Andrew West
魏安 𗔬𗐹
Guild of Tangutologists, Secret Order of Runists and Oghamites, defrocked academic, rambling antiquarian, ascender of pagodas, whisperer of stones.
@BabelStone (March 2009 – July 2023)
This is a classified index of selected tweets and tweet threads. A chronological archive of all tweets (excluding replies to other users) is available here. Click on [BabelStone Archive] to open the BabelStone Archive version of the twitter thread.
2023-04-03 12:36
A stone axe (石鉞) incised with drawings of a tiger on both sides was unearthed during recent excavations at the Dinggeng (丁埂 site of the Neolithic Liangzhu (良渚 Culture near Yixing in Jiangsu province wxrb.com/doc/2023/04/03…
2023-03-14 10:38
Four brick tombs with painted murals dating to the Jin dynasty (circa 1161-1232) were excavated at Nántóu village 南頭村 near Yuánpíng city in Shanxi in June-July 2022 …
2023-03-07 14:14
"金玉滿堂、長命富貴、子孫昌盛、爵祿封侯" written on the inside wall of a Ming dynasty husband-and-wife tomb in Li County, Hunan (infrared photograph) kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20230…
2023-02-22 17:31
Painted clay statues unearthed from Xianying Palace 显应宫 at the Ming dynasty (1475+) Qingping Fort site in Shaanxi (陕西靖边清平堡遗址) bjnews.com.cn/detail/1677038…
2023-02-18 12:49
Archaeologists claim to have discovered the remains of a 2,400 year old flushing toilet system during excavations at the site of the ancient city of Yuèyáng 櫟陽, capital of the Qín 秦 state during the 4th century BCE. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20230…
2023-02-15 18:31
2023-02-11 12:15
Stone inscribed with the Yǒnglè Emperor's command to Celestial Master Zhāng Yǔqīng 張宇清 to perform the 金籙報恩延禧普度羅天大醮 Daoist ritual, unearthed during excavations at the site of the Five Dragons Palace 五龍宮 in the Wǔdāng Mountains 武當山 kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20230…
2023-02-03 15:47
Nice selection of porcelain tableware and ceramic pillows discovered during excavations of a Song/Jin/Yuan site next to the Cao Cao Mausoleum in Henan (thought to be perhaps where the families looking after the mausoleum lived) kgzg.cn/a/398593.html…
2023-02-03 15:17
Pottery fragment inscribed 柏人 from the recently-concluded excavations at the site of the Warring States period Bairen city (柏人城) in Hebei province kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20221…
2023-02-02 17:48
Some of the Han dynasty wooden slips recently unearthed from the Hébósuǒ site (河泊所遗址) at the south-west corner of Diānchí Lake in Yunnan (left slip reads 滇池以亭行, and the middle slip has the date 4th year of the Shǐyuán 始元 era [83 BCE]) kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20230…
2022-10-27 13:34
A store of 1.5 tonnes of Song dynasty (and some Tang dynasty) coins has been uncovered at Jiànhú County 建湖县 in Jiāngsū kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20221…
2022-10-27 13:34
50 years after the discovery of the Mǎwángduī 馬王堆 tombs in 1972, researchers studying fragments of silk clothing from Tomb M3 have discovered some eighty Chinese characters woven into the cloth to form the auspicious phrases 安樂如意 and 長壽無極 kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20221…
2022-10-12 14:10
Two guardian beasts (鎮墓獸) from the tomb of Murong Zhi 慕容智 (650–691), 3rd son of the last khan of the Tuyuhun kingdom. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20221…
2022-08-29 12:32
A large bronze animal statue with a person standing on its head has been unearthed from Sānxīngduī 三星堆 pit #8. 1 metre long and tall, and weighing about 300kg, this is the largest bronze animal statue found at Sānxīngduī to date. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2022-08-10 10:50
Eleven floor bricks with engraved decorations and writing have been found in Eastern Han tombs excavated at a site northeast of Xī'ān sohu.com/a/575450771_12…
2022-08-08 17:11
A new set of relief sculptures of stylized human faces has been excavated at the Neolithic Shímǎo 石峁 site in Shǎnxī. Two adjacent sculptures on a curved corner stone have been uncovered so far, but archaeologists expect there to be a set of three faces kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2022-07-25 23:33
A rather lovely painted pottery bird vessel excavated from a Warring States period tomb at Hándān in Héběi (河北邯鄲後百家北墓地出土戰國彩繪陶鳥尊) kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2022-07-05 14:39
Finds from a mid-Western Zhou aristocratic tomb of the Péng state 倗国 excavated at the Héngshuǐ 横水 cemetery site at Jiàng County in Shānxī have been published kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2022-06-23 22:40
Some 1,100 tombs dating from late Shang dynasty to early Western Han (i.e. late 2nd millenium to late 1st millenium BCE) have been excavated at the Lǎolóngtóu 老龙头 site at Yányuán 盐源 county in southwest Sìchuān kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2022-04-12 21:09
160 photographs by Joseph Needham taken during his Northwest journey in October 1943 at Jiāyùguān 嘉峪關, Qiānfódòng 千佛洞, and Dūnhuáng 敦煌 cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PH-NRI-00…
Three stupas on the eastern bank of the Dàquán river at Qiānfódòng 大泉河东岸舍利塔 1/6
2022-04-12 11:30
Lacquered sè 瑟 (zither-like musical instrument with about 25 strings) recently excavated from a Western Han tomb at Yancheng 鹽城 in Jiangsu kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2022-03-04 15:37
More ancient petroglyphs have been discovered at a site in the Helan Mountains in Ningxia kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2022-02-10 12:59
Lacquered sè 瑟 (zither-like musical instrument with about 25 strings) recently excavated from a high status Yuè state 越國 (mid Warring States period) tomb (國字山墓M1) in Jiangxi kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2022-01-21 15:06
建设中国特色中国风格中国气派的考古学
2022-01-10 12:50
A Jīn dynasty (1115–1234) mural tomb for a family of four was excavated at Yú County in Shānxī in March 2021 kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20211…
2022-01-08 15:56
Excavations at the Shàojiāpéng 邵家棚 site in Ānyáng between Oct 2019 and Dec 2020 have unearthed a mixture of dwellings and tombs dating to the late Shāng dynasty (C11 BCE) belonging to the Ce 册 clan (previously only known from oracle bone inscriptions) kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2022-01-05 13:41
Remarkable coloured bas-relief sculptures from the Northern Wei tomb of Lǚ Xù 吕續, dated 2nd year of the Tài'ān era (太安二年 = 456), recently discovered at Dàtóng in Shānxī news.cctv.com/2022/01/01/ART…
2022-01-04 23:36
Painting of the Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine 玉兔搗藥 from one of three Ming dynasty (1368–1644) brick mural tombs recently discovered in Chángzhì city in Shānxī kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2022-01-04 12:14
Latest news from the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun 海昏侯 (Liú Hè 劉賀, ephemeral Han emperor in 74 BCE) is the identification of an imperial edict written on 10 whole and 16 fragmentary wooden tablets in a lacquer box found in a side chamber 1/3 kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20211…
2021-09-07 22:52
On 23 August four brick tombs dating to the late Liao dynasty (916–1125) were uncovered during housing construction at Gù'ān county in Héběi province (河北省固安县). kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20210…
2021-09-07 22:32
A 'sacred bronze tree' 青铜神树 which was discovered in the #3 sacrificial pit at Sānxīngduī 三星堆遗址3号祭祀坑 in March 2021 was lifted out on July 15 after 4 months of careful excavation weibo.com/tv/show/1034:4…
2021-06-23 20:24
Tile talisman from a Ming dynasty tomb of 1612:
勑令：神符随墓，亡者安寧
2021-06-18 12:58
The epitaph for the Tuyuhun prince Mùróng Zhì 慕容智 (650–691) discovered in his tomb in Gansu which was excavated in 2019
2021-06-18 12:58
The stone epitaph in Chinese for Murong Zhi 慕容智 (d. 691), 3rd son of last khan of the Tuyuhun 吐谷渾 kingdom, has an inscription on its edge in an unknown script, possibly the first known example of the written Tuyuhun language! m.weibo.cn/status/4641792…
2021-05-13 13:05
The tombs of the Ming dynasty Prince Zhū Zhīyáng 朱知烊 (晉端王, 1489–1533) and his wives have been excavated near Taiyuan in Shanxi kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20210… (entrance to the tomb of the prince's beloved concubine Madam Yuàn 院氏 shown)
2021-03-31 12:21
A bronze yǎn 甗 vessel from Tomb M3 at the Běibái'é burial site at Yuánqū county in Shānxī has a short inscription (虢季為匽姬媵甗 永寶用享) which indicates that it was made as part of the dowry for a marriage between the states of Guo 虢 and Yan 燕. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20210…
2021-03-31 11:53
A huge nine-sided well (4.5m wide and 9m deep) with 38 layers of wooden supporting beams, dating to the late Warring States to early Western Han (over 2,000 years bp), has been excavated at Yángquán in Shānxī. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20210…
2021-01-21 13:02
Four brick tombs for the famous Eastern Wu (Three Kingdoms) general Dīng Fèng 丁奉 (d. 271) and his family have been excavated in Nanjing at Mùfǔshān 幕府山 overlooking the Yangtze River kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20210…
2021-01-04 19:52
A Sui dynasty (581-618) burial with an intricately carved marble bed coffin has recently been excavated at Anyang in Henan. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20210…
2020-12-30 14:27
A stone utensil engraved "made in the 3rd year of the Guānghé era (180 AD)" [of the Han dynasty] 光和三年造 is evidence that an imperial tomb site at Luòyáng is the Xuānlíng 宣陵 mausoleum of Emperor Huán of Eastern Han 漢桓帝 (reigned 146–168). kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20201…
2020-12-18 13:04
7 brick tombs dating from Eastern Han to Tang dynasties were recently excavated at Lanshan County in Hunan. Two of the tombs, dating to E. Han and Sui, have date-imprinted bricks:
Han (left): 本初元年 Běnchū 1 [146]
Sui (right): 大業四年 Dàyè 4 [608]
2020-12-16 21:24
Pottery sherds decorated all over with galloping horses from the remains of Xianbei 鮮卑 dwellings (c. 2nd/3rd century) excavated between August and October 2020 at the Xiao Huhegele (小呼和格勒) site in Horqin Left Middle Banner of Inner Mongolia kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20201…
2020-11-19 13:12
An epitaph dated 747 (天寶六年) with text brushed by famed Tang dynasty calligrapher Yán Zhēnqīng 颜真卿 (709–785) has been found during excavation of three tombs for a high status Tang family at XīXián New Area (西咸新區) between Xī'ān and Xiányáng. news.changsha.cn/xctt/html/1101…
2020-10-20 12:13
"fairy bridge" 過仙橋 or "fairy cave" 過仙洞 — a hole between two adjacent brick tombs for a husband and wife, to allow their spirits to commune, found in Song dynasty (960–1279) tombs in Southern China. This example is from N. Song tomb in Níngxiāng Húnán kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20201…
2020-09-21 13:08
