Interpretation of Daba Script: Gemu from Wujiao Village XU Duoduo Nanyang Technological University, Singapore duoduo001@e.ntu.edu.sg Abstract Daba calendars are the only written texts of Dabaism discovered so far. Some studies have been discontinuously conducted on this topic since the first report on this script in 1940. However, some unclear and obscure hermeneutic points of Daba script have still to be investigated in-depth. In this paper, I present an interpretation of one of the Daba calendars based on my original field work data. This Daba calendar, entitled "Gemu", origins in Wüjiäo (MW) village. It is relatively old and, compared to others, shows an archaic version of the Daba calendars, according to the classification proposed in Song (2003). The present study aims to expand our knowledge of the Daba script and of the context in which it was and is still used. Further on, this paper can contribute to establishing a philological foundation for further research on the Daba script, and related comparative studies. Keywords: Daba Script; Gemu; Wujiao Village; Lunar Mansion; Script Interpretation Povzetek Koledarji Daba so edina znana pisna besedila dabaizma. Od prvega poročila iz leta 1940 do danes je nastalo nekaj nepovezanih študij, ki niso povsem odgovorile na nekatera hermenevtična vprašanja v zvezi s pisavo Daba. Članek podaja razlago enega izmed koledarjev Daba in temelji na izsledkih terenske raziskave. Obravnavani koledar se imenuje "Gemu" in izhaja iz vasi Wüjiäo (MW). Ta različica koledarja je starejša od primerljivih, ki so predstavljene in klasificirane v Song (2003). Pričujoča študija poglobljeno predstavi značilnosti pisave Daba in konteksta, v katerem je to besedilo nastalo, in se uporablja še dandanes. Članek lahko služi tudi kot filološka osnova za nadaljnje raziskave pisave Daba in s tem povezanih študij. Ključne besede: pisava Daba; Gemu; vas Wujiao; lunarne lože; interpretacija pisave Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 6(2), 2016. ISSN: 2232-3317, http://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/ala/ DOI: 10.4312/ala.6.2.53-67 1 Introduction Daba script used to write down calendars is the only written literature of Dabaism discovered so far. Dabaism is the local religion of Na People living on the border between Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces in South-West China. Dabaism shares the same origin with Dongbaism, another local religion of Naxi People living in Lijiang (Mtt) area, Yunnan Province. Their different designations are due to dialectal differences between Na and Naxi. Dabaism derives from the local word for their priests, "Daba". Similarly, Dongbaism is derived from the word "Dongba", referred to their priests, in Naxi language.1 Dabaism, attested in Hengduan Mountains, for a long time has been considered as an eastern branch of Dongbaism without writings (cf. Li, 1984, p. 38; He & Jiang, 1985, p. 117).2 The earliest literature records of Daba script available now is by Zhuang Xueyou in 1940 on a Journal entitled Liang You (fe^) (Good Friend). However, it was just a bulletin reporting that Moso People have pictograms, without any detail about what kind of pictograms they are (cf. Song, 2003, p. 86). Inspired by that report, Song Zhaolin (went to Moso area and collected one Daba calendar in 1963 in Yöngn^ng Township, N^ngläng County, Yunnan Province. However, Song Zhaolin had not the opportunity to do research in depth until 2000 (cf. Song, 2003, p. 86). Basing on his field work data in 2000 in Lugu Lake area, four versions of Daba calendars from four villages have been reported by him. Moreover, three among them are presented with a systematic interpretation for each symbol in Song (2003). Some other scholars have also considered the Daba calendar as the bearer of Daba symbols since 1980s. Yang (1994, pp. 32-35) wrote a brief report on this topic based on his first-hand field work data. In the paragraph of the book about a comparative study on Tibetan Buddhism among Tibetan People, Naxi People, and Pumi People, the author has shown a figure with 32 symbols, interpreted by him one-by-one. In the summer of 2010, Zhao Liming conducted a long field work following Song Zhaollin's suggestions. She has collected the latest information on the existing written texts of various ethnic groups living on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces. Later on, in the National Social Science Fund Project "Interpretation and Rescue of Endangered Scripts and Bibliographies in Southwest China" (10&ZD123) advised by her, I was in charge of the interpretation of Daba script. From January 2011 to January 2015, I have fulfilled several field work trips to the Daba and Dongba areas. The preliminary data presented in this paper have been collected during my two field work trips in 2011 from Wujiao (MW) Village, Wujiao (MW) Township, MulT (^M) County, Sichuan Province. 