Mr. Shui Shu Yang Shengzhao's exception and aquatic cultural inheritance

Screenshot of China Daily

Yang Shengzhao, 67, is a Mr. Shui Shui in Sandu Shui Autonomous County, Guizhou Province, a mysterious and awe-inspiring profession in the Shui region, where he is asked to determine the timing of weddings and funerals, building houses, and even spring ploughing and planting.

Yang Shengzhao is often invited to preside over local water book customs, and he takes out an ancestral water book ancient book, and on the yellowed page, there are rows of handwritten copies mixed with hieroglyphs and similar letters, which can be described as a puzzling "book of heaven".

The Water Book script is one of the few remaining hieroglyphs in the world that are still in use, and is known as the "living fossil" of hieroglyphics. The water book documents record the ancient astronomy, geography, religion, folk customs and other cultural information of the Shui tribe.

Up to now, 766 water book characters have been published. It is only a few hundred words, but one word has multiple sounds, one tone and multiple meanings, which is a feature of water books, which will present different meanings in different language environments and contexts.

The vast majority of Shui people do not understand water books, and people like Yang Shengzhao who can read and use water books in folklore are revered as "Mr. Water Books", and water books have been passed down by their hands and oral transmission for thousands of years.

Yang Shengzhao said: "The content behind the water book includes the history of the origin and migration of the Shui tribe, and even the understanding and wisdom of the Shui people in the universe. I have been doing my best to protect the precious culture of our aquarium. ”

In November last year, the "Guizhou Province Water Book Literature" declared by Qiannan Prefecture was successfully selected into the "Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Directory", and Yang Shengzhao has done a lot of work in promoting the application of water books.

Yang Shengzhao began learning water books at the age of 13, and his family has passed on water books for four generations. His uncle said, "Only good people can learn water books, and people who are not doing their jobs and are idle cannot learn water books well." Yang Shengzhao was very proud of this, not all the boys in the family could be selected to become the inheritors of the Water Book.

13 years old is the age of playfulness, but Yang Shengzhao is obsessed with the study of water books, and when night falls during agricultural leisure, it is when his uncle teaches water books. The pages that Mr. Shui Shu touched for several generations had long been rolled up and broken, carefully turned over, and his uncle chanted one by one, and Yang Shengzhao followed one by one. Without a pen record and no tape recorder, at the beginning of learning the Water Book, Yang Shengzhao could only rely on rote memorization.

"The water scribe must be a good-hearted person." From the first time he used the Water Book in his 30s to today, Yang Shengzhao has been faithfully fulfilling his mission with this creed. As he learned more about water books, the more he loved the profession. "Only a water scribe with a good character can correctly use the knowledge of water calligraphy, bring hope to the people of life, and become a wise man who is supported by the people."

However, in the past ten years, due to strict rules, Mr. Shuishu has difficulty finding a suitable inheritor, coupled with the death of elderly water scribes, the content of oral water books has disappeared, and the seriously damaged water book documents have been burned to show the return of ancestors, resulting in the serious loss of water books. In addition, as many young people go out to study and work, there is a gap in the inheritance of water books.

"Passing on men without passing on women, passing on inside and not outside" is the "iron rule" of the iterative inheritance of Water Book - Mr. Water Book can only select men with good character and high understanding from the family as apprentices. In 2015, Yang Shengzhao resisted pressure to break thousands of years of rules and made an exception to recruit female apprentices for the first time, a proposition opposed by many elderly water scribes.

"If we all follow a stereotypical routine, the Water Book will gradually die out and there will be no successor left at all. That's why I broke the rules and taught the water book to those who are willing to learn, and the excellent culture needs to be passed on. "Yang Shengzhao now has more than ten apprentices, all of different genders and ages.

The water book inheritance consists mainly of two parts - the documentary and the oral part. One of the most difficult is the learning of oral water books, all relying on the oral transmission of water scribes from generation to generation, relying on the super memory of water scribes to sing to the next generation of water scribes. Yang Shengzhao said he has mastered 80% of his uncle's oral skills.

In fact, as early as 1998, Yang Shengzhao opened a water book transmission class at Yangwen Primary School, teaching primary school students to read Shui characters and recite water book songs. After retiring in 2015, Yang Shengzhao devoted himself to the social practice, translation, research and inheritance of water book customs.

Yang Shengzhao, with the assistance of Guizhou University for Nationalities, planned to systematically record and video the oral part passed on to him by his uncle, and annotate and transcribe it with the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Ge Mingyi, director of the Qiannan Prefecture Archives, told reporters that the local area has been committed to the protection and inheritance of water book documents, and has promoted water book culture at home and abroad. According to reports, the state has more than 19,000 original copies of water book literature and classics, and a total of 466 water book Mr.

The implementation of the Regulations on the Protection of Water Book Culture in Qiannan Prefecture, the completion of the digitization of water books in the collection, the compilation and production of water book culture teaching materials into the campus... In recent years, the Qiannan Prefecture Party Committee and the Prefecture Government have continued to increase the excavation, collation, inheritance and protection of the cultural heritage of the Water Book.

At present, the research on water book literature shows that the water book text found in the collection of water book literature is exactly the same as the 22 symbols on the Xia Dynasty pottery inscriptions found at the Erlitou site in Henan 4,000 years ago, and the 36 symbols on the inscriptions unearthed at the Shuangdun site in Anhui 7,300 years ago.

"Water book literature preserves rich and ancient cultural information, which is of great value and significance for studying the origin and form of early human civilization." Ge Mingyi said that the phenomenon presented by the above close relationship has attracted great attention from the academic community and needs to be further explored.

Ge Mingyi believes that the protection and inheritance of water books is of great significance to the promotion of traditional Chinese culture and socialist core values. "The Water Book strengthens the cultural identity of the Shui people, restricts their behavior and moral norms, and has positive significance for improving civic literacy, and from this point of view, it shares the same value orientation with the core values of socialism."

"Mr. Shui Shu has participated in a wide range of social activities in the Shui area, such as divination, date selection, and ancestor worship, and has played a key role in helping local governments strengthen grassroots social governance." Ge Mingyi added. (China Daily Guizhou Reporter Station Yang Jun, Xu Lin, compiled by Zhao Yandi)

The original article can be found in the news with pictures on the 16th edition of the international edition of China Daily on January 16, English link:

https://enapp.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202301/16/AP63c4a50ca3103705a5f3cdbe.html。