Xixia characters are square ideographic characters, which are divided into simplified characters and combined characters. There are few simplified words, and the combined words account for the vast majority. Among the combined words, there are the most easy-to-understand words similar to those of Chinese characters, and the most phonetic and semantic words similar to those of Chinese characters. For example, the word "mud" in Xixia language is synthesized from the parts of "water" and "earth" in Xixia language. Two-dimensional code is a unique word-making method in Xixia, which has its own characteristics.
In Xixia language, except for a few words made directly by writing elements, most of them are compound words Including six synthesis methods: knowing, sound and meaning, symmetry, interchange, anti-tangent and long sound. For example:
Syntactic synthesis: part of the word "water" in Xixia+the word "earth" to synthesize (mud)
Phonological and semantic synthesis method: a part pronounced as "Ling" in Xixia language and a part of the word "Si" in Xixia language are combined into Xixia language.
Interchange synthesis method: (refers to)-(toe)-(escape)-(service)
Symmetric synthesis method: (double) (lip) (middle) (score)
Backcut synthesis method: a part of Xixia characters pronounced as "wife" and a part of Xixia characters pronounced as "yin" are synthesized into Xixia characters with the surname of Qin of Han nationality.
Long sound synthesis method: use part of Xixia characters with "A" and part of Xixia characters with "Chang" to synthesize a long sound.
After the creation of Xixia characters, Yuan Haowen ordered the implementation of junior high schools and ordered the people to learn to use Tibetan books. The status of Xixia characters was established by decree. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a "Traditional Chinese Characters Academy" was established to select the children of Xixia nobles to teach and spread. Therefore, Xixia characters quickly became popular in Xixia kingdom. After the demise of Xixia, Xixia characters were still used by minority Tangut descendants until the middle of Ming Dynasty. Since then, it has been drowned by history and turned into a dead article. 1804 (9th year of Jiaqing, Qing Dynasty), after the discovery of the Gantong Pagoda Monument in the reconstruction of Huguo Temple in Liangzhou, scholars reconfirmed that this script was Xixia language which had already declined according to the comparison and dating of Chinese characters on the monument. In the 20th century, China made several major discoveries in historical documents and made major breakthroughs in many important fields of humanities, such as the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, Dunhuang stone carvings and a large number of bamboo slips. However, there is another important discovery that should be paid enough attention by academic circles, that is, the precious Xixia literature unearthed at the site of Heishuicheng in Xixia at the beginning of last century.
1908 and 1909, the Russian explorer kozlov organized two archaeological explorations of the Black Water City and found a large number of cultural relics and documents related to Xixia. The literature of Black Water City in Russia and Tibet is dominated by the literature of Western Xia Dynasty, with a large number of more than 8,000 numbers and thousands of volumes. There are more than 500 kinds of Xixia literature in Heishui City, among which there are nearly 100 kinds of secular literature alone. Before the 20th century, there was no Xixia literature in the world. In the 20th century, Xixia literature occupied a large proportion in medieval literature. It can be said that the discovery of Xixia literature in Heishui changed the distribution pattern of ancient books in China.
Stan, a famous British explorer, went to Heishui City for excavation in 19 14, and got many Xixia relics, which were kept in the British Museum. France's Pelliot and Sweden's Sven Hedin also got some Xixia documents, which were kept in Paris Library of France and Stockholm Ethnology Museum of Sweden respectively. In addition, both Indian and Vietnamese have some Xixia documents lost from China.
19 17 Many Buddhist scriptures in Xixia were discovered in Lingwu County (now Lingwu, Ningxia). Most of them are collected in the National Library of China, some in Ningxia and Gansu, and some are lost to Japan. These documents make the National Library of China the largest collection of Xixia documents in Tibet. After the founding of New China, many Xixia documents were found in Tieti Mountain, Dunhuang and Wuwei in Gansu, Yinchuan and Helan Mountain in Ningxia, Heishui City and Greentown in Inner Mongolia. Formed a treasure house of Xixia literature with Russian black water city literature as the main body and numerous collections at home and abroad. These documents are rare and of high academic value. As the key to the Xixia culture, it is very important to decipher Xixia language in an all-round way. After 25 years of painstaking research by Li, a famous scholar of Xixia studies, the first and only Xixia dictionary in China was published in 1997, which provided a "golden key" for deciphering Xixia language and opening the Xixia literature treasure house. In 2008, under the auspices of Li, The Concise Xia Han Shu was revised and published.
2012101-12 At the academic seminar on Xixia Studies held in Yinchuan, Zhang Yingsheng, a scholar of Xixia Studies at Ningxia University, held that "several generations of Chinese and foreign scholars have made a study of the physical correspondence between Xixia characters and Chinese characters, the basic elements of the form, sound and meaning of Xixia characters, and Xixia.
Du Fu, president of the Institute of Xixia Studies of Ningxia University, said: "In the 2nd/kloc-0th century, Xixia Studies will make extensive use of digital methods to build Xixia literature database, Xixia ruins database, Xixia cultural relics database and Xixia research database, and open them to academic circles." Under the famous Juyongguan in the northern suburb of Beijing, there is a beautiful white marble Yuntai, which is a national key cultural relics protection unit. There is a north-south arch coupon at the lower part of the Yuntai seat, and the door is more than 6 meters wide, so you can drive a horse. The inner wall of Yuntai Gate is also made of huge stones, engraved with six kinds of characters, arranged in two walls, with different shapes and calligraphy. Among them, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Basiba and Uighur have long been known, and there is also an unknown script. 1870, an Englishman, Wei Lie, determined that this script was 12 "Jurchen script" created by the Jin Dynasty. 12 years later, French scholar de Villea decided that this script was not jurchen script, because it was different from the known jurchen script of Kaifeng Banquet Monument in Henan Province, and it was suspected that it might be Xixia script. After another 13 years, he wrote that this writing is Xixia, but it is still difficult to judge. For this reason, British and French scholars have been fighting a pen and ink lawsuit for nearly 20 years.
Prior to this, Zhang Jianyu, a famous scholar in Qing Dynasty, was recuperating in his hometown of Wuwei. When I was playing in Qingyin Temple, I demolished a brick pavilion in the temple, which has been closed for a long time. After it was demolished, I saw a very high monument, the words engraved on it seemed to be square, and the fonts seemed to be easy to recognize. However, if you look closely, you can't recognize a word. The other side of the monument is engraved with Chinese characters, including the year when the monument was built: God bless the people for five years and Jiaxu for fifteen years. God bless Min 'an is the national title of Xixia, and Zhang Shu concluded that the nameless inscription on the tablet was the national character of Xixia. This stone tablet is the famous "Rebuilding the Gantong Tower of Liangzhou Huguo Temple". The accidental discovery of Zhang Shu not only made this important cultural relic reappear in the world, but also made the dead Xixia characters known to the world again. Zhang Shu was the first scholar who clearly identified Xixia characters. He recorded this important discovery in the article "After the Inscription of God Blessed Man in Xixia" and published it in 1837 "Collected Works of Yang Sutang". However, this important discovery of cutie has not attracted the attention of academic circles. When British and French scholars discussed it repeatedly, Zhang Shu had a ready-made answer. Until 1898, French scholar de Villea made textual research on Liangzhou stele, and confirmed that this kind of writing was Xixia writing in the article "Study on Xixia Chinese Characters".