The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 50, December 12, 2004, Article 13

FOUND CHINESE COIN SHOWS PICTOGRAPHIC WRITINGS

  An article published December 7 discusses a recently found
  Chinese copper coin:

  "GUIYANG, Dec. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- An ethnic culture expert 
  said he found an antique copper coin inscribed with Shuishu,
  or the pictographic writings of China's Shui ethnic group. 

  The coin is about 1,000 years old and bears two pictographs
  depicting a man pulling a water buffalo and another one 
  pulling a plow, said Pan Chaolin, an associate researcher 
  with the Guizhou Institute for Ethnicities based in Guiyang, 
  capital of the southwestern Guizhou Province. 

  The buffalo and the plow are both tokens of fortune in 
  Shuishu, said Pan, a noted folklorist specializing in the
  ancient ethnic writing."

  "The folklorist noted that his institute received approval 
  and a 80,000-yuan (some 9,600 US dollars) grant from the 
  Chinese government for a major research program on Shuishu, 
  which he refers to as "the last foothold of pictographic 
  writing." 

  "Shuishu is on the verge of being lost as only very few 
  Shui people now know how to read the characters. A tiny 
  group of people have preserved most of the surviving books 
  written in the ancient writing, which have been passed 
  down to just one descendant in each family."

  To read the full article, see: Full Article

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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