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.

This research bases on primary sources written in Sinograph and Nôm (vernacular Vietnamese script) by scholars in premodern Vietnam, to make a pedagogical analysis on the role of the Sanzijing (三字經) in Literary Sinitic education in premodern Vietnam. Thus, this paper claims, the study of the civil service examination in premodern Vietnam should be covered from its starting point, the primary level, to fill the gap of a partial concern by modern scholars of the high level.

The logic premise and discipline foundation of the construction of Chinese graphology are the unique attributes of the Chinese character system. The most basic feature of the Chinese character is “single character”. The number of “single characters” is as many as hundreds, and their long-history uninterrupted use makes the standardization of the Chinese characters quite essential. The essence of Chinese characters system is ideographic .While the function of single characters or isolated language structure, as recorded in the process of Chinese characters using history, is sometimes to differentiate, which can be taken as a complement with grammatical means. Based on this, Chinese graphology has its independent research object and scope that is the structure ontology and the structure use. This provides that the Chinese character is not only a basic discipline, but also an applied discipline. Under certain historical conditions, it can even become a “famous school”. The research of Chinese characters will inevitably involve two levels, the body and the use of the characters. Phonography does not have such attributes as Chinese characters, so it can not be a specific object of study. As a phonetic character, the number must be very limited, and can be marked for all words. The definition of the properties of the character is unclear, and the object and scope of study is vague, which makes the study of the relations between “Chinese character” and “words” a problem during the process of Chinese characters study.

This paper aims to explore the understanding and evolution of the concept of ‘truth’ (眞 理) in the earliest stages of Chinese history on the basis of oracle bone script zhen (貞) and the inscriptions zhen (眞). It further aims to prove that zhen (貞) and zhen (眞) are cognate words. ‘Truth’ in English is commonly translated as zhen (眞) in Chinese. However, it is not easy to find an intersection between two notions of ‘truth’ in the early stage of Eastern and Western culture in spite of a great deal of controversies over the notions in sinological studies, since there was almost no cultural exchange between the East and the West before the modern era. After the nineteenth century, with the expansion of the Western power, Westerners attempted to understand the manifold ways of Eastern thought. Thus, many concepts that were dominant in Western thinking were transplanted in many areas of Eastern thinking; the concept of ‘truth’ (眞理) is such a case. The Western concept of ‘truth’ (眞理) pursues correspondence theory, based on the dichotomy of true and false. Based on this idea, many Western scholars still claim that the notion of ‘zhen’ used in Chinese classical texts can not be equated with “truth” used in Europe and Anglo-American dominant philosophy. Therefore, I would like to return to the primitive sense of truth in the oracle bone script, explore the pre-theoretic understanding of truth before concrete forms of knowledge such as Confucianism and Buddhism were introduced, to show the interconnectedness of zhen (眞) and zhen (貞). Traditional interpretations of zhen (眞) can be roughly classified into three types: ‘a Daoist ascetic with miraculous powers’ (神仙)(see Xu Shen, Duan Yucai, et al.); ‘treasure’ (see Tang Lan, Ma Xulun, Zhou Fangfu, He Linyi, etc), and ‘death as unchanging status’ (see Shirakawa). Among these, the first version of zhen has been considered most authentic, because Shuowen Jiezi《說文解字》, the first authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters, defines zhen (眞) as “a Daoist hermit transforming shape and ascending into Heaven ( 僊人變形而登天也)” with Daoist connotations. Such interpretations, though dominent, were based on Xiaoshuan and did not seem to include closer investigations of zhen (貞), the older form of zhen (眞), based on recently unearthed literatures. Though contemporary archaeological studies provide evidence of more ancient origins, it is difficult to extract the original sense from the primitive script of zhen (貞), because it was only used as the name of a place or a person. This paper thus follows several hypotheses: 1. zhen (眞) is cognate with zhen (貞); 2. zhen (貞) in oracle bone script means ‘to ask Heaven questions from signs or omens obtained by burning tortoise shells or animal bones’ and a person in charge of performing a divination rituals’ is known as a diviner(zhenren ‘貞人’); 3. zhen (貞) was specified into zhen (眞); 4. Under the influence of Daoism during the early Han Dynasty, zhen (眞) was defined as ‘a Daoist hermit’ (神仙), and then acquired the meaning of truth after the introduction of Buddhism. The strategies of the paper are as follows: firstly I will analyze zhen (眞) by breaking it into its component characters and trace back its original forms and senses of zhen in oracle bone scripts; secondly, I will examine its usage in the ancient literatures based on phonetic and semantic patterns; finally I will try to place possible coordinates of ‘truth’ among constellations of various meanings of zhen (貞) and zhen (眞).

Expression type for mixed-use of Dongba characters can be divided into dominant type and parallel type. Causes for mixed-use includes three points: 1. similar or compatible patterns are the precondition for mixed-use; 2. certain relation exists among semantics of words represented by characters, or characters belong to the same classification in terms of meaning or have correlative meanings; 3. outcome is obtained during self-adjustment transitional stage of internal character of writing system. There are three solutions to solve the problem of similar characters: 1. re-distribution of characters’ functions; 2. integration of characters; 3. reconstruction of expression which is embodied in two aspects, including ideographical and phonetic expression transited from ideographical expression to additional phonetic complement, and transition from ideographical expression to pure phonetic expression.