A Yuan dynasty painted tomb for a husband and wife was discovered last October in Wuzhao county of Shanxi. The decoration of the tomb chamber includes paintings of landscape paintings kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200…
2020-09-05 00:17
Two early 6th century Koguryo tombs with murals have recently been excavated at Wŏlji-ri in Anak County of South Hwanghae province, North Korea. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200…
2020-09-04 01:43
The tombstone of the Jin dynasty Confucian scholar Yáng Huàn 楊奐 (1186–1255) has been "discovered" in Qian County 乾縣 in Shaanxi by a group of scholars of Confucianism who were paying a visit to Yáng Huàn's home town. news.cnwest.com/xianyang/a/202…
2020-08-15 23:19
Banquet scene from a Khitan (Liao dynasty, 916-1125) tomb mural from Aohan Banner in Inner Mongolia showing a plate with three water melons (bottom right). Is this the earliest depiction of water melons in Chinese art? nmg.xinhuanet.com/2020-07/10/c_1… #西瓜
2020-07-21 10:56
A group of 27 Western Han tombs were excavated at Xi'an, near the mausoleum of Emperor Wen of Han, between March 2018 and May 2019. These included four large scale tombs (photo), the largest of which must have belonged to an aristocrat of the highest order kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200…
2020-06-17 00:07
Sixteen rock-carved stupas provisionally dated to the Western Xia have been found at Yongchang County in Gansu. The stupas, ranging from 1m to 3.5m in height, incorporate a niche for holding the bones or cremated remains of Buddhist monks gs.chinanews.com/news/2020/06-1…
2020-05-25 11:02
Bronze vessel with a bent neck and swan head (鹅首曲颈青铜壶) among the items found in a late Qin or early Han tomb at Sanmenxia in Henan kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200… (inside the vessel there are 3 litres of unidentified yellowish-brown liquid)
2020-05-15 01:51
Announced today, the excavation since 2015 of a 10 km² site in the south of Chengdu in Sichuan which has revealed neolithic dwellings and more than 6,000 burials spanning two millennia from the Warring States period to the Ming dynasty sc.people.com.cn/n2/2020/0514/c…
2020-05-06 10:39
Murals from a Liao dynasty tomb discovered at Aohan Banner in Inner Mongolia. Musicians and monkeys shown chinanews.com/cul/2020/05-01…
2020-04-29 11:10
Announced today, the discovery of the sunken treasure (over 10,000 items, mostly gold & silver) of Zhang Xianzhong 張獻忠, King of the Great West dynasty in Sichuan between 1644 and 1647, from the Min River at Jiangkou in Sichuan (50 km south of Chengdu) kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200…
2020-04-13 18:49
Excavations of high status burials and sacrificial pits at the late Shang dynasty site of Chaizhuang (柴庄遗址) at Jiyuan in Henan have uncovered a number of human sacrifices where a headless kneeling body with arms tied in front faces north inside a pit kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200…
2020-03-19 19:28
Picture bricks dated to the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589) recovered from six tombs found while building a road near Langzhong in Sichuan culture.workercn.cn/32875/202003/1…
2020-03-17 23:45
The remains of eight Song dynasty pottery kilns at Phoenix Village (凤凰村) near Yixing in Jiangsu packaged up and moved to various museums and other institutions for further research (three more preserved in situ). ourjiangsu.com/a/20200315/158…
2020-03-12 21:41
Four tombs with boat-shaped coffin burials thought to belong to the Cong people (賨人) of the Ba culture, dating to the late Eastern Zhou (?), uncovered during excavations at the Chengba site (城坝遗址) in Qu County Sichuan carried out since October 2019. sichuan.scol.com.cn/sczh/202003/57…
2020-03-11 17:41
Large tomb dating to the early Warring States period (5th-4th century BCE) excavated at a site in Wenxi County, Shanxi 2018-2019. This is one of five large royal tombs at the site, and is thought to be for the wife of a ruler of the State of Jin 晉. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200…
2020-03-10 19:20
Two Song dynasty tombs uncovered (and partially destroyed) during construction work at Luzhou city in Sichuan, one tomb with three chambers (pictured) and one with two chambers news.china.com.cn/2020-03/10/con…
2020-03-06 10:35
Pottery vessel with incised "sun-cloud-mountain" symbol from the late Dawenkou culture 大汶口文化 (c. 3000-2600 BCE) recently excavated from a site in Ningyang County Shandong. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200…
2020-02-20 12:27
Five Western Zhou and three Warring States period tombs excavated at a construction site 600m from Baoji South Station in Shaanxi after a bronze vessel was found in the backfill of a trench in November 2018. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200…
2020-02-19 17:29
Report on the excavations of the Dian Kingdom 滇國 site at Hebosuo in Jinning Yunnan, where 200+ urn burials (瓮棺) for infants have been found on what was at the time an island kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200…
2020-02-17 14:25
Clay seal impression with Chinese inscription 滇國相印 "Seal of the Minister of the Dian Kingdom" (contemporary with Han dynasty, c. 2000 years ago) recently found at the Hebosuo site on the southwest edge of the Dian lake in Yunnan. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20200…
2020-01-20 17:06
Song dynasty brick tomb discovered during construction work at Zhuanglang County in Gansu. xkkx.com/lishi/1299942.…
2020-01-19 18:32
Bronze sitting dragon (18.5cm, 1.96kg) found at the bottom of a well at the site of a Jin dynasty summer palace at Taizicheng 太子城 in Hebei, one of the skiing venues for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The dragon is thought to be an imperial carriage ornament. bjd.com.cn/a/202001/18/WS…
2019-12-30 21:01
Gold statuette of a camel 🐫 discovered in a tomb associated with the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor dwnews.com/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9…
2019-12-19 15:21
Three early Tang dynasty white pottery tomb figurines of foreigners (an official, a warrior, and a merchant) discovered during construction work at Nanhe County Hebei. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-12-19 14:43
Five Song dynasty (c. 12th century) brick tombs discovered during roadworks at Gaojiahe 高家河 in Ningqiang County Shaanxi were excavated between February and August 2019. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-12-18 09:43
Tomb of Xue Shao 薛紹 (661–689), husband of the Taiping Princess 太平公主 (665–713), son-in-law of Empress Wu Zetian, and nephew of Emperor Gaozong, discovered in Shaanxi at a site between Xianyang and Xi'an. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-12-17 23:59
Han dynasty road densely marked with cart ruts uncovered at a site in Xi'an thought to be close to the location of the Changmen Palace 長門宮 where the deposed Empress Chen was banished to in 130 BCE. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-12-13 23:01
Two tile ends with faces found during recent excavation of a Liao dynasty palace close to the tomb for a Liao Imperial Concubine which was discovered at Duolun in Inner Mongolia in 2015. chinanews.com/cul/2019/12-13…
2019-12-11 01:00
Wooden stick (74.2 cm) with 94 Chinese characters written in ink on six sides, thought to date to the 6th-century during the Silla period, discovered near Gyeongsan in South Korea. newspim.com/news/view/2019…
2019-12-10 14:55
Pot containing grain and chicken eggs from a 500 year old Ming dynasty tomb in Sichuan. huaxia.com/zhwh/kgfx/2019…
2019-12-09 13:11
30 carvings of human faces (10-20 cm in size) discovered on rocks on the northern bank of the Yellow River near Zhongwei in Ningxia. nxbbs.cc/15375-1.html…
2019-12-08 14:35
Some Yue ware vessels from a large cluster of tombs dating to the Six Dynasties period (3rd–6th centuries) under excavation at the Qixingdui 七星堆 site by the Gan River at Nanchang in Jiangxi. xinhuanet.com/2019-12/08/c_1…
2019-12-02 10:55
Jin dynasty (1115–1234) wall-mounted pottery lamps excavated from a site south of Kaiyuan Temple in Zhengding Hebei (河北正定开元寺南广场遗址). Some inscribed with the slogan "Be careful of fire; store up water!" 慎火停水 kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-11-23 12:28
4) In Xinjiang Yuli County, one of a series of Tang dynasty beacon towers first surveyed by Stein in 1914, has been under excavation for the last month (and is still continuing). kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-11-23 12:14
3) In Qinghai, at the Reshui tomb complex dating to the 6th-8th centuries, a large mausoleum was excavated between Sept. 2018 and Oct. 2019 in response to a case of tomb robbery. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-11-23 11:47
2) In Gansu, discovered on 25 September 2019, the tomb of Murong Zhi 慕容智, 3rd son of Murong Nuohebo, last khan of the Tuyuhun kingdom, who died in 691 aged 42. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-11-23 11:32
Four important archaeological discoveries on the Silk Road in China announced yesterday:
1) In Qinghai, a royal tomb from the Tibetan Empire, circa 700, excavated Sept. 2018 to Sept. 2019; with murals, a gilt crown and a gold cup inlaid with turquoise. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-11-11 10:04
Jin dynasty brick tomb with murals depicting the Stories of 24 Filial Acts and an inscription dated 1189 discovered near Xingtai in Hebei kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-10-31 09:47
Western Jin brick tomb dated 306 discovered at Zixing in Hunan kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2019-09-23 19:14
Fragment of jade from the site at Karabalgasun, capital of the Uighur Empire (744/745 to 840 AD), with an Old Uyghur inscription written in Chinese characters — h/t @csen_nomads
2019-09-15 16:07
The enigma of bronze age tin ingots found off the Israeli coast with marks that may be Cypro-Minoean signs phys.org/news/2019-09-e…
2019-09-09 11:26
A couple of plain brick Tang dynasty tombs (M421 and M422) excavated at Lanshan County in the very south of Hunan ...kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-08-28 11:26
Buddhist cliff sculptures of a buddha and four bodhisattvas in Baiyu county of Sichuan's Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture are identified as dating to the period of the late Tibetan Empire (9th century). kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-08-16 19:44
Discovered today in Taiyuan, a well-preserved Tang dynasty tomb with spectacular wall paintings, including a magnificent tiger and a lovely 5-stringed pipa. Importantly, there is a stone epitaph which will provide information about the deceased. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/unvQiOzDwK4W…
2019-08-09 11:30
Here are the pictures without a link to the source (just google 山东发掘两座大型汉代画像石墓):
Excavation of two large-scale Han dynasty tombs in Jinan, Shandong, with a total of 58 engraved picture stones.
