Nvshu Customs
01 · Historical Records
Nüshu was once also current in places such as Xiaopu Town, Qianjiatong Yao Ethnic Township, Yunshan Town and Huangjialing Township of the county, but it disappeared from them one after another as early as sixty years ago. That the Nüshu of Jiangyong is an ancient script has already become the consensus of experts and scholars; however, because Nüshu has left no ancient artifacts and is not recorded in historical or gazetteer literature, the time of its origin cannot be determined.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Jiangyong County lies on the southern frontier of Hunan Province; its west and south border the Guilin area of Guangxi, and it belongs to Yongzhou City. The Nüshu script is long-rhomboid in shape, with thin, even strokes that resemble mosquitoes or ants; among the people it was called the long-legged-mosquito script or the ant script, and because it was used exclusively by women, the academic world came to call it 'Nüshu' (women's script). The language Nüshu records is the distinctive Yongming local dialect of the region where it circulated; its means and methods of marking language are peculiar, allowing homophonic substitution, so that with only about four hundred characters seven-character verse of a thousand or more characters can be written; Nüshu was passed down from generation to generation through family transmission and instruction among relatives and friends; it was closely integrated with folk activities peculiar to women, such as marriage customs, seasonal festivals and temple fairs, fully demonstrating its function and value.
Sitting in the song hall
Women sit facing each other in the hall, and the script is learned through antiphonal song.
The woven script band
A woven band carries greetings and family affairs, making dress a second carrier of the script.
Melodies of the women's songs
Melody outnumbers text, letting women who cannot read formal characters voice their concerns through song.
Ox-fighting festival and the mountain temple fair
Fairs and festivals become classrooms where occasion decides both what is written and how it is recited.
Teaching at the Jinghua women's school
The inheritor Jinghua founded a school for teaching, and her compositions became models for learners.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Nüshu of Jiangyong circulated in the area of Shangjiangxu in Jiangyong County, which has a population of only twenty thousand (including Shangjiangxu Town, Tongshanling Farm and a few nearby villages).
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Nüshu of Jiangyong is the world's only existing gender script — a script used exclusively by women; its development, its transmission, and the cultural information carried through it as a symbol together constitute the customs of Nüshu. Nüshu therefore holds important research value for many disciplines, including linguistics and philology, history, archaeology, anthropology, women's studies, folklore and sociology, as well as aesthetics, the history of ethnic culture and folk literature. He Jinghua (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in October 1934, a native of Jiangyong County, Hunan Province. She learned Nüshu from her mother from childhood. She is skilled at needlework, able to embroider many kinds of flowers and plants and to weave Nüshu patterned sashes; she excels at paper-cutting and can cut eighteen designs such as dragon and phoenix bringing auspiciousness, birds of joy singing of plum, and mandarin ducks playing in water; she can chant and recite ninety-six Nüshu songs, among them sixty-two tunes. She used the Nüshu script to record Nüshu life and customs and created more than fifty Nüshu works, including 'Jinghua Thinking of Her Departed Child' and 'Ten Thoughts of Dear Mother'; some of her works were published in Hunan Daily. She frequently transmits Nüshu culture at Nüshu custom festivities such as sitting-singing-hall gatherings, the bullfighting festival and the Huashan temple fair. She founded the Jinghua Nüshu Academy and has persisted in taking disciples and teaching. She is a representative inheritor of the Nüshu customs project of national-level intangible cultural heritage, in the fourth batch. She has participated in composing Nüshu literary and artistic works and in Nüshu promotional activities; the dance 'Song of Nüshu' in which she performed won the silver prize of the Sanxiang Qunxing Award at the second Hunan Provincial Arts Festival.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- He Jinghua 04-1971
- Hu Meiyue
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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