1 Na is now listed as an independent language (ISO 639-3: nru), while Naxi is coded as ISO 639-3: nxq. In China, however, they are considered dialects of the same language: Na is the eastern branch of Naxi language. 2 Distinguished from Dabaism, Dongbaism has a relatively mature writing system known as Dongba hieroglyphs (cf. Li et al., 1972). Wujiao Village has a population of around 300 people, composed of Mongolian and Yi nationalities. The endonym of those Mongolian People living there is [naJhTH]. Their language resembles to Naxi language. In other words, they are in fact Na People, the eastern branch of Naxi People, but not a branch of the Mongolian linguistic milieu.'3 Dabaism and Tibetan Buddhism coexist in Wujiao Village. There were six Daba priests and seven Lama priests (the Tibetan Buddhism monks) during my field work. 2 Literature Review Yang (1994, pp. 32-35) presents an interpretation of 32 Daba glyphs4 including: pronunciation of the glyph in local language transcribed by Chinese characters, the literal meaning of each glyph, and the divination meaning of the glyph. In this interpretation, nine glyphs are related to animals, seven are related to sex, four are related to stars, four are related to human body parts, two represents diseases, other two heterogeneous notions / items (No. 6: wealth/property and No. 25: poisonous food). Four other glyphs are not yet interpreted. The divination meanings are simply auspicious, ominous, or neutral, except for one glyph representing auspicious if there is a battle and ominous if it is a normal day. In his short conclusion, Yang has pointed out some characteristics of these Daba glyphs: 1) these glyphs are assigned to the days around one year without apparent links to the dates; 2) the pronunciations of the glyphs are mainly ancient Moso language, which is merely understood by current people; 3) the knowledge of these glyphs and the calendars are held only by a few elder Daba priests, not approachable by common people. Song Zhaolin's interpretation of Daba script is a work based on each calendar. He presented the glyphs used for 28 days in the first month with 1) the pronunciation(s) of the glyph(s) in one grid of the calendar by Chinese characters, 2) the meaning(s) of the word(s), 3) the day is auspicious, ominous, or neutral, 4) the suitable activities and not suitable actions on that day. The three versions of Daba calendars interpreted in Song (2003) include two types: each day represented by either one glyph or two glyphs. The calendar with single glyphs for each day contains 28 different glyphs. The calendar with double glyphs for each day is a combination of these 28 glyphs with some other glyphs. The calendar written with the 28 single glyphs is considered the more aboriginal type. Applying the "Liu Shu" theory on the analysis of Daba script, Song Zhaolin 3 Na People have been recognized as Mongolian People during the official census of nationalities in China in 1950s, which has been a mistake. Naxi People, in their turn, have been named according to their endonym [na^qiH] (He & Jiang, 1985, p. 2). 4 In Yang (1994, pp. 32-35), Daba glyphs are defined as "picto-glyph" (tühuä wenzi 5 "LiU Shü" theory is a traditional philological theoretical framework aimed at the analysis of the composition of Chinese characters proposed by XÜ Shen (W^) (58-147 AD), a scholar from Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). According to this theory, Chinese characters can be divided into six categories based on the six manners they were created: xiängx^ngzl ^^^ (pictograms), zhishizi im ^^ (simple indicatives), huiyizi (compound indicatives), x^ngshengzl (phono- has concluded that most of the glyphs are pictograms (xiängx^ng and simple indicatives (zhTshi Moreover, he claims that the Daba glyphs are characters6 according to three factors: 1) they have stable