2019-07-26 9:36
Ming dynasty tomb with wall paintings inscribed "Buried on the 11th day of the 2nd month of the 9th year of the Yongle era of the Great Ming" "大明永樂九年二月十一日葬" [1411] discovered at Yuxian in Shanxi (山西盂县) kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-07-11 11:31
Yuan dynasty tomb with wall paintings discovered at Shuozhou in Shanxi last month. Inscription on a brick indicates that the tomb is for Zhang Delin and his wife Madam Wang (祖耶耶张得林娘娘王氏) art.ifeng.com/2019/0621/3482…
2019-07-09 10:12
Yuan dynasty brick tomb with wall paintings discovered in Jinan Shandong. Mural is helpfully inscribed with the date 大元國至元二十二年 "22nd year of the Zhiyuan era of the Great Yuan State" = 1285 kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-07-04 17:29
Pictures of the Song dynasty brick tomb discovered at Longxi County Gansu during road building yesterday xw.qq.com/partner/wcsbzs…
2019-07-03 17:12
Thousands of miniature five-tier towers (gorintō 五輪塔) discovered in boxes at the Entsuji Temple on Mount Koya in Japan mainichi.jp/english/articl…
2019-07-01 10:28
Undisturbed Song/Jin dynasty husband-and-wife brick tomb in good condition, with Jin dynasty epitaph, discovered in Yuanqu County, Shanxi hkcna.hk/content/2019/0…
2019-05-30 11:08
Stone mould for a bronze fishhook (铜鱼钩石范) among ten stone moulds for spearheads etc. found at a 1st millennium BCE site in Yunnan kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-05-08 10:07
Brief report on the discovery of the late Western Han tombs of the Marquis of Yichun (宜春侯) and his wife in Xi'an, excavated last April kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-04-25 16:43
Carving of a domestic silkworm in the process of spinning silk, made from the tusk of a wild boar, discovered at the Shuanghuaishu site in Henan dating to the late Yangshao period, about 5,300-4,800 years ago. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-04-03 13:12
115 Western Zhou period tombs of the Guo (虢) state found near Sanmenxia in Henan kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-03-28 11:35
Fragment of a Chinese bronze mirror unearthed in Kyrgyzstan, with interweaving lines of a poem by an unknown Tang dynasty lady zeno.ru/showphoto.php?…
2019-03-28 10:22
Discovery of a pair of Song dynasty tombs in Chongqing, with superb Buddhist engravings kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-03-27 09:32
Chicken eggs found in 2,500 year old tomb at Liyang in Jiangsu. Why? "Because little chicks hatch from eggs, and they symbolise the endless cycle of birth and countless generations of descendants ... or maybe the dead person just really loved eating eggs." kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-03-21 10:51
大金重遷祖塔誌 沙門 善篪 撰
夫無生而生無滅而滅唯達者之能明洎乎生也色
身有家舍之所依洎乎滅也遺形有墳隴之所藏此
其世間不易之道自古不無矣相之洪福寺文殊院
始自大宋慶曆中以遠祖 捐公等同會一塔葬之
於城西開元寺之旁時以 大金天會四年戊申
2019-03-19 22:37
Discovery at Anyang (Henan) of a Jin dynasty brick mural tomb for four monks dated 1159. sohu.com/a/300787080_26…
2019-01-09 11:34
Report on the excavation of the site outside Lhasa where the 9th-century Karcung Pillar (嘎尔琼拉康石碑 = སྐར་ཅུང་ལག་ཁང་རྡོ་རིང) stood until it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in 1968. kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2019-01-07 14:39
More information on the Jin dynasty (1115-1234) summer palace discovered at Taizicheng ("Prince's city") when preparing the area for use as a skiing venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics kaogu.cssn.cn/ywb/news/new_d…
2019-01-05 01:18
Report on excavations of the site of the capital of Rui state (芮国) and tombs of the Dukes of Rui from early Eastern Zhou — burial goods include bronze ritual vessels, sets of bronze bells, sets of stone chimes, as well as gold, jade and lacquer artefacts kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20190…
2018-11-22 00:19
Excavations of a Liao dynasty imperial mausoleum in the vicinity of Yiwulü Mountain 醫巫閭山 northwest of Beizhen city in Liaoning have uncovered pieces of jade tablets inscribed with Khitan Small Script. kaogu.cssn.cn/ywb/news/new_d… (@cosmicore)
2018-09-12 14:16
I just mapped the location of all 200+ tombs at the Western Xia imperial cemetery at Yinchuan google.com/maps/d/viewer?…
2019-11-21 10:50
Foundations for three Liao dynasty hexagonal pagodas excavated in 2012 at the site of the Liao Superior Capital in Inner Mongolia, the largest 40+ metres across, thought to be part of an imperial Buddhist temple kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xcczlswz/2…
2019-11-20 20:49
Foundations of a Song dynasty hexagonal brick pagoda uncovered in Zhejiang. Bricks printed with "道源塔磚" (Daoyuan Pagoda brick) and "南無大乘妙法蓮華經" (Namo Mahāyāna Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra). kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20191…
2018-09-14 12:48
Continuing to catch up on the backlog for my photo diary for 2016, I have just published the account of my visit to the Western Xia twin pagodas at Baisikou in Ningxia babelstone.co.uk/BabelDiary/201…
2017-10-06 14:38
Day 19: Ningbo: Tianning Temple Pagoda (天寧寺塔) at 6:30 am on a dull day. Tang square brick pagoda built in 863. Now this one I do like.
2017-10-05 14:37
Day 18: Ningbo: Tianfeng Pagoda (天封塔), originally built during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian (695–696). Not really to my taste.
2017-10-02 12:24
Day 14: Lindong: I revisit the hexagonal Liao dynasty North Pagoda, on top of a hill that overlooks the Liao Upper Capital.
2017-10-01 12:55
Day 13: Balin Youqi: The Liao dynasty White Pagoda (Shakyamuni Relics Pagoda) at the northwest corner of the Liao city of Qingzhou 慶州
2017-09-22 10:40
Day 5: Hohhot: The famous Liao dynasty White Pagoda (萬部華嚴經塔), with Khitan & Jurchen graffiti written somewhere on the dark corridor walls.
2017-09-19 12:12
Day 2: Beijing: The white stupa of Miaoying Temple (妙應寺白塔), constructed under the supervision of Nepali architect Araniko in 1271.
2017-09-18 22:35
Day 1: Beijing: Pagoda of the Old Man of 10,000 pines 万松老人塔 (Yuan/Qing), an oasis of tranquillity and books in the heart of Beijing.
2017-09-18 22:23
Day 1: Beijing: Haotian pagoda 昊天塔 (Liao hollow brick pagoda); closed for renovations but still managed to take a few photos.
2016-09-14 00:41
Day 14: The Western Xia Hongfo Pagoda (宏佛塔), the final view of these fourteen days in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia.
2016-09-14 00:21
Day 14: The west pagoda.
2016-09-14 00:18
Day 14: The east pagoda.
2016-09-14 00:15
Day 14: The twin Western Xia pagodas of Baisikou (拜寺口双塔).
2016-09-11 13:47
Day 12: Early in the morning, before catching the train back to Hohhot, I head back to the Liao dynasty South Pagoda
2016-09-10 20:48
Day 11: View of the South Pagoda from the Upper Capital site.
2016-09-10 20:33
Day 11: By the time we get to the small (possibly Liao) North Pagoda in town the weather is clearing.
2016-09-10 20:30
Day 11: At midday we go to the Liao pagoda south of town, and the clear sky turns to pouring rain and lightning.
2016-09-08 22:20
Day 9: The base of the "celebrated suburgan" where Kozlov found a huge hoard of Tangut texts and artefacts in 1908.
2016-09-08 22:07
Day 9: Remains of the Western Xia stupa inside the city of Kharakhoto.
2016-09-08 22:05
Day 9: Stupas on the northwest corner of the walls of Kharakhoto.
2016-09-03 19:10
Yinchuan Day 3: 108 stupas at Qingtongxia (still cloudy, and raining on and off)
2016-09-02 00:23
Yinchuan Day 2: Ningxia Musuem and Chengtian Temple Pagoda with @cosmicore (cloudy all day)
2021-01-21 15:35
In celebration of the Feast of St Agnes on this 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century, here is an early 13th century painting of Saints Eugenia, Agnes, and Maria on the north wall of St Peter's Church at Farnborough in Hampshire babelstone.co.uk/BabelDiary/201…
2020-07-07 16:33
I went to the nearby All Saints Church at Crondall recently, and sitting in the middle of the Paulet tomb (1558) is the marble head reputed to have come from the Roman villa at Barley Pound, and discussed by Linda Munday in the article linked to above.
2019-09-22 22:07
15th-century painting of St Christopher on the south wall of the Old Church of St Peter and St Paul at Albury Park in Surrey; and an early 16th-century painting of St Christopher on the north wall of the Church of St James in Bramley, Hampshire. I visited both churches this week.
2019-09-21 18:16
Medieval graffiti on the chancel arch of the Church of St Nicholas in Compton, Surrey, depicting a Norman knight with a conical helmet and a nose guard.
2019-09-19 16:48
Unperturbed by the unseasonably warm summer weather that we should not be having in late September, today I visited the lovely Norman church of St James at Bramley in Hampshire ...
2019-08-27 16:20
Visited yesterday, the excavation by @LymingeDig of the Saxon church at Lyminge, Kent, founded by Queen (later Saint) Ethelburga (Æthelburh) in 633. Very clear remains of the apsidal chancel separated from the nave by a triple arch.
2018-09-13 11:10
On Tuesday I visited St Peter's, parish church of Farnborough, to look at the exquisite medieval (early 13th century) wall paintings of three female saints. babeldiary.blogspot.com/2018/09/farnbo…
2017-09-19 18:23
Day 2: Baoding: Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.
2019-05-13 19:50
Outside of Farnham Castle (shell wall built in late 12th-century around the Norman keep built in 1138) ...
2015-10-22 09:57
Matsue castle 松江城 on an early morning walk
2019-05-14 12:33
After nearly three years I finally get round to writing up an account of my visit to Kharakhoto with @cosmicore in August 2016. babelstone.co.uk/BabelDiary/201…
2017-10-01 12:59
Day 14: Balin Zuoqi: The enigmatic Stone House 石房子 near the mausoleum of Emperor Taizu of Liao (遼太祖陵) [Abaoji, 872-926].
2016-09-08 22:44
Day 9: The Red Fort (红城), apparently dating back to the Han dynasty, near the start of the road to Kharakhoto.
2016-09-08 22:38
Day 9: Datong Fort (大同城), several km west of Kharakhoto.
2016-09-08 21:58
Day 9: We reach the dead city of Kharakhoto in a minor sandstorm that clouds the cloudless sky (but soon clears).
2017-10-01 12:57
Day 13: Balin Youqi: Valley of the Tombs of the Kings (王坟沟) [Qingling 慶陵], a protected area not normally accessible to the general public.
2016-09-13 23:23
Day 14: Western Xia Tombs 1 and 2, believed to be for Li Jiqian and Li Deming (father and grandfather of Li Yuanhao)
2016-09-13 23:33
Day 14: Western Xia Imperial Tomb No. 3 (believed to be for Li Yuanhao, first Emperor of Western Xia)
2016-09-08 22:13
Day 9: Islamic tomb ("Gumbaz") outside the walls of Kharakhoto.
2016-09-05 20:23
Yinchuan Day 6: Still raining, and flooding cuts short our excursion to the Western Xia tombs and beyond
2017-10-01 12:56
Day 13: Balin Youqi: Liao dynasty dharani pillar with Sanskrit (Lantsa) dharani found at the tomb of Emperor Xingzong.
2017-09-19 12:13
Day 2: Baoding: Tangut dharani pillars dated 1502, and a 1350 stele commemorating the Yuan dynasty Tangut official Laosuo 老索 (1188–1260).
2016-09-10 20:16
Day 11: At the back of the public museum is an external gallery of dharani pillars that doubles as a bike shed
2016-09-10 19:57
Day 11: Downstairs are piles of boxes and stones and stuff, including a *fantasy* Khitan Small Script dharani pillar
2022-08-26 22:21
First ever example of a 天喜元寶 coin, found in February at the Burana site in Kyrgyzstan, in the vicinity of the Qara Khitai capital of Balasagun, identified as a Western Liao coin dating to the Tianxi 天禧 era (1178–1218) of the last Western Liao emperor zeno.ru/data3/tianxiyu…
2022-09-30 15:29
A few of my photos from the Kings & Scribes exhibition at Winchester Cathedral. This wooden bust of Charles I, with a matching one of his father, were placed in the tower vault in 1635, but they were removed in 1828 because they resembled "bagpiping Highlanders wearing bonnets".
2021-07-10 14:41
Two painted figures of mice on the lid of an ancient Egyptian limestone box from Tomb 67 at Abydos, inside of which are two compartments containing mummified mice (on display at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London) 🐁🐁
2020-10-07 18:35
Western Xia colour-painted clay statues of a seated bodhisattva from the Lǜchéng 緑城 site in Inner Mongolia (left: Inner Mongolia Museum; right: Xixia Museum)
2020-09-27 14:20
Miniature stele from a relic pagoda in Hebei erected by Master Zhènghuì (d. 1116), dated 25th day of the 6th month of the 2nd year of the Tiānqìng era (1112). 大遼國飛狐縣白石山兩朝讖主二帝門師傅菩薩三聚凈戒太尉正慧大師特於峯頂建舍利塔...時天慶二年壬辰歲六月丙戌朔二十五日丙時建
2020-09-25 00:05
Jade spirit tablet for Princess Puna, daughter of Temür Khan (second emperor of the Yuan dynasty, reigned 1294–1307), dated 3rd year of the Yuántǒng era (1335). Collection of Inner Mongolia Museum.
2020-02-05 00:24
Ming dynasty ceramic mortuary models of dishes of food, including a whole lamb, a pig, a rabbit, a fish, a goose, pomegranates, peaches, water chestnuts, shaobing (fried cakes), and mantou (steamed bread) at the British Museum.
2019-02-26 20:28
This is the last photo I took at the Musée Gallo-Romain in Lyon a week ago, just as the battery on my camera died. The Roman Christian gravestones were almost the last room in the museum, and it is a shame I only managed to get this one photo.
