The second series of the "Guizhou National Precious Ancient Books Translation Commentary" series, based on the first batch of 28 full-color Qing Dynasty manuscripts selected for the "National Ancient Books List", was recently published and distributed by Guizhou Nationalities Publishing House.
The series of "Guizhou National Precious Ancient Books Translation" series of books sorts out the ethnic documents selected for the "National Precious Ancient Books Directory", selects the volumes with relatively unique contents for photocopying, translation and annotation, and launches them in phases and series. In 2017, two kinds of the first series have been published, and now three kinds of the second series have been published, including "Water Book, Twenty-Eight Houses", "Water Book, Nongchen Scroll", and "Water Book, Sixty Koshi Volumes". The content involves the astronomical calendar and celestial movement concept of the ancient aquarium, which has important academic research value for the study of the history, ancient script and calendar system of the aquarium.
Shuishu is an ancient script of the Shui tribe, similar to the ancient script symbols of oracle bone and jin script, and is the world's second surviving hieroglyph in addition to Dongba script, and was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2006. The Water Book is the "I Ching" and "Encyclopedia" of the Water Tribe, and the Water Book Classics are mainly used in the life of the Water Tribe, such as sacrifice, funeral, marriage, and construction. Among them, a large number of aquarium astronomical, calendar, meteorological and religious materials have been preserved, which are of great value for the study of aquarium language and writing, social history, philosophical thought, astronomical calendar, literature and art, religious beliefs, etc.
The second series of the "Guizhou National Precious Ethnic Ancient Books Translation" series published this time is compiled by Sandu Autonomous County. In order to do a good job in the translation of water books, Sandu Autonomous County set up the Office for the Rescue and Protection of Water Books and the Declaration of Water Books to the World Memory Heritage List, and convened the organization of aquarium scholars and Mr. Water Books to sort out and translate the blueprints. Mr. Shuishu Yang Shengzhao, as the core translator, in order to ensure the accuracy of the translation, organized members to visit the area where the volumes were collected many times, visited the local Mr. Shuishu, and guided and discussed the translation of the water book. After the completion of the translation, experts and scholars from inside and outside the province were also invited to review the manuscript twice before the book was completed.
It is reported that Guizhou, as a multi-ethnic province, has included more than 200 water books, Yi literature and Buyi ancient documents on the national precious ancient books list since 2008, recording the astronomical, geographical, folk customs, ethics, philosophy and other cultural information of the ancient ethnic minorities in the southwest of the mainland, which is an important cultural heritage.
Text/Guizhou Daily Tianyan News reporter Shu Chang
Editor/Peng Fangrong Hu Lan
Editor/Li Yan Shi Yuling