shapes; 2) these glyphs can write down the relatively complicate calendar, which has different contents for 360 days per year; 3) the glyphs in Daba calendars are widely recognized and used by Daba priests. Compared to Dongba writing, however, Daba script shows to be less mature as a writing system. The author listed three reasons: 1) pictograms are much more than simple indicatives; 2) variants of glyphs are spotted among different calendars; 3) these characters are used only to write down Daba calendars, not applicable to write down other Daba classics. Yang (1994) and Song (2003) are two important references in the study of Daba script. Being pioneer researches on this topic, they have discovered the existence of Daba script and have provided a general idea of this pictographic writing. However, there is still need to work in-depth on the glyphs. For example, Chinese and Na have quite different phonemic systems. Therefore, the transcription of the pronunciations of the glyphs in Na by Chinese characters is not accurate enough as source. Moreover, due to inaccurate transcription, it is difficult to find out the relationship of the glyphs meaning with the daily vocabulary. This could lead to misinterpretation of these glyphs.7 Further on, an unclear point in these two reports is the number of Daba characters. Song (2003) seems to count on the Daba calendars themselves, since he has provided scanned copies of Daba calendars. Conversely, the 32 Daba glyphs displayed in Yang (1994, p. 32) could be a combined elicitation from two versions of Daba calendars. In other words, the single glyph set used in Daba calendars contains 28 units. However, the number of the additional glyphs set was not clarified by Song (2003). Instead, Song has stated the total number of the glyphs appearing in double glyph calendars as it results from this sentence: "_it has several more characters, more than 30 pictographs in all" (Song, 2003, p. 90). According to his interpretation of data, the meanings of this additional set of glyphs include "throat", "sun", "moon", "eye", "palm", "throat", and "nose". The words for the two "throats" are different. Nevertheless, that was not explained in the paper. Xu (2013) is a preliminary study on the philological issues of Daba script. Three versions of Daba calendars from three different villages have been systematically analyzed. Comparing forms, pronunciations, and meanings of the glyphs, the author established some relevant hermeneutic points: 1) Daba script should be configured as a kind of ancient conventional symbols (Istrin, 1987, p. 77), at the earliest stage of the local semantic compound characters), jiajiezi (phonetic loans), and zhuänzhüzi (derived characters). Cf. Xu (2001, p. 314) and Boltz (1993, pp. 432-433). 6 In Song (2003), Daba glyphs are defined as "pictographic characters" (xiängxing wenzi 7 For example, the third symbol in the first calendar sounds as bäokuäi (transcribed into Chinese pinyin) and is interpreted as "the penis of the goat" Song (2003, p. 86). However, according to my knowledge of Na language, the first syllable could be "frog" and the second is "mouth". Therefore, the compound word means the "the mouth of the frog". writing; 2) the original Daba script contains 28 symbols representing the lunar mansions in Daba tradition; 3) some loan-symbols are likely to be derived from Tibetan Buddhism. In order to clarify obscure points in the current available academic publications on Daba script, it is necessary to provide a more accurate description and interpretation of Daba writing, and of its bearer, Daba calendar, as well. In this paper, I will apply a linguistic perspective in order to try to understand the meanings of Daba symbols according to the local language. 