2019-02-26 01:27
Gravestone at the Musée Gallo-Romain in Lyon for Aurelius Leons, a letter engraver, who died aged 18 years, 7 months and 5 days. This is claimed to be the only surviving Roman funerary monument which explicitly records the deceased's occupation as a letter engraver.
2019-02-25 23:14
Selection of Roman terracotta oil lamps from Lyon at the Musée Gallo-Romain with pictures of various gladiators — Gotta catch 'em all!
2019-02-24 18:07
During my recent visit to the wonderful Musée Gallo-Romain in Lyon, I noticed that a particular feature of many of the Roman funerary inscriptions at the museum is an engraved ascia (stonemason's axe or adze).
2019-02-22 18:58
Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age (c. 700 BC) processional chariot discovered at la Côte-Saint-André (Isère) in 1888. The procession of the flaming bucket in the chariot is thought to have been associated with the worship of the sun.
2019-02-21 15:09
The "Xenia" mural, a Roman wall painting c. 50–70 AD discovered in Lyon in 1988, with trompe-l'œil depiction of presents given by guests to the master of the house.
2019-02-19 23:21
Mysterious Gallo-Roman bronze dodecahedrons at the Musée gallo-romain de Lyon-Fourvière.
2019-02-19 22:36
The Claudius Tablet discovered in Lyon in 1528 gives the text of a speech by Emperor Claudius (born in Lugdunum in 10 BC) in 48 AD. Only half of the original tablet survives, but it is huge (1.40 × 1.93 m, 222 kg).
2019-01-06 17:13
A very common design of bronze mirrors from the Jin dynasty (1115-1234) shows a pair of fish placed head-to-tail. At 43 cm in diameter, this example from Acheng in Heilongjiang is the largest one ever found. Photographed at the National Museum of China in Beijing.
2018-10-30 09:53
Bodhisattva Benzaiten 弁財天 playing the biwa 琵琶 (Chinese pipa, a type of four-stringed lute) on a silk scroll of c. 1300-1400 hanging in the newly-reopened Japanese Gallery at the British Museum.
2018-10-21 18:33
The Decree of Pixodaros in the Lycian script (Xanthos, c. 340-334 BC), photographed at the British Museum yesterday.
(Twitter discriminates against Unicode Lycian characters, so the Lycian text is in the next tweet.)
2018-10-20 20:56
Early 20th-century Japanese copy of a Qin score and lyrics for 'High Peaks' (Gaoshan 高山), on display at the newly reopened Japanese Gallery at the British Museum.
2018-09-30 20:22
Shang, Zhou and Han depictions of rhinoceroses in bronze are extremely accurate and lifelike. Ancient Chinese rhinos had two horns, and are thought to have been a subspecies of the Sumatran Rhinoceros. This Han rhino in the National Museum of China has a saddle. #WorldRhinoDay
2018-08-18 00:42
"I believe the true line of research lies in the careful noting and comparison of the smallest details" — Flinders Petrie, 1931. On the entrance staircase to the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London.
2017-10-01 12:47
Day 10: Half-day trip to Inner Mongolia Museum, definitely to be recommended.
2019-02-16 22:44
At the British Library on Monday examining "The Cornish British Vocabulary" by William Hals (1655–1737) — photo by @Evertype
2018-11-25 02:15
By far the most exciting moment of my visit to the Bibliothèque nationale de France came when I saw this scroll being unrolled, and I immediately recognised it as the unique Tang dynasty manuscript of pipa lute notation for 25 tunes.
2018-11-25 00:55
After the conference we went to the Bibliothèque nationale de France to examine Tangut fragments and other treasures. Here is me and Prof. Arakawa Shintarō looking at an unidentified Tangut dharani (I left my reading glasses in the cloakroom, so it is all a bit of a blur for me!)
2022-09-28 14:45
This plaque commemorating the infamous Welsh antiquarian Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams, 1747–1826) was erected at the site of his bookshop in Cowbridge (Y Bont-faen) on the centenary of his death. Photo taken for me by @april_nishi at the weekend.
2021-01-22 12:11
The 9th-century Old Turkic book of divinations, Irk Bitig (𐰃𐰺𐰴 𐰋𐰃𐱅𐰃𐰏), comprises 65 divinations, each headed by three groups of between one and four circles representing the omen (𐰃𐰺𐰴) that is the subject of the divination (Omens 38 [3-1-4] and 39 [2-2-4] shown) ...
2020-12-19 00:02
Spectral imaging of Mogaoku Cave 465 reveals the Sanskrit "Ye dharmā hetu" dhāraṇī stamped on paper as part of a consecration ritual for the ceiling paintings (dated as late Tangut or Yuan) nature.com/articles/s4159…
2019-07-23 14:06
British Library Add MS 73525 (bl.uk/manuscripts/Fu…) is a collection of manuscript fragments dating from the 10th through 16th centuries, including this single folio "in an unknown script, in red, blue, and black ink, possibly liturgical in nature".
2019-04-07 14:27
酔後失禮謝書 (Or.8210/S.2200)
昨日多飲，酔甚過度。麁踈言詞，都不醒覺。朝來見諸人説，方知其由，無地容身，慚悚尤積。本緣小噐，到次滿盈，(深反仄，深反仄)。伏望仁明，不賜罪責。續當面謝，先狀諮申。伏惟監察。不宣，謹狀。
2019-03-28 14:27
The British Library’s unique copy of the 1592-1593 Amakusa edition of Feiqe no monogatari [Heike monogatari], Esopo no fabulas [Isoho monogatari] and Qincuxu [Kinkushū] in Portuguese romanization is now available online dglb01.ninjal.ac.jp/BL_amakusa/en…
2019-01-18 01:50
Ersu sacred printing sticks.
2018-10-24 10:25
Here's something I've never seen before. A Chinese style carved wooden table with an inscribed slab of rock (10" × 6") embedded in the middle (transcription in next tweet). Found in a junk shop in Cirencester. Anyone got any ideas about when or why the table was made?
2017-09-23 12:36
And here are a couple of Syriac inscriptions by the Nestorian priest Särgis [at the Hohhot White Pagoda], with unencoded nišan sign at bottom of each.
2017-05-10 21:57
Leaf from 1476/1477 book printed by Caxton, cunningly displayed at Reading Uni so as to be near impossible to photo. bbc.co.uk/news/education…
2015-10-22 08:07
吉祥如意 — #Nüshu 女书 calligraphy by Prof. Zhao Liming 赵丽明, a kind present to me at the end of #WG2_64 meeting in Matsue
2022-09-05 15:09
Peter Boodberg's classic "The Chinese Script: An Essay on Nomenclature (The First Hecaton)" published in the Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 29.1 (1957) provides a tongue-in-cheek graphematical analysis of Chinese characters www2.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/file/4172QIftZ…
2022-07-07 13:32
I just love that someone invented a Chinese name for the Chinchilla that is derived from 珍珠 'pearl' with the 'jade' radical changed to the 'dog' radical.
2022-06-29 10:35
1929 cover for the 蘇俄小説專號 (Soviet-Russia) special edition of Wénxué Zhōubào 文學周報 (Literature Weekly) by Qián Jūntáo 錢君匋 using proto-simplified characters thetype.com/2022/06/23843/…
2022-05-25 16:13
《新編篇韻貫珠集》(大明正德丙子年[1516]九月重陽日重刊本)
2022-02-25 14:38
To commemorate the death of the famous Chinese linguist Yuen Ren Chao 趙元任 (1892‑1982) on this day forty years ago, here is a short thread about his innovative Chinese translation of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky", first published in full in "Through the Looking Glass" in 1872.
2022-02-14 14:02
A late 1970s or early 1980s mimeographed pamphlet of xiēhòuyǔ 歇后语 (two-part sayings), a nice example of the sort of ephemeral self-produced items that were sold by street vendors in China at the time
2022-02-11 15:45
It is very strange that no second stage simplified (二简) form of 彝 was ever defined, but that did not stop someone inventing a simplified form (⿱夕一 for 彑) in this 1979 mimeographed publication of 彝文的起源及其字形结构 held at Princeton University Library
2019-03-03 10:35
This is the last page of the Chinese volume, corresponding to lines 18-21 of the small character inscription on the east wall (i.e. the end of the Record of Merits for Constructing the Pagoda 造塔功德記) ...
2019-03-02 17:25
I'll post pictures of the four scripts/languages kindly supplied by @library_carlyr over the next few days. To start with, here is the first page of the volume covering the Chinese inscriptions, which corresponds to lines 1-2 of the large character inscription on the west wall.
2023-07-21 18:12
My favourite number system is the set of 'ritual' Tangut numbers used for certain special purposes, which are written with two different sets of characters depending on usage en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangut_nu…
The killer feature is that 4 and 7 are pronounced identically!
2023-07-19 20:44
Many thanks to @edwardW2 for noting that this illustrated Tangut text (fragments of which appeared at auctions in 2014, 2016, and 2019) corresponds to the Chinese Yoga Rite for feeding the Flaming Mouth Ghosts 瑜伽焰口
2023-07-19 14:13
Tangut proverb (𘋥𘝿 21b):
𘁏𘁅𘘤𗅁𗉝𗋚𘏊𗽓𗅁𘙇𘐏𗅠𗅋𘎘
𗉟𘁑𘘤𗅁𗲔𗋚𘏊𗔇𘂤𘙇𘐏𗺱𗅋𘏉
If you stuff a bull's skin with hay and place it in a marsh then the cows will not sniff it
If you stuff a cat's skin with cake and place it in a granary then the mice will not bore into it
2023-04-28 15:21
The third unencoded Tangut character in the Golden Light Sutra (金光明最勝王經) occurs in first of ten dhāraṇī given in vol. 4, where it is phonetically glossed as "𗑓𗜜", i.e. dji¹ / ꞏjo² = djo²
2023-04-26 14:52
My informant, known only as hqsjg, noted another unencoded Tangut character in the same volume (a rather interesting example which I'll discuss on Friday), so this morning I went through all of 金光明最勝王經 (中國藏西夏文獻 3-4), and found one more unencoded character in vol. 6.
2023-04-24 20:01
Interesting discovery by "hqsjg" of an unencoded Tangut character in the Tangut translation of the Golden Light Sutra (𗵒𘉍𗭼𗩾𗠁𘟙𗖰𗚩). The annotation below indicates that it is a phonetic transcription character pronounced nja² (𘔚 njij¹ / 𘁂 ꞏja²)
2023-04-17 12:18
I finally succumbed to the temptation, and asked ChatGPT to teach me about cats who can read Tangut manuscripts ... apparently they can't
2023-02-20 20:31
Tangut family name character 𗣵 mbêi¹ (I think, although the article says 白 which would be 𗥻 phê¹) engraved on the base of a ceramic piece from the Western Xia kilns site at Suyukou (苏峪口瓷窑遗址) in the Helan Mountains stdaily.com/index/kejixinw…
2022-10-23 19:17
20 years ago, in October 2002 a coin collector bought some old coins at a market in Wǔwēi 武威 Gansu, one of which was later identified as a unique Chinese-Tangut chess piece with 🩨 'Mandarin' on one side, and Tangut 𘙶 (as an abbreviation for 𘙶𗹑 'general'?) on the other side.
2022-10-03 00:14
The 4th image shows part of an almost complete copy of a movable type edition of the Tangut translation of 《大方廣佛華嚴經普賢行願品》 (pages 21–22 of 64) held at Gansu Museum ...
2022-09-22 13:54
This Tangut grain contract (Or. 12380/2529 A+B) is interesting for a number of reasons, but one feature that struck me was the incompletely-written character 𗝏 ndụ² (a dry measure = Chinese 斗), which should be an aborted mistake for 𗚻 śi̭e² (= Chinese 升, 1/10th of a 斗).
2022-09-06 22:02
This British Library Tangut fragment (Or.12380/3598) is rather unusual, with large Sanskrit syllables written along the top. Offhand I can't think of anything similar, and I cannot find any related fragments in IDP. Appears to read ka mā and ha̐ to me, but happy to be corrected.
