Rather than being representations of a single graphic community at one particular time or place, Zhuang traditional manuscripts often show signs of internal dialect variation, as well readings derived from different historical strata of Chinese. Readings from different historical strata are discussed at some length in the author’s recent Mapping the Old Zhuang Character Script (Brill, 2013) and ‘A Layer of Old Chinese Readings in Traditional Zhuang Manuscripts’ (BMFEA 2015). In this article, I propose to look specifically at internal dialect variation. By internal dialect variation I mean that the characters or vernacular graphs used to represent the words in the recitation of a text show signs of having come from other localities and other dialects. I demonstrate that this phenomenon is related to the migration of Zhuang populations and social strata, as well as the circulation of texts, and can often be shown to correlate with known historical events which precipitated the movement of peoples. Furthermore, traditional texts provide evidence of hitherto unsuspected population movements, both upstream and downstream and further afield. I use a specific text as an example here: the Hanvueng scripture, for which Professor Meng Yuanyao and I have recently published a critical edition (Hanvueng: The Goose King and the Ancestral King, Brill, 2015). The theoretical implication of this discussion is that the internal analysis of vernacular texts can be used as a tool for reconstructing the history of Zhuang communities.

摘要：壯族傳統方塊字是一種民間的文字系統，因地而異。但傳統文本的文 字並不都是一時一地的直接反映，而經常在同一個文本裏面給我們顯示不同歷史層 面的文字讀音與不同地點的方言土話。這些來源相雜的讀音未必是當地書主（摩公、 道公）所意識到的，而主要是通過口傳方式傳承過來並加以約定俗成的。不同歷史 層面的讀音在作者最近一部書與瑞典遠東博物館館刊一篇論文有較系統性的分析。 這裡反而要對代表不同方言土話的文詞現象作專門的論述。來自不同地域的文詞在 抄本裏面出現往往可以證明是跟歷史上的移民有關，有時候並可以跟具體的歷史事 件聯係起來，比如征戰、旱災、改土歸流、土兵屯居它鄉等。不但如此，而文本有 時給我們提供一些歷史文獻所未提及的有關族群遷移的信息。這裡要採用的個案為 廣西田州《漢皇》的摩公經書，此抄本業已由作者與廣西民大蒙元耀教授合編了註 釋本（Hanvueng: The Goose King and the Ancestral King, Brill, 2015）。通過分析得知
《漢皇》版本有不少貴州與桂北地區布依語相關的讀音，但居然也有來自桂西南南 壯土話的成分。理論方面可推斷，壯族民間文本分析可以當作重構壯族社群移民史 的有利工具。

1. Introduction
 2. Discovery: the Donglan Manuscript
 3. Mixed Character of Zhuang Traditional Manuscripts
 4. Performative Literacy
 5. The Hanvueng manuscript and the Tianzhou system
 6. Local Pronunciations
 7. Readings from Pinghua and Southwestern Mandarin
 8. Readings from the Bouyei and the North
 9. Readings from Bouyei
 10. Readings from the South
 11. Either North or South
 12. Historical Background
 13. Wider Implications
 NOTES
 References
 List of Abbreviations
 <中文摘要>

• David HOLM(Department of Ethnology, National Chengchi University, Taipei 11605, Taiwan) | 賀大衛