3 Interpretation of Gemu from Wujiao Village The specific Daba calendar interpreted in this paper is from Wujiao (MW) Village, Wujiao (MW) Township, MulT (^M) County, Sichuan Province. The calendar is about 40 cm in length and 18 cm in height. It consists of six pages, with the symbols written by calligraphic brush from the left to the right. It is a single symbol type of calendar (as stated by Song (2003)), where each day is written through a (only one) corresponding symbol. The Daba priest preserving the calendar is called Dawa. Dawa was born in 1929, and passed away in 2012. According to the interview with him, the calendar is entitled [kmHmyH] "Gemu", literally means "the book of the stars". The first segment "ge" means "star" and the second segment "mu" means "book". It has been handed down from his ancestors. Dawa spent in Wujiao Village all his life. This Daba calendar was firstly interpreted by me with the cooperation of Daba ^wo, the son of Daba Dawa, during my field work in January 2011. Daba Awo is born in 1967. He is one of the most knowledgeable Daba priests in Wujiao Village. He started to learn Daba culture since he was 10 years old following Daba Dawa. When he was 21 years old, he started to conduct rituals by himself. The recorded data and interpretation have been checked with him again during my field work in July 2011 in Wujiao village. Having noticed that the glyphs are repeated every 28 units, I have inferred they correspond to the 28 lunar mansions in Daba culture. I numbered the first cycle in the first month from 1 to 28 according to the star groups Daba Awo has divided during the interpretation work. Later on, in order to understand completely the constellation system, I have compared the Daba symbols with Dongba stars documented in academic publications. Since Dongba stars have been equated to Chinese and Western astronomical designations, I had the opportunity to connect these Daba mansions with those 28 lunar mansion systems from other main stream cultures, including Chinese, Tibetan, and Indian. The detailed comparison can be found in Xu (2015). In this paper, I annotate directly the correspondences of the 28 lunar mansions with the Chinese lunar mansions and the western designations for the stars or asterisms, if applicable, in order to provide a more comprehensive scenario of Daba lunar mansions represented by Daba glyphs. The interpretation presented below lists: 1) Daba glyph; 2) IPA transcription of the glyph's pronunciation in the Na language; 3) Chinese translation of the name of the specific lunar mansion represented by the related symbol; 4) literal meaning of the lunar mansion; 5) the corresponding Chinese lunar mansion or star;8 6) the Western designation of the lunar mansion or star; 7) IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyph;9 8) word-by-word gloss; 9) translation of the whole sentence; 10) my conclusive remarks on the suitable and non-suitable activities on that day. Figure 1: The First Page of Wujiao Daba Calendar 3.1 The "Human Being" Constellation Script 28^ Na p^^HmiH aiH4tH Chinese Pami (tt^) Nizhi (ffiM) Literal Meaning — — Chinese Lunar Mansion Hegu 2 Western Designation Altair (Aquila) IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyphs: (1) p^^H miH myH tc^iH leJ tc^iH t^eH tc^iJ. the day of Pami funeral etc. to discard to go Translation: (On the days of "Pami" and "Nizhi",) it is not allowed to celebrate funerals. If a funeral is celebrated, someone will die in the following day. Remarks: The day when "Pami" or "Nizhi" is "on duty" is not good for funerals. 8 I am providing the Chinese translations, since they are directly derived from field work notes. 9 The transcriptions record the tones and pronunciations of the words in sentences in order to provide more comprehensive picture of Na language. 3.2 The "Horse" Constellation Script CfO Na ^w^HkuH Chinese Mä Xing (^M) Literal Meaning star of horse Chinese Lunar Mansion Hüguä (mm) Western Designation Hugua (Delphinus) IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyph: (2) ^w^H tc^iH mA^ d^AJ, leH xwaH mA^ d^AJ. horse to sell not good to buy not good Translation: (On the day of "Ma Xing",) the exchanges of horses are not auspicious. Remarks: The day when Hugua is on duty is not good for horses' exchange. 3.3 The "Frog" Constellation Script 3^ 5. eO Na pAHk^wAH pAHd^uH džuHkuJ pAHkuJp^uJ Chinese WäzuT Xing (M^M) Waniao Xing (MÄM) ShuT Xing (^M) Baiwa Xing (ÖMM) Literal Meaning the mouth of frog the urine of frog the star of water a white star from the constellation "frog" Chinese Lunar Mansion Shi (^) Bi (S) Ku^ (^) Lou (^) Western Designation Markab and Scheat Algenib and Sirrah Legs Bond IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyphs: (3) gyJ boH xwaH bjeH d^A^, gyH p^oH baJ livestock p^oH bjeH to sow FUT. d^AJ, good to buy too good crop to sow crop buH tc^iH mAH d^AJ, bu^ tc^iH mAH d^AJ, xwaH bjeH mAH d^AJ. bull to sell not good yak to sell not good to buy FUT. not good Translation: (On the days of "Wazui Xing", "Waniao Xing", "Shui Xing", and "Baiwa Xing",) the exchanges of livestock are good. It is also auspicious to work in the field. But the exchanges of bulls and yaks are not good. Remarks: During the days when stars/asterisms from the "Frog" Constellation are on duty, the exchanges of livestock are auspicious, except bulls and yaks. These are good days to sow and to work in the field. 