2022-08-19 15:56
The Tangut characters on this wooden sutra tag from Kharakhoto held at the British Library read 𗰗𗫸𗲄𗧤𘆄𗥃𗴮 (十住断結等四部) "Ten Stages of the Cutting of the Bonds [Sutra] etc., 4 works"
2022-08-16 16:09
There are so many interesting Tangut fragments in the British Library @idp_uk collection which are seemingly unexplored. This one caught my eye because of the unusual three-character structure in the middle, with at least six instances of 𗹦𗤓X (天妙X) idp.bl.uk/database/oo_lo…
2022-08-14 20:38
Nice CCTV report on ancient book conservation at the National Library of China, mostly showing the conservation of a very poorly-preserved Tangut book (but some random Ming book towards the end) tv.cctv.com/2022/08/14/VID…
2022-08-14 16:53
The date on this Tangut manuscript fragment (idp.bl.uk/database/oo_lo…) is really rather strange:
𘓺𗼴𗿼𗏁𗒹𗤒𗼑 𗾞
It translates into Chinese as "天乙酉五七年月 日" with the era name abbreviated ambiguously to 𘓺 'heaven', and the era year given as 5/7.
2022-06-14 12:09
The first ever study of Tibetan phonetic glosses for Tangut characters was published as A Brief Manual of the Si-hia Characters with Tibetan Transcriptions (西藏文字對照西夏文字抄覽) by the Russian linguist Nikolai Nevsky (1892–1937) in March 1926 when he was living in Japan.
2022-05-27 15:37
This Tangut Buddhist manuscript (National Tangut Catalogue No. G31·026) was discovered at the Hàimǔdòng 亥母洞 cave site near Wǔwēi in Gānsù in 1987.
2022-04-22 13:49
Two 1960's Soviet photographs of the same Tangut/Tibetan manuscript. According to the scale in the left photo it is 22cm high, but according to the scale in right photo it is only 15 cm high. Oh...
2022-04-06 17:04
I was shocked and dismayed to see this discussion of the Tangut name for the Tangut state by Prof. Shǐ Jīnbō 史金波 on pp. 434–435 of his "Tangut Language and Manuscripts" (2020; trans. by @Hansong_Li from his 2003 《西夏文教程》) . Egregiously incorrect parts are marked in red.
2021-04-25 14:03
This "seal" with the Tangut character 𗡞 'thousand' used to be in the collection of Luó Zhènyù 羅振玉 (1866–1940) but is now lost. 1/2
2020-11-25 21:42
As I discussed a few months ago, the Musée Guimet in Paris has a Western Xia bronze official seal, published as an appendix to the edition of the Tangut Lotus Sutra (2018). The appendix also records five bronze passes (牌子 páizi) held at the Guimet
2020-10-31 14:14
These are some of a number of scattered fragments of a manuscript document in Tangut script recording court cases from the Guazhou Department of Military Supervision (瓜州監軍司審判案). 1/thread
{中研院史語所 Institute of History and Philology}
2020-08-04 12:44
This Ming dynasty woodblock edition of the Tangut translation of the High King Avalokitesvara Sutra (𗣛𘟙𗯨𗙏𘝯𗖰𗚩 = 高王觀世音經) is one of two Tangut texts from the collection of Zhōu Zhàoxiáng 周肇祥 (1880–1954) which are now held at the Palace Museum in Beijing.
2020-07-31 13:40
I have spent the last week or so researching the sordid world of Chinese auctions of Tangut documents, and I have documented all I can find on this page babelstone.co.uk/Tangut/Auction…
2020-07-20 18:35
The Tangut text on the Baoding dharani pillars is written in neat regular script, but I've noticed that one character, 𘟛 'wisdom' (used in the names of monks), is written using a cursive form (ms example shown for comparison), as shown for the names 𘟛𗠁 (慧勝) and 𘟛𗗚 (慧海).
2020-07-20 16:13
Western Xia painting on the southern wall of Yulin Cave 29 (榆林窟第29窟) in Gansu, showing a child with the accompanying Tangut inscription 𘃾𘝳𗥔𘀄𗈪𗤶𗖵𗨳 "grandson Mɪ-lhəɯ-ngi̯u turns to the Buddha with all his heart". 1/2
2020-07-13 18:08
I love the colour scheme for the wooden enclosure for the famous Tangut dharani pillars at Baoding ...
2020-07-07 18:08
The Tangut discoveries at the Shanzuigou caves (山嘴沟石窟) in Ningxia, a blog post in collaboration with @cosmicore babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2020/07/s…
2020-07-05 14:24
This is the third movable type edition of a 12th-century Tangut Buddhist text from the Shanzuigou site. It is a translation from the Chinese text 占察善惡業報經 "Sūtra of Divination to Examine the Karmic Retribution" [T839]. Only this page and a very small fragment were found.
2020-07-03 15:00
Three different movable type editions of Tangut Buddhist texts were found at the Shanzuigou site in Ningxia. This one (with a woodblock-printed title slip) shows uneven inking which is a common feature of editions printed with baked clay movable type.
2020-07-02 13:16
While we are waiting for my blog post on the Shanzuigou site to be ready, let's look at a third interesting piece: the end page from a Tangut Buddhist text printed using baked clay movable type (you can tell at a glance!). It lists the people involved in the printing process.
2020-07-01 15:13
Here is a Tangut medicinal recipe titled "Powdered medicine for ten thousand ailments" (𗩩𗦮𘋅 = 萬病散), although the first line says that it is a cure for green and white phlegm (taking 𗣩 as a transcription of Chinese 痰).
2020-06-27 10:42
Does anyone have any idea what this script is? I am totally stumped. I'll give the details tomorrow, but all I'll say for now is that it is from China in a c. 12th century context.
2020-05-19 19:41
This is a bronze Western Xia official seal for a military commander (Tangut 𗥦𗖅 = Chinese 首領) held at the Musée Guimet in Paris.
2020-05-11 12:23
In response to @TangutSea's latest tweet (twitter.com/TangutSea/stat…), I was up last night until 3 am transcribing the unique manuscript copy of the Tangut translation of the Sāgara-nāgarāja-paripṛcchā (Question asked by the Dragon King of the Sea) [T599] (Or.12380/3621)
2020-03-09 20:21
My simple guide to the nine Tangut disunifications introduced in #Unicode13 babelstone.co.uk/Tangut/Disunif…
2020-02-24 20:39
This is big news to me! In May 2015 the National Library of China acquired 18 bundles of Tangut documents in a very poor state from a book dealer in Yinchuan who had contacted eminent Tangutologist Prof. Shi Jinbo. culture.people.com.cn/n1/2020/0221/c…
2019-12-15 20:00
Wooden tablet with ink inscription in semi-cursive Tangut recording repairs to the Baisigou Square Pagoda (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baisigou_…) between the 13th and 23rd days of the 5th month of the 13th year of the Zhenguan era, i.e. 27 June to 7 July 1113 in the Julian calendar.).
2019-12-12 12:23
This woodblock for a Tangut Buddhist text which was found inside the Hongfo Pagoda 宏佛塔 north of Yinchuan Ningxia in 1990 is believed to be the oldest surviving text printing block in China (I took the photograph at the Ningxia Museum in 2016 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hong…).
2019-09-15 12:48
Five Western Xia official seals in #Tangut seal script on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing.
2019-05-06 14:34
Today's exciting (for me) #Tangut discovery in the Stein Collection at @idp_uk is a tiny fragment of the very rare "A edition" of the Tangut Homophones (𗙏𘙰 = 同音) idp.bl.uk/database/oo_lo… (outlined in red)
2019-05-04 18:33
Tangut seal imprint for the "Head Supervisor of Grain Measurement" 𘑐𘅞𗥦[𘏿] on a fragment from the Stein Collection at @idp_uk idp.bl.uk/database/oo_lo…
2019-05-04 11:30
Mars (𗜐𗵫) with Scorpio (𘓺𘊓), and the 3rd lunar mansion (𘞱𗵫 = "Under Constellation") on his left. #Tangut
2019-03-22 21:08
When I was attending a Tangut colloquium in France last November (twitter.com/BabelStone/sta…) Prof. Arakawa Shintarō kindly gave me a copy of his 2016 study on Tangut cursive characters, which includes this very useful appendix by Ono Hiroko (小野裕子) listing 60 characters.
2019-03-18 21:12
The Tangut manuscript discussed here (twitter.com/BabelStone/sta…) & here (twitter.com/BabelStone/sta…) is interesting in so many ways; and one unexpected point of interest turns out to be the writing on the other side of the paper which so annoyingly disrupts our reading of the text ...
2019-03-17 11:32
Tangut cursive script is extremely difficult for the modern student to learn (we have no masters to teach us), and I am still a beginner. Maybe when @tkasasagi has completed her fantastic work with AI recognition of kuzushiji she can turn her attention to cursive Tangut!
2019-03-16 13:31
The dark underbelly of #Tangut society ... a manuscript contract for the private sale of household slaves (Institute of Oriental Manuscripts Inv. No. 4579 from Kharakhoto).
2019-03-07 16:43
This is the last page of the Tangut volume, corresponding to the last 3⅓ lines of the transcription in small Tangut characters on the east wall of the Sanskrit Dharani-Sutra of the Victorious Buddha-Crown.
2019-03-06 15:57
This is the first page of the Tangut volume, corresponding to the surviving two-thirds of the first line of the Tathāgata-hṛdaya-dhāraṇī-sūtra in large Tangut characters on the west wall:
□□□□□□□□𗏵𘅄𗬂𘈪𗏤𘕜𗫂𘀍𗕘𗙫𗏵𗶴𗦆𗞞𗏵𗐱𗅒𗬔𘀍𘅄
2019-01-13 00:32
Ketu, called the Pearl Star (𗊏𗵫) in Tangut. The Tangut version is depicted with green skin and a hideous appearance, completely different from the other East Asian depictions, and lacking their distinctive iconography.
2019-01-12 13:11
Anyone care to identify and explain the various objects scattered at the feet of the purported Tangut emperor in this painting from Khara-Khoto at the Hermitage? Including coral branch, rhinoceros horn, pair of flaming pearls? hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/her…
2019-01-11 19:40
Western Xia painting of a Garuda (Tangut 𗡝𗜪𗓽 ka lew lo) from Khara-Khoto at the Hermitage Museum hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/her…
2019-01-11 12:07
Tangut title on top left is 𗼑𗎾𗵫 "moon comet star". The donor's name is given at the bottom left as 𘓞𗄈𗇋𗥚𗳩[?][?] but I can't make out the last two characters which are the given name of someone with the family name 𗥚𗳩 Ziq-o (in Miyake transcription).
2019-01-05 16:17
Western Xia bronze hand mirror with a picture of an official and a deer, above which are the #Tangut characters 𘔭 [1dzen4] "money" (Chinese 錢) and 𘑨 [2wuq1] "to aid" (Chinese 祐) respectively. Photographed at the Xixia Museum in Yinchuan.
2019-01-01 19:32
Film by Ilia Stogoff made for the 200th anniversary of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (Asiatic Museum) of the Russian Academy of Studies orientalstudies.ru/eng/index.php?… (the Tangut dictionary "Sea of Writing" 𘝞𗗚 shown)
2018-11-21 10:37
Folke Bergman's photo of the northwest corner of Khara-khoto in January 1931 (jarringcollection.se/travel/travels… via @csen_nomads) ...
