Recent research by the office working on the application of "Shui writing" to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register reveals that the characters in "Shui writing" align with 24 symbols found in the Erlitou site in Central China's Henan Province. Discovered in 1959, the Erlitou Ruins in Luoyang are about 3,500 to 3,800 years old, which places them in the time period of the late Xia or early Shang Dynasty (c.1600BC-1046BC). 

Additionally, they match 104 symbols among the more than 700 engraved symbols found at the Liangzhu cultural site in East China's Zhejiang Province, 73 symbols among the over 600 engraved symbols discovered at the Shuangdun site in Bengbu, East China's Anhui Province, and 16 symbols out of 19 engraved symbols from the Jiahu site in Henan Province.

"The roots of 'Shui writing' run deep, and its connection with early Huaxia civilization is profound," noted Ge Mingyi, director of the office.

He added that the pronunciation of some "Shui writing" characters is identical to that of ancient Chinese, and the content and customs of "Shui writing" are closely associated with unidentified symbols recorded in ancient literature and engraved on bronze artifacts.

The "Shui writing" documents consist of three parts: historical records, textual interpretations by scholars, and recorded oral scriptures, reflecting various aspects of social life, including Shui astronomy, calendar systems, rituals, and agricultural activities. These writings contain rich elements of early Chinese civilization.

"As a remnant of early human civilization, the 'Shui writing' documents in Guizhou Province preserve a wealth of ancient cultural information with exceptional historical, rare, and unique value. They also play a crucial role in exploring the origins and forms of early human civilization," Ge emphasized.

"Shui writing" documents were included in the UNESCO Memory of the World for Asia and the Pacific Regional Register on November 26, 2022. 

Subsequently, on November 27, 2023, "Shui writing" documents were exhibited at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, upon the invitation of UNESCO.