A Study On Xixia Orthography

The existence of numerous variants and errors in Xixia characters brings lots of inconveniences to studying its literature. The aim of the present paper, titled A study on Xixia Orthography , is to give out a comprehensive and systematic collation of Xixia characters, so as to supply the academic circles with a whole set of standardized writing forms in Xixia ,and meanwhile, to solve the problem of its quantity that has been contentious for a long time.The Xixia characters, as the signs recording the language of Tangut, the principal ethnic group in Xixia,have their upright forms and complicated composition. It is shown by their structure that the Xixia characters were made out under the influence of ripe Chinese regular scripts,but the former only derived the fundamental strokes and composition methods from the latter, and, by the language and thinking mode of the Tangut themselves, realigned the formal elements of the so-called horizontal, vertical, left-falling, dot and turning strokes, thus we can say that the Xixia and Chinese characters are seemingly in harmony but actually at variance. The Xixia characters, not made without foundation and not used for a long time (1036 - 1502) , are not varied greatly. The fundamental scripts of Xixia characters is the regular script, and their auxiliary scripts are the cursive hand,or the official and seal characters in particular. For the abundance of the Xixia literature preserved, and for the nature of our study, the prewent paper in based on nine Xixia original dictionaries published recently, i. e. , the Tongyin, Wenhai Baoyun , Tongyin Wenhai Baoyun Hebian , Fanhan Heshi Zhangzhongzhu , Sancai Zazi, Zuan-yao, Tongyi, Wuyin Qieyun, Xinji Suijin Zhizhangwen (relying mainly on Tongyin, Wenhai and on xylographs). Besides, other Xixia literatures of Buddhism or Non-Buddhism are not involved for the time being(only few of them are quoted as collateral evidences) . Drawing lessons from the principles and methods.of ancient Chinese orthography, and according to the evolutional laws of Xixia characters themselves, we draft a set of tentative principles and methods for the collation of the Xixia characters, the former including "common practice", "typeface formation"and "script series",the latter including "making choice"and "making splitting".The kernel of the whole paper is reflected in lists so as to be convenient for reading and counting . The reason for dividing in to three Orthographic lists is to have a capacityof characters in different origin. In the top of the Orthographic Lists there marked"sum of the scripts "and"sum of the kinds", the former means that different characters are determined by different scripts,the latter means that different kinds of character are determined not only by different scripts,but also by different formational elements. Thus the sum of the Xixia characters is just that of the kinds of character. The characteristics of the origin of scripts in every list is as the following:Orthographic List I--Every kind of character is proved by two or more materials; if some of them are seldom seen,evidences from Tongyin or Wenhai must be quoted.Orthographic List II--Charcters only met in Tongyin , Wenhai or Hebiantbigcharcters,or charcters to be explained)are quoted singly,or those met in the nine dictionaries, besides the three ones,are proved by other Buddhist or Non-Buddhist materials.Orthographic List III--Charcters are met only in the nine dictionaries bisidesTongyin , Wenhai and Hebian ,or in the commentary parts of the three dictionaries.In the three list above, there are 6066 forms of character, including 169variants and 36errors,and 5861 kinds of character (correct ones) in sum.Investigation shows some evident laws and features in the variants and errors of Xixia characters.The features of variants: 1) the interchangement of radicals, in which the left-right formation is changed into the up-down one,or the up-down formation into the left-right one,e.g. , 2) slight difference of strokes, making a great number of Xixia varia...