2018-10-18 10:28
The 1278 Stele of Xiaoli Qianbu 小李鈐部 (1191–1259), a Tangut official under the Yuan dynasty, found in 2013 at Daming, Hebei babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2015/01/t…
2018-10-18 10:27
The 1350 Stele of Laosuo 老索 (1188–1260), a Tangut official under the Yuan dynasty, found in 1985 at Baoding, Hebei babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2015/01/t…
2018-08-27 19:08
"A bit of Tangut printing" from T. F. Carter's "The invention of printing in China and its spread westward" (1931) twitter.com/shugeorg/statu…
2018-08-12 14:32
Tangut clay elephant from inside one of the 108 stupas in Ningxia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:108_… — possibly the base for a statue of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra #WorldElephantDay
2018-08-10 18:42
Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī riding a lion on a Tangut silk painting from Khara-Khoto hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/her… #
As is the case with so much Tangut vocabulary, the Tangut word for 'lion' 𘆅𗹛 ₂ka¹₂che³ is of unknown etymology (the 2nd element 𗹛 is a homophone of 𗗯 'dog').
2017-09-11 10:36
Tangut printed with moveable type — the same defective type sort (broken stroke) is used on two consecutive folios unicode.org/L2/L2017/17314…
2017-01-09 21:48
Label on top right is 𗂰𗏣𗵒𗵫 "Golden Star of the West" (Chinese 西方金星). Taurus is the "Golden Ox" 𗵒𗅠 in Tangut, so golden in the picture.
2017-01-09 19:58
At SOAS today I find the sources for Clauson's #Tangut Dictionary (evertype.com/books/ctt1-cla…), probably all from Clauson's own collection.
2016-06-15 19:53
#Tangut calligraphy #2: U+17FE2 𗿢 "imperial edict" (eap.bl.uk/database/large…) @idp_uk
2016-05-27 10:42
#Tangut calligraphy: U+18250 𘉐 "achievement" (idp.bl.uk/database/oo_lo…) @idp_uk
2022-02-24 11:59
I thought I had tweeted this before, but cannot find it, so here is the Dharani-Sutra of the Victorious Buddha-Crown in Tibetan, handwritten in 1753 by the Qianlong Emperor; recovered from Beijing's White Pagoda Temple during repairs in 1978.
2021-02-01 09:51
The seal with a picture of a camel 🐫 has an inscription in Tibetan running along the bottom and right side which has been read as: དབོན་འ་ཞ་རྗེ་རྟགས dbon a zha rje rtags "seal of the nephew King A-zha".
2020-01-28 17:31
Copy of the seal of the Dalai Lama in Chinese, Tibetan and Manchu, from a letter of 1734; in Hunter MS 395 "Numophylacium sinicum" by Theophilus Siegfried Bayer (1694-1738), photographed by @HelenWangLondon chinesemoneymatters.wordpress.com/2020/01/28/67…
2019-04-26 16:32
Dan discusses a previously unknown 8th-century Tibetan stone inscription reported to be sited at the Traduntse Temple (པྲ་དུན་རྩེ་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང) in southwest Tibet. tibeto-logic.blogspot.com/2019/04/stone-…
2019-02-25 11:47
Today I learned (h/t @CraigClunas) that the John Rylands Library (Manchester University) holds Qing dynasty copies of the Sanskrit and Tibetan inscriptions at the Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass. Very important if they predate Bonaparte's 1895 rubbings. luna.manchester.ac.uk/luna/servlet/s…
2018-12-24 02:07
མྱི་ཁྱོད་གི་རོགས་ནི་ལྷ་ཨི་ཤི་མྱི་ཤི་ཧ་ཞེས་བྱ་སྟེ་། །ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་ཤག་ཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་བྱེད་དེ་། ...
"i shi myi shi ha" = "Jesus Messiah"
2023-03-22 18:45
Some personal seals found during excavations of the Dàsōngshān tombs 大松山墓群 at Guì'ān New District 贵安新区 in Guizhou province, including a couple of Yuan dynasty Phags-pa seals mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Y4OEKxeoSN9k…
2020-12-01 17:20
Thanks to the encouragement of General Secretary Xi Jinping, a Yuan dynasty gold paizi with tiger ornamentation and an inscription in Phags-pa Mongolian was found near the Yellow River at Xiuma in Qinghai province this summer (秀麻元代八思巴蒙古文金虎符). epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2020…
2019-03-28 10:40
.@dmatsui1217 discusses the Uighur Buddhist Buyan-Qaya and his father Yïγmïš-Qaya, both from Suzhou (modern Jiuquan in Gansu), who left their marks at the Mogao and Yulin caves. academia.edu/38650396/Dai_M…
Picture shows "I, Buyan-Qaya" in Phags-pa scipt: ꡏꡦꡋ ꡎꡟ ꡗꡦꡋ ꡢ ꡗꡦ
2019-03-05 18:44
The next image is the last page of the Phags-pa volume, comprising a single line of Mongolian written in Phags-pa script, corresponding to the last line of the small character Phags-pa inscription on the east wall:
ꡆꡘ ꡅꡞꡏ ꡎꡟ ꡗꡋ ꡉꡟ ꡗꡞꡋ ꡁꡦꡡꡘ ꡁꡞ ꡁꡦꡊ ꡎꡦꡘ ꡠ
2019-03-04 10:56
This is the first page of the volume of inscriptions in the Phags-pa script, corresponding to the start (line 1 + beginning of line 2) of the Sanskrit inscription in large Phags-pa script on the west wall. It reads top-to-bottom running from left to right (same as Mongolian) ...
2017-09-23 12:36
I went around the pagoda in the dark blindly taking photos of the walls — here's some Phags-pa (ꡌꡓ ꡉ = 寶塔)
2023-05-06 11:14
Here's a simple question. What is the Jurchen word for 'six'? Here is the Jurchen character 'six' in the date "25th day of the 12th month of the 6th year of the Jingtai era (1455)". But how is the character pronounced?
2023-04-22 15:41
Most importantly, Bushell's paper includes a plate showing a rubbing of the famous Jurchen stele recording the names of successful candidates in the imperial exams of 1224 (女真進士題名碑).
2023-04-22 12:58
The drawing was originally printed in the Ming dynasty (c. 1588) Fāngshì Mòpǔ 方氏墨譜 vol. 1 folio 32b (iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view…). The Jurchen text reads "gən-giɛn oŋ ətu-tʃï-jo dei; duin turilə çien andaxai", but the 11th, 13th and 14th characters show corrupted forms.
2023-03-31 16:06
In 1760 Emperor Qianlong of the Great Qing became the first known person to attempt an analysis of the Khitan small script (as inscribed on the base of a jade cup in the imperial collection) ... and thereby inadvertently laid claim to the title of 'Father of Khitanology' ?!
2023-03-30 16:28
A jade cup 玉盞 with the Khitan inscription 𘱗 𘬝𘰭 𘰧𘱸 𘲺 𘯆𘱦 𘭅 𘲆𘱦 'on the birthday of the empress, the family khan gave her [this]', once in the collection of Emperor Qianlong, was acquired by John Calvin Ferguson (1866-1945). But does anyone know where it is now?
2023-02-24 15:52
The Tiānyīgé 天一閣 library in Níngbō holds two of the original three volumes (71 out of 108 folios) of the only surviving example of a woodblock printed edition of the Jurchen section of the Sino-Foreign Vocabularies 華夷譯語 produced during the Ming dynasty.
2023-02-13 15:58
The Yongning Temple stele (永寧寺碑) of 1413 is the latest dated monument inscribed with Jurchen text. It is now held at the V. K. Arseniev Museum of Far East History in Vladivostok. Photo of stele (on the right) by A. L. Ivliev in "Тырские стелы XV века" (2011) plate 76.
2023-01-23 16:45
A very interesting discovery: fragments of five marble slips from a so-called 'jade book' 玉册 were recently unearthed from a Jin dynasty (1115–1234) archaeological site in Beijing kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20230…
2018-03-31 20:31
After a hiatus of more than 2 years I return to my blog with a post about a Jurchen inscription on the River Arkhara in Russia babelstone.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/jurche…
2017-08-18 17:15
Jurchen inscription (c. 1228) found in 2014 in Northern Shaanxi — incomplete but beautiful calligraphy sohu.com/a/56226426_119… #Jurchen #女真文
2023-06-11 14:42
Tang dynasty fish tally (魚符) inscribed "中郎霫莫遂州長史合蠟" which was found in Mongolia in 2011 mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NT32VtY4xpwe…
2023-04-22 13:37
Bushell also gives a woodcut of a bronze fish tally (魚符) with Khitan small script inscription reading "𘰲 𘭕𘲀 𘬝𘮒 𘰷𘯡𘳕" = "Commander of the Heaven Cloud Army" (天雲軍詳穩) and "𘮜𘭱" = "Imperial" on the tail.
This was in Bushell's personal collection -- where is it now?
2022-10-09 10:49
Bronze charm found near Kyzylorda in Kazakhstan, with images of the twelve zodiac animals on one side, and the Khitan Large Script words for Rat (left), Rabbit (top), Horse (right), and Rooster (bottom) on the other side zeno.ru/data3/Belyaev%…
2021-05-26 17:56
Yesterday Vladimir Belyaev presented a report at the XXI All-Russian Numismatic Conference on two groups of bronze coin-like charms with possible Khitan Large Script inscriptions which were separately found in Kyrgyzstan in the autumn of 2020.
2020-08-19 01:33
Earlier this month the Empress Dowager Xiao Canal Museum of Culture 萧太后河文化馆 opened to the public in Tongzhou District of Beijing, with over 1,000 exhibits relating mostly to Khitan history and culture acquired from private individuals (民间收藏品) beijing.qianlong.com/2020/0803/4517…
2020-08-13 22:53
Exciting news! A Liao dynasty inscription in Khitan Small Script written in ink above the entrance to a cave has recently been discovered at Wulandaba Sumu in Bairin Left Banner, Inner Mongolia chinanews.com/cul/2020/08-07…
2020-05-10 00:04
A Khitan Large Script bronze seal discovered in Uzbekistan in 2019 — study by Vladimir Belyaev et al. in Revue de la Société de Numismatique Asiatique No. 33 (March 2020) academia.edu/42322090/Recen…
2020-02-02 18:01
This gold pendant with Khitan Small Script inscriptions on one side in regular script and on the other side in seal script was published in "Radiant Legacy: Ancient Chinese Gold from the Mengdiexuan Collection" 金曜風華: 夢蝶軒藏中國古代金飾 (ISBN 978-962-7055-21-1) ...
2019-01-26 00:39
New photo of the jade fragment with Khitan Small Script inscription that I discussed on my blog last year babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2018/11/y…
2018-11-29 10:32
I've just published a blog post on the Khitan Jade from the Liao Mausoleum at Yiwulü Mountain babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2018/11/y…
2016-09-25 14:48
Newly discovered fragments of Khitan large script written on the wall of a tomb in Inner Mongolia sssc.cn/a/20160922/147…
2016-09-10 20:04
Day 11: Upstairs the gallery is ready for opening, and we see our first Khitan (Small Script) epitaph of the trip
2016-09-10 19:40
Day 11: No Khitan epitaphs on public display here either, but several fragments of Khitan Large Script inscriptions.
2016-09-09 19:52
Day 10: No Khitan epitaphs on display; but we find 3 unpublished Khitan Large Script epitaphs leaning against a wall
2015-04-03 21:20
Liao dynasty clay coins with Khitan Large Script 天朝萬順 inscription bbs.chcoin.com/show-7330804.h…
2023-03-23 19:06
Old Uyghur word ärkägün (也里可温) 'Christian' written in ink on a brick (left column) and in decorative script on a wall inscription, from the Tang dynasty Christian monastery site at Qitai County in Xinjiang mp.weixin.qq.com/s/m3MnfCCzRx8h…
2019-03-15 20:29
And this page corresponds to the bottom ⅓ of the 8th line to the top ⅓ of the 12th line of the small Uighur inscription on the east wall (presumably the last ⅔ of the last line are over the page) ...
2019-03-15 19:04
Finally we come to the 4th volume, with copies of the inscriptions in the Old Uighur script (parent of the Mongolian script). This page corresponds to the large Uighur inscription on the west wall, starting about ½ way down the 2nd line and ending near the bottom of the 3rd line.
