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Bull horns carved with Shui ethnic characters
www.chinanews.cn 2006-02-23 17:07:25
Pictured, the part of the bull horn carved with a picture of fairies
flying in clouds and some Shui ethnic characters, meaning ��tiger, moon,
time, and wolf��.
Chinanews, Feb. 23 �C Experts who are doing the saving work for the Shui
ethnic culture in Guizhou recently discovered a pair of bull horns
bearing some Shui ethnic characters in the Libo County where the Shui
ethnic people live. The bull horns are estimated to have a history of
about one thousand years.
The bull horns, measured 35 centimeters wide, are carved with pictures
and 20 different Shui characters. So far, scientists recognized eight
characters, which meant ��leopard, year, day, greedy, tiger, moon, time,
and wolf��. The two bull horns, with different pictures and characters
carved on it, formed a pair and each represented the Chinese conception
of "yin" and "yang."
The horn representing "yin" was used for harvest occasions or
celebrations while the horn representing "yang" was used on war time
occasions. The bull horns were regarded as a piece of ethnic treasure and
provide very useful information on studying the Shui ethnic characters.
Shui character is a hieroglyph character used by the Shui ethnic people
in ancient time. It was carried down orally or through manual scripts. As
a symbol of an ancient civilization, Shui character has been selected
among the first batch of the Chinese file and document heritage list. It
is also among the first batch of the Chinese intangible cultural heritage
list.
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