3.4 The "Six Stars" Constellation Script 7X 8l§ Na q^^! t5K!gyHmiH Chinese "Kezha" Jiäo "Kezha"Shen Literal Meaning the horn of "Kezha" The body of "Kezha" Chinese Lunar Mansion Mäo (^) Western Designation Pleiades IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyphs: (4) gyH p^oH baJ p^oH mA^ d^AJ, gyJ boH seJ juH q^o! bjeH crop to sow crop to sow not good livestock blood to have to kill FUT. mAH d^AJ, d^uJ bi! hvH nžJ diJ d^A^, d^iJ giH not good mountain area wild animals to chase good money to look for bwaH giH biH d^AJ, ?aH boH gyJ boH q^o! biH mountain to look for FUT. good home livestock to kill FUT. laH mAH d^AJ, tc^iH biH laH mAH d^AJ. then not good to sell FUT. then not good Translation: (On the days of the "Kezha",) it is not good to sow and work in the field. The livestock with blood (mammals) cannot be killed. It is allowed to hunt. All the animals hunted from the mountains are good. To kill the household livestock (bulls, horses, sheep, and pigs) is not good (to other livestock at home). To sell them is not good either. Remarks: During the days when stars/asterisms from the "Six Stars" Constellation are on duty, it is not allowed to work in the field, either to kill or exchange livestock. They are good days for hunting. 3.5 The "Red Eye" Constellation Script Na ^jžJhvH Chinese Hongyän Xing Literal Meaning red eye Chinese Lunar Mansion Bi (S) Western Designation Aldebaran IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyph: (5) gyJ boH d^uJ bil hwAJ biJ mA^ livestock mountain area to shepherd to go not d^AJ, ^jäiJ hvH good eye red myH kuJ ?aH boh z>uJ qe! myH fire star home house to burn fire ^yJ tgAJ bk^ ži^. forest fire pay attention Translation: On the day of "Hongyan Xing", it is not allowed to bring livestock (bulls, horses, sheep, etc.) into the mountains; (people are not allowed to go into the mountains). On this day, people should pay attention to fire. Remarks: The day when "Hongyan Xing" is on duty, is not suitable to go into the mountains. It is a day to avoid fire. 3.6 The "Three Stars" Constellation Daba Awo explained this star group as the "sheep" constellation and did not give specific names of each star. The comparison with other Daba calendars and Dongba lunar mansions, from the perspectives of pronunciation and characters' shape, indicates the designation of the constellation as "three stars". Significant evidence is findable in the word pronunciation, since the first syllable in these Daba and Dongba lunar mansions means "three". In Naxi language, the word "three" is [suJ] (Li et al., 1972, p. 118, No. 1537), while in Na language the word "three" is [soH]. Moreover, the lunar mansions are depicted by three circles in Daba calendar. In Dongba writing, these lunar mansions are composed by three circles with additional symbols indicating the pronunciation of some syllables of the lunar mansions' names. Script 11. Ö 12. " © Na soJt^aHBoH soJt^aHIo^ soJt^aHtg^wAHmiH soJt^aHkuHp^uH Chinese Sänxlng Tou (HM^) Sänxlng Shou (HM^) Sänxlng "Chuöml" (HM"®^") Sänxlng BaixTng (HMÖM) Literal Meaning the stars of "sheep" Chinese Lunar Mansion Shen (#) Fa (^) --- Tiänlang XTng Western Designation Orion's Belt Orion's Broadsword --- Sirius IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyphs: (6) ? kH tsoH mAH ^iJ leJ 4tH d^A^, biH džoH leJ q^^^ mAH d^A^, what not COP. to get good outside EXIST. to give not good žuJ ts^t! ?wa^ ts^t! džA^, gyH p^oH baJ p^oH džAJ. house to build foundation to build good crop to sow crop to sow good zo^ kuH gyJ boH ?aH boh ^oH d^A^, d^iH ts^tJ sheep star livestock home to get back good money to come bwah by^ ?aH boh 4tH boh d^A^, leH tc^iH mAH d^A^. joH mountain many home to get back good to sell not good sheep tc^iH mAJ djA^. to sell not good Translation: (On the days of "Sanxing Tou", "Sanxing Shou", "Sanxing Chuoml", and "Sanxing Baixing",) it is good to get things and not good to give away things; it is good to build the houses and to establish the foundations of houses; it is good to sow and to work in the field. On the days of the constellation "sheep", it is good to buy livestock, to achieve big income; it is not good to sell sheep. Remarks: During the days when the stars/asterisms from the "Three Stars" Constellation are on duty, it is auspicious to take in instead of giving out stuff. They are days suitable to build up houses and to work in the fields. It is not auspicious to sell sheep. 