2018-11-25 01:36
And this is a fragment of an Old Uyghur manuscript from the Pelliot collection (gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv…) for @dmatsui1217
2022-09-17 12:27
New Scottish Ogham inscription has landed, and it looks like a humdinger!
2022-07-08 19:17
First recorded in Richard Carew's Survey of Cornwall (1602), "King Arthur's stone" now lies on the bank of the River Camel. Engraved LATINI IC IACIT FILIUS MAGARI and LATINI ᚂᚐᚈᚔᚅᚔ in #Og_h_am. My photo from August 2010. #InternationalDayOfOgham
2020-07-22 16:25
Miniature sandstone ogham stone (only 11 cm in length and 199 g in weight) dug up by a gardener in the Binley and Willenhall area of Coventry. h/t @Evertype
{Mysterious sandstone rock engraved with ancient script found in Coventry garden}
2019-07-25 17:59
The Silchester Ogham Stone, found at the bottom of a well in the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum in 1893. Photographed by me on this day three years ago.
2018-08-20 10:01
Beautiful and unusual example of the use of the X-shaped supplementary ogham letter k ᚕ. Three of the stones in this cluster commemorate members of the Toicacas tribe, twice spelt normally as TOICACI ᚈᚑᚔᚉᚐᚉᚔ, but once spelt TOICAKI ᚈᚑᚔᚉᚐᚕᚔ (as shown on the photo).
2018-08-17 19:02
Ogham-inscribed jewellery is very rare. This amber bead from Co. Clare is inscribed with a magical word in Ogham script that Macalister, with no great conviction, reads as ATUCMLU ᚐᚈᚒᚉᚋᚂᚒ (-CMLU visible in the image, the V-shaped mark below the stemline is U apparently).
2018-08-17 18:47
Whenever I go to the British Museum, as I did today, I get to this Ogham stone from Devon, and just stop and gaze at it for ten minutes. For me it is one of the most perfect objects in the museum.
2021-08-21 22:05
Note the 'x' rune in the 2nd column which is the same as the new Anglo-Saxon runic vowel letter used three times in the recently discovered Baconsthorpe runic inscription arild-hauge.com/PDF/Baconsthor…
2018-08-31 11:15
ᚴᚢᚱᛁᛚᛋᛅᚱᚦᚢᛅᚱᛅᚠᛅᚱᚦᚢᚾᚢᚠᚢᚾᛏᛁᚾᛁᛋᛏᚢᚦᚢᚱᚢᛁᚵᛁᚦᛁᚴ
ᚦᚨᚱᛋᛅᛏᚱᚢᛏᛁᚾᛁᚢᚱᛁᛚᛋᛅᚱᚦᚢᛅᚱᛅᚢᛁᚦᚱᛅᚦᚱᛅᚢᛅᚱᛁ
kurilsarþuarafarþunufuntinistuþuruigiþik
þorsatrutiniurilsarþuarauiþraþrauari
2018-08-17 21:32
Anglo-Saxon stone cross-head from St Mary's Church, Lancaster, inscribed with runes reading: ᚷᛁᛒᛁᛞᚫᚦᚠᚩ | ᚱᚫᚳᚣᚾᛁᛒᚪᛚ | ᚦᚳᚢᚦᛒᛖᚱᛖ[ᚻᛏ] ''gibidæþ foræ cynibalþ cuþbere[ht]'' ("Pray for Cynibalth, Cuthbert").
2018-08-17 21:00
Anglo-Saxon gold runic ring, found in June 1817 at Kingmoor near Carlisle, and inscribed with an uninterpretable inscription comprising 30 Anglo-Saxon runes (last 3 on inside):
+ÆRKRIUFLTKRIURIÞONGLÆSTÆPON / TOL
᛭ᚫᚱᛣᚱᛁᚢᚠᛚᛏᛣᚱᛁᚢᚱᛁᚦᚩᚾᚷᛚᚫᛋᛏᚫᛈᚩᚾ / ᛏᚩᛚ
2018-08-17 20:03
The Anglo-Saxon runic-inscribed Seax of Beagnoth en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seax_of_B…
2018-08-14 21:25
Another Anglo-Saxon disc-headed pin with a runic inscription, found at Bardney in Lincolnshire, this time engraved with the 15th through 25th letters of the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet: ᛉᛋᛏᛒᛖᛗᛚᛝᛞᛟᚪ x-s-t-b-e-m-l-ng-d-oe-a finds.org.uk/database/artef…
2018-08-14 10:36
ON BM Add. MS 47967 f. 1 are neatly written the Anglo-Saxon runes y-r-þ-e-r-o-ng-t-ng-æ-o-n-ḡ-o-n-ḡ ᚣᚱᚦᛖᚱᚩᛝᛏᛝᚫᚩᚾᚸᚩᚾᚸ incongruously annotated as a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-i-l-m-n-o-p-r-s. bl.uk/catalogues/ill…
2018-08-13 10:04
First eleven letters of the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet (ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳᚷᚹᚻᚾᛁ).
2023-03-16 15:38
Following on from this Jin dynasty tomb mural from Nántóu Village in Shanxi which shows a wéiqí (go) board, let's look at a couple of other Liao and Jin dynasty tomb murals showing wéiqí in play
{{twitter.com/BabelStone/status/1635699844277731330}}
2022-02-23 19:36
One of several dozen liùbó 六博 pattern floor tiles recently excavated from a late Han dynasty (or maybe post-Han) tomb at Láiwú District, Jǐnán, Shāndōng kaogu.cssn.cn/zwb/xccz/20220…
2020-06-10 12:10
One of two surviving Han dynasty sundials, both of which have been repurposed as Liubo game boards by engraving the distinctive "TLV" liubo design over the original sundial markings ...
2020-05-01 23:38
One of my favourite things — people playing the ancient board game of liubo 六博 inside a model three-storied tower from an Eastern Han tomb in Shaan County, Henan (My photo at the National Museum of China, August 2011)
2019-11-12 16:44
The game board depicted on a runestone from Sweden is remarkably similar to that used for playing liubo in China a thousand years earlier. babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2009/05/l…
2018-10-25 01:49
The earliest Western printed description of Xiangqi (Chinese chess) in Thomas Hyde's 1694 De Ludis Orientalibus.
2022-05-02 22:43
Today I learned that Mongolian-Chinese linguist Choijinzhab (确精扎布), who I first met at Xiàmén in January 2005 when finalizing the encoding of the Phags-pa script, passed away on 29 April at the age of 91 (my photo taken in Hohhot in September 2017).
2022-03-31 22:57
Obituary for Luc Kwanten (1944–2021). Born to a Jewish mother in 1944 Berlin, flew Super Starfighter jets for the Belgian Air Force in his youth, studied Tangut at Indiana and Chicago universities in his prime, and ran a literary agency in his later years publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/in…
2019-07-05 10:12
"The Unicode Gang" in 2009 unicode.org/history/photoa… #UnicodeGang
2018-11-15 00:59
Evangeline D. Edwards (1888-1957), Professor of Chinese and Head of Department of the Far East at SOAS, and Acting Head of the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, 1921-1955
2018-11-14 23:42
Various designs drawn by Charles Otto Blagden (1864-1949) digital.soas.ac.uk/blagden/all/br…
2018-11-14 22:47
Letter from Qi Yuzhen 祁育真 (Member of the Shantou Christian Association 汕头市基督教联合会 in the 1950s) to Prof. Evangeline D. Edwards (1888-1957) at SOAS, dated 23 December 1932 (in the papers of Charles Otto Blagden) digital.soas.ac.uk/BL00000059
2019-10-25 12:02
Recent emoji proposals (㉘/⧜):
River emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19334…
Vulture emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19335…
Lotus emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19371…
2019-10-25 11:53
Recent emoji proposals (㉗/⧜):
Low Battery emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19316…
Raised Little Finger emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19326…
Hand with Index Finger and Thumb Crossed emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19327…
2019-09-19 10:52
Recent emoji proposals (㉖/⧜):
Submarine emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19305…
Crow/Raven emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19307…
Mirror Ball emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19310…
Bubbles emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19311…
Chainsaw emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19312…
2019-09-19 10:38
Proposals for black or white versions of existing emoji using ZWJ sequences:
White Wine emoji {🍷⬜} unicode.org/L2/L2019/19276…
Black Cat emoji {🐈⬛} unicode.org/L2/L2019/19277…
Polar Bear emoji {🐻⬜} unicode.org/L2/L2019/19296…
2019-08-13 11:31
Proposal for Face with X Eyes emoji (unicode.org/L2/L2019/19303…) in order to try to sort out the chaos created by incompatible vendor implementations of the existing Dizzy Face 😵 emoji.
2019-06-26 12:33
Recent emoji proposals (/):
Troll emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19232…
@Evertype and myself had to drag this one kicking and screaming through the emoji subcommittee and on to the Unicode document registry!
2019-06-20 05:35
Recent emoji proposals (㉔/⧜):
Biting Lip emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19219…
Diaper emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19215…
Bison emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19187…
2019-04-24 08:57
Recent emoji proposals (㉓/⧜):
Latin Cornbread emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19156…
Blueberries emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19157…
Plunger emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19158…
"What do you want?" pinched fingers emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19159…
2019-04-24 00:52
Recent emoji proposals (㉒/⧜):
Lung emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19149…
Heart emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19150…
Slightly Smiling Face with Tear emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19147…
2019-04-24 00:50
Recent emoji proposals (㉑/⧜):
Seal emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19155…
Tooth Brush emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19153…
Tamale emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19154…
2019-04-24 00:45
Recent emoji proposals (፳/⧜):
Mouse Trap emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19144…
Rock emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19145…
Olive emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19146…
Beetle emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19148…
Knot emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19152…
Roller Skate emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19151…
2019-04-24 00:37
Recent emoji proposals (𝋳/⧜):
Window emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19108…
Two People Hugging emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19109…
Beaver emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19110…
2019-04-09 23:14
Recent emoji proposals (𝋲/⧜):
Hut emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19102…
Teapot emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19103…
Flip-flop / Strap Sandal emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19104…
Bucket / Pail emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19105…
(Coming in thick and fast ... 12 proposals in 12 days)
2019-04-08 23:42
Recent emoji proposals (𝋱/⧜):
Matryoshka emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19096…
Wood emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19097…
Mirror emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19098…
Person Looking in Mirror emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19099…
(because the UTC is "reining it in while we can, as much as we can")
2019-04-03 15:16
Recent emoji proposals (𝋰/⧜):
Long Drum emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19090…
Cockroach emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19095…
2019-03-29 23:48
Recent emoji proposals (𝋯/⧜):
Accordion emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19087…
Sewing needle emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19088…
(and back to today)
2019-03-29 23:45
Recent emoji proposals (𝋮/⧜):
Cooking Pot emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19060…
Placard emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19061…
Piñata emoji unicode.org/L2/L2019/19062…
(clearing the January/February emoji backlog)
2019-03-29 23:40
Recent emoji proposals (𝋭/⧜):
Boomerang emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18331…
Bubble tea emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18341…
Worm emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18343…
(resuming this series at December 2018 after I gave up in despair)
2018-11-16 09:05
Recent emoji proposals (Ⅻ/⧜):
Wrapped Food in Leaf emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18325…
Hook emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18327…
Fondue emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18328…
Elevator and Flight of Stairs emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18329…
2018-10-24 21:44
Recent emoji proposals (⑪/⧜):
Fly emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18317…
Ladder Emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18320…
2018-09-25 20:08
Recent emoji proposals (⑩/⧜):
Disguised Face emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18311…
Coin Emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18310…
2018-08-30 20:35
Recent emoji proposals (9/2):
Capsicum emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18277…
2018-08-02 19:59
Recent emoji proposals (8/2):
Pickup truck emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18260…
Potted plant emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18261…
Tissue box emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18262…
2018-07-10 20:06
Recent emoji proposals (7/2):
Inhaler emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18215…
Magic Wand emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18218…
2018-06-08 09:21
Recent emoji proposals (6/2):
Ninja Emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18197…
Feather Emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18200…
Camouflage Helmet Emoji unicode.org/L2/L2018/18199…
2018-05-08 22:55
Recent emoji proposals (5/2):
Saw unicode.org/L2/L2018/18178…
Screwdriver unicode.org/L2/L2018/18179…
2010-04-25 21:28
Recent emoji proposals (4/2):
Kite unicode.org/L2/L2018/18135…
Pinch unicode.org/L2/L2018/18139…
Orangutan unicode.org/L2/L2018/18137…
Stethoscope unicode.org/L2/L2018/18140…
2018-04-19 10:56
Unicode Technical Committee docs with "emoji" in file name:
2006: 0/407
2007: 1/423
2008: 5/431
2009: 9/425
2010: 5/476
2011: 5/451
2012: 3/391
2013: 1/243
2014: 15/304
2015: 30/343
2016: 55/385
2017: 72/442
2018: 32/131
Somebody please extrapolate the emoji singularity for me.
