/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/HISTORY-CHINA: Ancient Script Throws Light into Little-known Dynasty

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Antoaneta Bezlova

YINCHUAN, China, Jul 18 2000 (IPS) - The enigma of the Western Xia Dynasty, which ruled over much of Central China nearly 800 years ago and was wiped out by Genghis Khan’s hordes, has fascinated scholars all over the world for centuries.

Yet its secrets remained out of reach, as the unique script Xia people used to record their life, was a puzzle to archaeologists and linguists.

Now a Chinese linguist, professor Li Fanwen, one of the few in the world who understands this dead language, has made a breakthrough toward solving some of the riddles posed by the mysterious civilization. This he has done by producing the first complete dictionary to translate the Xia script.

The Western Xia Dynasty, or what is generally known in English as the Tangut empire, left behind a group of unique mausoleums and tombs which are like nothing else found in China or Central Asia. Nine pyramid-like tombs for the Xia emperors and 200 attendant tombs are scattered over a stony plain in Ningxia province, some 880 km west of Beijing.

The site, on the Yinchuan plain, contains also the ruins of an imperial palace, covering an area of 10 hectares. Archaeologists, who began excavations only in 1987, believe the palace was built by the founder of the Tangut kingdom, Emperor Li Yuanhao. The Tanguts were Tibetans and Buddhists. They dominated the northern branch of the ancient Silk Road and had a major impact on the neighbouring Song, Liao and Jin states. Their kingdom was believed to have flourished from 928 to 1227 until it was finally destroyed by Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol empire, in his last military campaign.

The Tanguts were so utterly wiped out by the Mongol mounted troops that the region has since been known as Ning Xia or ‘Extermination of the Xia’.

Over the centuries, scholars have attempted to decipher the unique script the Xia left behind. They hoped it would yield vital clues, not only about the tombs but about all aspects of life during the Western Xia dynasty.

The script was compiled in a dictionary known as the Tongyin. This was first published in 1129, but disappeared after the Mongol invasion in 1227. It was rediscovered in 1907 in Gansu province, and 10 years later Chinese historian Luo Zhenyu found a copy in Japan.

In 1932 Luo’s son announced he had deciphered 146 characters of the script. Later, Japanese scholars reported they had succeeded in ‘decoding’ another 1,000.

The big breakthrough, however, was made by Li Fanwen, who in 1997 announced he had published the first complete dictionary with all 5,800 characters and even the correct phonetics. This labour took him nearly 30 years, and was marked with many personal sacrifices.

Professor Li, a soft-spoken man in his 70s, started his career studying Tibetan at the Central Academy of Minority Studies in Beijing. But before he even graduated, he became a victim of Mao Zedong’s anti-rightist campaign. In 1957 he was expelled from the Communist Party and sent to a labour camp.

Years of tumultuous political campaigns followed. As an anti- party element, he was singled out in each campaign. In the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), Professor Li, then at Ningxia Normal University, was repeatedly beaten at rallies and paraded through the streets wearing a dunce’s hat.

He says he only escaped death due to a chance remark uttered by late premier Zhou Enlai in 1972 when he toured the Chinese Museum of History. Zhou reportedly passed an exhibit about the Western Xia and said it would be a pity if no one ever understood what was written in this dead language.

“At the time there were only two other elder scholars who understood Tangut, both of whom were in labour camps,” says Professor Li. “Soon after Zhou’s remark, I was assigned to do the research.”

“First I studied the speech of the people who now live where the Dangxiang people (the Tibetan Tangut tribe) did to see what their language would be like if Han influences were removed,” he says. “Then I looked at the Xia texts for similarities.”

Nearly 95 percent of the recovered manuscripts are Buddhist sutras. From these it emerges that the Tangut society was a deeply religious society which followed the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

“There are hundreds of languages in the Tibet-Burmese group, but only a few scripts exist so the Tangut language is an important record,” says professor Gong Hwang-cheng of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan.

Understanding the script enabled professor Li to read grave inscriptions and draw up a chronicle of the reigns of the Tangut rulers. He discovered that the Western Xia dynasty — which never has been included in official histories of Chinese dynasties — flourished far longer than had been previously believed.

“In fact, it lasted more than 300 years, not 180, and it started in 881 AD,” he says. “Mongol Yuan dynasty historians deliberately shortened its record.”

Although the mystery of the script has been cracked, experts concede they still have much to learn about the Tangut society, and about its dress, architecture, customs and music. Yet Professor Li is pessimistic about the future of Tangut scholarship.

“Only 10 people in the world can read the language now,” he laments. “But there are no new students, so I can’t see what the future of Tangut scholarship can be.”