3.7 The "Pheasant" Constellation Script 14. - Na hoHkuH Chinese Yeji Xing (^^M) Literal Meaning star of pheasant Chinese Lunar Mansion Gui (^) Western Designation Beehive Cluster IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyph: (7) buH gwAJ djA^, ^w^H gwAJ djA^, gyJ boH gwAl kuH djA^. bull to teach good horse to teach good livestock to teach star good Translation: (On the day of "Yeji Xing",) it is good to teach bulls and horses how to work. It is good to teach livestock that day. Remarks: The day in which "Yeji Xing" is on duty is suitable to tame livestock. 3.8 The "Hawk" Constellation Script 15^ Na kAJkuH Chinese YTng Xing (ÄM) Literal Meaning star of hawk Chinese Lunar Mansion Wudizuo Western Designation Denebola IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyph: (8) gyH p^oH baJ p^oH crop to sow crop to sow mAH d^AJ, k^yH g^T not good dog to pull m AH not d^AJ, good ciJ di^ d^AJ. to fish good gvJ boH livestock tc'iH to sell mAH not d^AJ, good XwaH to buy Translation: (On the day of "Ying Xing",) it is not good to sow or to work in the field; it is not good to buy or to sell livestock. Only fishing or hunting is suitable for that day. Remarks: The day in which "Ying Xing" is on duty, it is suitable to fish and to hunt. It is not allowed to grow crop, to work in the field, or to exchange livestock. 3.9 The "Pig" Constellation Script 16^ 17^ a- 18. Na boJk^wAH boJdžuH boJmaH Chinese ZhüzuTXing Zhüniao Xing (muM) Zhüyou Xing (m^M) Literal Meaning the mouth of pig the urine of pig the fat of pig Chinese Lunar Mansion Xuanyuan Sh^sl Xuanyuan Sh^'er Taiweiyouyuan Western Designation Regulus Algieba Two among a Leo, i Leo, 6 Leo, and 5 Leo IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyphs: (9) bo^ tc^iH mAH d^AJ q^oT mAH d^AJ, xwaH mAH d^AJ, tsoH pig to sell not good to kill not good to buy not good what mAH ^iJ džA^. not COP. good Translation: (On the days of "Zhuzui Xing", "Zhuniao Xing", and "Zhuyou Xing",) it is not good to sell pigs, to kill pigs, or to buy pigs. All the others things are good to be done. Remarks: During the days when the stars/asterisms from the "Pig" Constellation are on duty, everything is allowed to be done, except to exchange or to kill pigs. 3.10 The "Mdzo" Constellation Daba Awo did not give the explanation for syllable [zU], I gloss it as "mdzo" according to the results of comparisons with my field work data from other villages and other studies on Dongba lunar mansions (cf. Xu, 2015, pp. 70-71). Script 19. ** 20. i 22. 23. A Na ziJ^VH ziJüH ziJ^jäjH ziJgvH Chinese Piänniü Si Piänniü Jiao Piänniü Er Piänniü Yan («^®) Piänniü Zhang Literal Meaning four sides of mdzo the horn of mdzo the ear of mdzo the eye of mdzo the foot of mdzo Chinese Lunar Mansion The area between Jiao (^) and Ji (^) Western Designation The area between the Horn mansion (Spica) to Winnowing Basket IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyphs: (10) d^AJ, (ztJ q^^H) ^^J ts^t! foundation flat good mdzo horn column to build kuH star džA^. good Translation: (On the days of "Pianniu Si", " Pianniu Jiao", " Pianniu Er", " Pianniu Yan", and " Pianniu Zhang"), it is good to make the foundation of houses flat. It is good to erect columns on the day of " Pianniu Jiao". (Nothing is forbidden during these days.) Remarks: During the days when the stars/asterisms from the "Mdzo" Constellation are on duty, it is allowed to build the foundation of the houses. During the day in which "Piänniü Jiao" is on duty, it is good to erect the columns. Nothing is forbidden. 3.11 The Unknown Constellation (HüzuT Xing (^^M) and Roushi Xing They are two local 'original' stars. It has not yet been possible to find reliable parallels in Dongba culture and other major cultures. Script 24.