The custom of Nvshu

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: female script custom

Applicant: Jiangyong County, Hunan Province

Item No.: 517

Project No.: Ⅹ - 69

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Hunan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Jiangyong County, Hunan Province

Protection unit: Jiangyong Cultural Heritage Protection Center

A brief introduction to the custom of Nvshu:

Applicant: Jiangyong County, Hunan Province

Jiangyong County is located in the southern border of Hunan Province, adjacent to Guilin in Guangxi in the West and south, and is subordinate to Yongzhou City. Jiangyong women's script is popular in the area of shangjiangwei (including shangjiangwei Town, Tongshanling farm and some surrounding villages) with a population of only 20000 in Jiangyong County. The county's Xiaopu Town, Qianjiadong Yao Township, Yunshan Town, huangjialing Township and other places have also spread female script in history, but it disappeared 60 years ago.

Jiangyong women's script is the only existing gender script in the world - women's script. Its development, inheritance and cultural information as a symbol constitute the custom of women's script. Women's script is a long diamond shape with fine and even strokes, which looks like mosquitoes and ants. It is called "long foot mosquito character" or "ant character" in folk. Because it is specially used by women, it is called "women's script" in academic circles. Jiangyong Nvshu is an ancient writing, which has been recognized by experts and scholars. However, because there are no ancient cultural relics in the Nvshu and it is not recorded in the historical records, the origin of the Nvshu can not be determined.

The language recorded in Nvshu is the distinctive Yongming dialect in the popular area of Nvshu. It has unique means and methods of marking language, which can be borrowed by homophony. With only 400 characters, it can write more than 1000 characters of seven character rhyme. Nvshu is passed down from generation to generation by means of family transmission and mutual education between relatives and friends. It is closely integrated with women's unique marriage, festivals, temple fairs and other folk activities Since then, it has fully demonstrated its function and value. Therefore, women's script has important research value in the fields of linguistics, history, archaeology, anthropology, women's studies, folklore, sociology, aesthetics, national cultural history and folk literature.