考研英语阅读素材:象形文字的绝唱——云南丽江东巴文

发布于 2021-01-29 19:17

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象形文字的绝唱——云南丽江东巴文

本文选自《经济学人》20201010期

背景介绍：

在今年的十一黄金周期间，成千上万的游客涌向了云南丽江，丽江吸引人之处不仅仅在于风景秀丽的玉龙雪山和历史悠久的大研古镇，更有纳西族流传千年、如今仍在使用的一种象形文字——东巴文。让我们来看看，这种神秘的字符究竟有着怎样的魅力。

Rune revival

文字的复兴

Pictographs survive in a Chinese tourist town

象形文字在中国的一个旅游小镇得以流传

During the “golden week” national holiday that began on October 1st, hundreds of thousands of sightseers flocked to Lijiang, a picturesque historic town in the south-western province of Yunnan. Among its attractions are the symbols printed beneath the Chinese characters on road signs and shop fronts (Starbucks included).

在“十一黄金周”(自10月1日开始)期间，成千上万的游客涌向了云南省(位于中国西南部的一个省份)一个风景如画、历史悠久的小镇——丽江。丽江最吸引人之处在于其路牌和店铺招牌(包括星巴克在内)汉字下方的字符。

They are Dongba pictographs, an ancient form of writing that originated among the Naxi, a local ethnic group. It was almost defunct until about a decade ago, when local officials cottoned on to its touristic value and plastered the town with the script.

这些字符正是东巴象形文字——一种起源于当地纳西族的古老的文字体系。东巴文曾一度濒临灭绝，直到大约十年前，丽江当地官员意识到了它所能带来的旅游价值，于是这种文字便出现在了小镇的各个角落。

Dongba was never widely used by the Naxi, of whom there are about 300,000 living in the Himalayan foothills near Lijiang, as well as in adjacent Tibet and Sichuan province. Their elite spoke Chinese and used it for written communications (a few Chinese characters are pictographic, but Dongba is mainly so).

纳西人从未广泛使用过东巴文，中国现有大约30万纳西族人，他们生活在丽江附近的喜马拉雅山麓以及邻近的四川省。纳西族精英会说汉语，并会用书写汉字进行交流(汉字中也有少数象形文字，而东巴文基本上全是象形文字)。

The pictographs, which evolved as early as the seventh century, were developed by shamans of the Dongba faith, which has roots in Tibet. When called upon, the wizards would don a five-lobed crown and pray for divine favours.

东巴文自最早可追溯至公元7世纪，是由崇尚东巴文化的萨满教徒发展壮大的。在举行祭祀活动时，祭司们会戴上五叶王冠，以祈求天神眷顾。

The roughly 2,000 pictographs would help them to recall the chants. As in ancient Egypt, the glyphs were also used as rebuses (ie, for their sounds alone) to form new words.

他们还通过由大约2000个东巴文字组成的段落来记录圣歌。古埃及人也会利用象形文字以字谜一般(例如，仅凭其发音)的方式去构造新的词汇。

Over 20,000 of these religious records survive. They provide rich insight into how Naxi people thought about warfare, geography, astronomy and agriculture. But they are devilishly hard to read. Linguists are helped by the area’s Dongba priests.

现存超过2万份有关纳西族人的宗教记录。这些记录为研究纳西族人如何思考战争、地理、天文和农业提供了丰富的资料，但想要读懂它们却很难。于是，语言学家向当地东巴祭司寻求帮助。

There are about 600, most of them very old, including Yang Guoxing who ran a school from 2010 to 2015 to teach Dongba to children living in the mountains. When Mr Yang was growing up, “everyone was too busy farming” to learn it. Now they are all busy soaking up China’s dominant Han pop culture, he says, shuffling outdoors to offer rites for safe travel to a gaggle of tourists.

当地现有东巴祭司大约600人，其中大多数都已年迈，杨国兴便是其中一位，他在2010年至2015年期间开办了一所学校，教山里的孩子们学习东巴文。在杨国兴长大那会，“人们都忙于耕作”，根本没工夫去学习东巴文。如今，人们又忙于吸收中国主流的汉文化，他一边说着一边踱步而出，通过祈福仪式，为众多游客祈求旅程平安。

Primary schools in Lijiang teach the Dongba script twice a week, as well as Naxi nursery rhymes. Li Dejing, the head of the Dongba Culture Research Institute, says this is not just about keeping alive the pictographs, but letting children grasp “the very spirit of their own culture”. And, as the government would see it, helping tourism to thrive in Lijiang.

丽江的小学每周都设有两节课，专门向孩子们教授东巴文和纳西语童谣。东巴文化研究所所长李德敬表示，这不仅仅是为了让东巴文字得以流传，更是为了让孩子们掌握“纳西族文化的精髓”。并且，正如政府所乐见的那样，这将会促进丽江旅游业的繁荣发展。