^ 25> Na la]hy]k^wA] 1 gAJdztJdy] Chinese Huzui Xing (^^M) Röush^ Xing Literal Meaning the star of tiger's mouth the star of carnivore Chinese Lunar Mansion -- Western Designation -- IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyphs: (11) fa]tso] what mA] not ^iJ mA] COP. not džA^. ?a] Bo] gyJ by] good other livestock džAJ, loJ by] džAJ, k^y] g^T ciJ di^ good incantation to chant good dog to pull to fish se] žu] tc^i] bje] mA] džAJ, q^oT blood to have to sell FUT. not good to kill bje] FUT. mA] džAJ, not good Xwa] to buy bje] too m A] not džAJ. good Translation: (On the days of "Huzui Xing" and "Roushi Xing",) nothing is good to be done except chanting incantations in order to expel ghosts, and pulling dogs (to hunt) and fishing. It is not good to sell livestock, to buy livestock, or to kill livestock. Remarks: During the days when "Huzui Xing" and "Roushi Xing" are on duty, it is allowed to chant spells to expel ghosts and to hunt. Nothing else is allowed, especially exchanging and/or killing livestock. 3.12 The Unknown Constellation (Tou Xing (^M) and Wei Xing (MM)) Script 26. 27^ Na 5wK]q^WA] m^Jq^wA] Chinese Tou Xing (^M) Wei Xing (MM) Literal Meaning the head star the tail star Chinese Lunar Mansion JI (Ä) Dou (4) Western Designation Winnowing Basket Dipper IPA transcription of the divination comments of the glyphs: (12) žaJ +a] džAJ, b^uJ tc^i] mA] džAJ. ts^uJ ku] tc^i] others good goat to sell not good goat star to sell Xwa] bje] mA] džAJ, to buy to go not good ?a] Bo] leJ po] ži] džA^. home to bring back good bje] mA] go not džAJ, good Translation: (On the day of "Tou Xing" and "Wei Xing",) there is nothing bad, except to sell goats or to buy goats. It is good to bring back home stuff. Remarks: During the days when "Tou Xing" and "Wei Xing" are on duty, it is good to bring stuff into the house, not good to exchange goats. Nothing else is forbidden. 4 Conclusion The present study aims to be a primary source for philological documentation and research on Daba script, with an accurate transcription and introduction of field word data. After having reviewed the available academic studies on Daba script, I pointed out the need of a detailed report describing Daba script. In the third section of this work, I have presented the interpretation of Daba script from an old Daba calendar, Gemu, from Wujiao Village. This is a single-symbol Daba calendar, indeed the most original kind of calendar according to the classification established by Song (2003, p. 86). Daba calendar is used by the priests in order to select auspicious days for rituals. Therefore, it can be classified into hemerology among different types of calendars. During the field work in which I have tried to decipher these glyphs, I noticed that Daba priests recite by heart the 28 lunar mansions names in a certain order, rather than reading them one-by-one. In other words, they depend more on their memory of the star system than on the written texts. The designations are relatively fixed according to the related positions among these 28 glyphs. This explains why the visual representation of the same lunar mansion could be different among the villages. This is the first report introducing all-embracing information on Daba glyphs and Daba calendar (in its different versions). It provides an exact transcription of the glyphs' pronunciations and religious prescriptions in the local language, with Chinese and English glosses and translations. Moreover, it lists all the divination prescriptions related to the 28 lunar mansions in Daba context. Daba culture has developed a specific and original methodology in choosing stars/asterisms in order to calculate the dates. Interpreting this traditional system, I have annotated the corresponding Chinese lunar mansions and their Western designations as well. This can help in identifying Daba script and the lunar mansions recorded by these ideograms in their whole cultural background, considering also their relationships with lunar mansions/stars in other (related and unrelated) cultures. References Boltz, W. (1993). Shuo wen chieh tzu In M. Loewe (Ed.), Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide (pp. 429-442). Early China Special Monograph Series No. 2. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China, and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California. Istrin, V. (1987). Vozniknoveniye i razvitiye pis'ma [The Emergence and Development of Writing]. (S. Zuo [^^X], Trans.). Beijing Beijing Daxue Chubanshe [^Ä^^^ He, J. [^^t], & Jiang, Z. [^^ft] (1985). 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