In the history of the Dai people in my country, there have been five different forms of writing, namely Dai Lu script, Dai Na script, Dai Beng script, Jinping Dai script, and Xinping Dai script, all of which are called "Duo Dai" (to tai) is Dai language. Among these scripts, the two most commonly used in China are Dai La script and Dai Na script. The Tai script is popular in Xishuangbanna, Menglian, Jinggu and other places, and the Tai script is popular in Dehong and Gengma places. Historically, the creation, use and development of Dai script have gone through three relatively long stages. That is, in the first stage, the invention and use of Dai "digital text"; in the second stage, the introduction of Pali text to enrich the original Dai Letu Travel Tribe Fifth Anniversary 2007 Tibetan Holy Land Wedding Air Travel White Paper Golden Week Travel Guide; in the third stage, due to The imported Pali script was not enough to fully and accurately reflect the actual Dai language, so the Dai themselves added fifteen consonants and eleven vowel symbols.
According to the Dai historical materials "Shasada" (Baye) and "Polanatan", the Dai people in ancient times, before the emergence of hieroglyphics, had experienced counting objects and transmitting information. In history, at that time, the method of folding and folding bamboo strips was used to record events, and acacia beans and tamarind seeds were used to record materials and distribute property.
Since the broken bamboo strips are easily lost and confused when placed, I came up with the idea of ??folding a bamboo strip into corresponding sections according to the quantity of materials to be remembered. If there are three items, fold three sections back and forth on one bamboo strip; if there are eight items, fold eight sections back and forth on the strip. Later, people used charcoal to draw the pattern, and it was remembered by people forever and became the first digital text.
It can be seen that the formation of the initial digital literature went through a long period of life practice, and it emerged from the "matrix" of zhemu tablets to record events. If you look closely and analyze their glyph structure, it is not difficult to recognize: the glyph and number of strokes of each character represent the quantity represented by the character itself, which is just a combination of multiple strips.
According to the Dai historical material "Polanatan", during the same period when the Dai numerical characters were first invented, hieroglyphics that could represent short-form language and other objects were also invented. . For example, it represents the day, month, hour, etc., and is used in combination with the original numerical characters. This situation is limited to recording months, days and hours.
According to relevant Dai historical records, for a long period before the Buddhist scriptures were introduced into the Dai area, the Dai people had their own original alphabet.
Existing historical records in Dai language confirm that long before the Buddhist scriptures were introduced into the Dai area, the Dai people not only had their own ancient characters, namely numerals and pictographs, but also invented letters.
The original Dai alphabet was not borrowed from Sanskrit from Buddhist scriptures, but was produced before the introduction of Buddhist scriptures. At the same time, it is also confirmed from another perspective that the legends about "Panba created writing" and "blowing fire tubes to print ashes into writing" have certain historical backgrounds.
According to the Dai historical material "Mulasha Shana", it is said that Buddhism was not recorded in writing until five hundred years after the death of Buddha. It is also said that with the transfer of Buddhism to the Dai area in 2005 of the Buddhist calendar (18 BC), the Sanskrit alphabet of the Buddhist scriptures was accepted by the Dai people. The introduction of the forty-one Pali consonant letters enriched the Dai writing and played a major role in promoting the development of Dai writing and culture. However, because the forty-one Pali letters alone were not enough to accurately express and reflect the actual situation of the Dai language, a period of change occurred when pronunciation and writing were increased again, namely: Dai Li 639 (AD 1277) ), an eminent monk named Ayatansunluo came and created fifteen more consonant letters and eleven vowel symbols in the Dai language, further developing the Dai language.
At this point, the Dai language has become complete and substantial, forming a fixed writing system for the Dai people. This can be regarded as the final stage of the development of the Dai language.
To connect the entire historical process of Dai Lai writing from its germination to its formation and development, the sequence can be divided into the following five links: broken bamboo strips to record events → numerals, pictographs → insect-eaten writing Ye script→Introduction of Pali script→Standardization of Dai script.
The formation and standardization of Dai culture in history is a major turning point in the social life of the Dai people, marking that the ancestors of the Dai people have entered the era of human civilization. At the same time, it has greatly promoted the vigorous development of Dai literature and has become the precious spiritual wealth of the Dai ancestors and an indispensable communication tool in production and life. It was also from that time that Dai writing became widely used in society.