2018-04-18 20:36
Recent emoji proposals (3/2):
Banjo unicode.org/L2/L2018/18124…
Oyster unicode.org/L2/L2018/18123…
Falafel unicode.org/L2/L2018/18125…
Juice unicode.org/L2/L2018/18130…
Yo-yo unicode.org/L2/L2018/18129…
Ringed planet unicode.org/L2/L2018/18127…
Skunk unicode.org/L2/L2018/18128…
2018-04-12 23:25
Recent emoji proposals (2/2):
Otter unicode.org/L2/L2018/18093…
Flamingo unicode.org/L2/L2018/18098…
Waffle unicode.org/L2/L2018/18087…
Butter unicode.org/L2/L2018/18112…
2018-04-12 23:25
Recent emoji proposals (1/2):
Auto Rickshaw unicode.org/L2/L2018/18086…
Stitting & Standing unicode.org/L2/L2018/18091…
Ballet unicode.org/L2/L2018/18113…
Iceberg unicode.org/L2/L2018/18111…
Blood Drop unicode.org/L2/L2018/18092…
2019-06-17 07:18
Snoqualmie Falls, in the heart of Twin Peaks country.
2019-02-22 14:57
View of the astronomical clock in the Cathédrale Saint-Jean in Lyon.
2019-02-19 23:09
Ci-gît un nid-de-poule 2011–2017 (à Lyon)
2019-02-18 20:59
#OTD in #Lyon 75 years ago: "Ici le 18 février 1944 Bernard Guy, Sergent F.F.I. a été tué par la milice en tentant de s'évader. Passant, Souviens toi!"
2019-02-18 19:52
This week I am in France for a few days, and today I attempted to do a round trip train journey from Lyon to Paris and back (2 hours each way by TGV) in order to consult a Tangut manuscript at the Musée Guimet ...
2018-11-23 21:23
Ce matin j'étais à Arras avec @Romain_Tangoute @vauzhao et des autres tangutologues pour un colloque international «Recontre de Tangoutologie» ...
2017-09-25 07:40
Day 8: Hohhot: Lunch with a Muya Bönpo lama showing us Ersu astrological books.
2017-09-21 12:48
Day 4 (pm): Hohhot: Successful meeting to progress encoding of set of 1,188 #NaxiDongba 纳西东巴characters, with @evertype and Naxi experts.
2017-09-21 07:01
Day 4 (am): Hohhot: Successful meeting to finalize the encoding of a set of 486 #Shuishu 水书characters, with @evertype and Shuishu experts.
2017-09-19 14:43
Kalaviṅka (妙音鳥) from the Yuan capital of Khanbaliq. Kalaviṅka sculptures like this are a particular feature of Tangut Buddhist art.
2017-09-19 11:19
Day 1: Beijing: "A Panda" 阿潘达 and Sun Wukong at Xisi.
2015-10-19 01:31
@ken_lunde @CJKType WG2 meeting starting here at the Kunibiki Messe in Matsue in half an hour, on a hazy morning.
2020-09-27 22:18
Bird box sculpture at Farnham Heath
2020-08-16 21:42
Shadow selfie with cows.
2020-06-16 17:47
This is not Takamatsu 高松 in Japan (where I was meant to be all this week) #dailywalk
2020-05-06 19:32
Some of my favourite cows ...
2020-04-12 16:10
The most glorious Easter day I can remember, but I didn't really have the heart to photograph my Easter walk this year. But here is some beautiful blossom near the old mill over the River Wey.
2020-04-11 16:05
Rock Mill waterfall in Farnham. I've walked past here a hundred times but never realised that it was originally a waterfall until I read this (farnhamherald.com/article.cfm?id…)
2020-03-20 16:58
Spring walk. Cows. In a field near where I live.
2019-11-16 16:01
Off the beaten track at Bourne Wood Farnham
2019-11-04 17:26
Sable Wood, Farnham #dailywalk
2019-08-05 16:42
Almost the last day of filming of 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔒𝔩𝔡 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔯𝔡 at the Bourne Woods this afternoon (photos shot at full zoom through a small gap in the trees at about 300 yards)
2019-07-28 14:40
Went for a Sunday morning walk, so here are some sheep chilling in the shade of some trees near where we live.
2019-06-02 19:31
Little egret in the River Wey today, and then the same bird two hours later in a different stretch of the river.
2018-09-22 12:32
Sunset at Hope Cove last night.
2018-03-02 23:55
Oscar Wilde (1895-1897), with the walls of Reading Gaol on the left and the River Kennet on the right.
2020-05-04 15:20
I hear that it is cool to post pictures of your bookshelves. Here is mine updated for my latest Tangut acquisitions. Hopefully nothing too offensive!
2020-04-26 10:43
Mouse trap ...
2019-09-17 16:10
Annual grape harvest underway at the West household
2019-04-13 20:41
My hamster Mochi eating a pumpkin seed.
2019-03-31 12:53
Mochi, my lovely hamster!
2019-01-30 12:38
Foxy friends in my back garden enjoying the sunshine on a frosty morning.
2023-04-22 12:40
Today's addition to my library of early Tangut, Jurchen, and Khitan scholarship is the Actes du onzième congrès international des orientalistes, Paris 1897, deuxième section (langues et archéologie de l'extrême-orient) which includes ...
2022-12-02 16:47
Arrived today, "A guide to the Tangut script and language" 西夏文字和语言研究导论 (上海古籍出版社, 2021年 ISBN 978-7-5732-0216-1) by Prof. Niè Hóngyīn 聂鸿音
2022-07-07 17:11
In today's post, Dark Earth by @RebeccaStott64 and Relics of the Western Xia 西夏遗迹 by renowned archaeologist Niú Dáshēng 牛达生
2022-06-30 15:56
Many thanks to @ChronHib for copies of his AELAW booklets on Ogam and Cisalpine Celtic. This marvellous series of ten booklets on ancient European languages and writings can be ordered at puz.unizar.es/busqueda?contr…
2022-05-26 17:16
Today's acquisition for my Tangut library, Studies on the Tangut version of theVajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā by Arakawa Shintarō
2022-04-15 10:36
I have now added to my library a copy of Yuen Ren Chao's Sayable Chinese vol. II (1969) which comprises his translation of Through the Looking-Glass
2022-03-01 11:59
Last week I saw a copy of Prof. Arakawa's "Tangut Version of the Lotus Sutra" for sale for only £6 (less than £10 with postage), so I just had to buy it. Arrived today, in pristine condition even though sold as an ex-library copy.
2021-07-26 18:03
A pleasing addition to my Tangut library, Georges Morisse's "Contribution préliminaire à l’étude de l’écriture et de la langue Si-hia" (1904) ...
2020-12-31 14:31
My most treasured book acquisition this year was a rather nice copy of Edward Thwaites' 1698 edition of the Anglo-Saxon Heptateuch.
2020-11-12 17:46
For some reason I never posted a picture of my copy of the Tangut-Chinese Dictionary (夏漢字典) compiled by Lǐ Fànwén 李範文 (2nd ed., 2008) which I got in February 2009.
2020-11-12 14:22
Today's addition to my Tangut library is Prof. Kychanov's 2006 Tangut-Russian-English-Chinese Dictionary, with many thanks to @cosmicore
2020-08-22 12:06
Yesterday I bought a rather interesting copy of the Manx Bible (Yn Vible Casherick, ny yn Chenn Chonaant, as yn Conaant Noa) published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1819 ...
2020-05-04 11:58
Posted from China at the end of February, and finally arrived today: "The Tangut Manuscripts — Lotus Sutra Collected by the Guimet National Museum of Asian Art in France" 法國吉美國立亞洲藝術博物館藏西夏文獻 (2018)
2020-03-17 16:26
A rather special addition to my library of Middle Cornish literature: The Charter Fragment and Pascon agan Arluth (The Passion of our Lord) transcribed and prepared for publication by @Evertype, and translated into English by Nicholas Williams amazon.co.uk/Charter-Fragme…
2020-02-19 20:27
Today I gratefully received from Prof. Arakawa Shintarō 荒川慎太郎 a copy of his wonderful book on the Tangut Lotus Sutra 𗤓𗹙𗤻𗑗𗖰𗚩 volume (vol. 4, chs. 8-11) held at Princeton University Library. A valuable addition to my Tangut book collection!
2019-12-30 21:47
Today I received a copy of a massive book by Lei Runze et al. on the Western Xia (Tangut) Buddhist pagodas and stupas, which I have being trying to get hold of for several years. It has 227 colour plates and 29 plans and sections of pagodas.
2019-04-05 13:24
Today's acquisition for my Tangut Library is this volume from Ostasiatische Zeitschrift October 1917 / March 1918, which includes Anna Bernhardi's "Buddhistische Bilder aus der Glanzzeit der Tanguten" which I think must be the first ever article on Tangut art.
2018-10-27 19:24
The earliest English translation of the Outlaws of the Marsh (水滸傳), under the title All Men Are Brothers, was made by Pearl S. Buck in 1933. 70 years ago an edition with vibrant colour illustrations by Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1957) was published by the Heritage Press ... 0/32
2018-10-27 17:59
Beautifully produced new edition of Jackson's 1937 translation of the Outlaws of the Marsh 水滸傳 foliosociety.com/uk/outlaws-of-…, one of my favourite of the four great Ming novels ...
2018-06-02 14:29
Just received my signed copy of Словари кяхтинского пиджина [Dictionaries of Kyakhta Pidgin] by Profs. Irina F. Popova and Takata Tokio orientalstudies.ru/rus/index.php?… for which I provided the Chinese font covering some rare and as yet unencoded Han ideographs.
2018-02-01 15:29
Today's addition to my library: "Histoire générale des voyages, ou nouvelle collection de toutes les relations de voyages par mer et par terre" tome 25: Description de la Tartarie orientale et du Tibet (Paris, 1749), including a map of the Xia (Tangut) Empire
2017-04-17 01:17
With my recent acquisition of the Tangut Tripitaka (temporarily missing v.3) my #Tangut books no longer fit on one bookshelf.
2017-01-27 19:49
Copy of Clauson's Skeleton Tangut Dictionary that I donated on display at IOM in St Petersburg (photo by @cosmicore) evertype.com/books/ctt1-cla…
2016-09-24 18:30
Today's acquisition for my Tangut library, Bonaparte's 1895 "Documents de l'époque mongole des XIIIe et XIVe siècles" @cosmicore @jerryyou
2016-09-20 11:43
Jin Qizong's 1984 Dictionary of Jurchen 女真文辞典 which I bought in Beijing when it was newly published
2016-09-20 11:28
Not so rare, but still nice to have, Grube's 1896 Jurchen dictionary "Die Sprache und Schrift der Jučen"
2016-09-09 20:44
Day 10: After the museum we have time for book shopping, and I bought this important addition to my Tangut library.
2014-12-18 18:56
Rubbing of Liangzhou Stele Tangut inscription of 1094 in Devéria's 1898 "L'Écriture du Royaume de Si-Hia ou Tangout"
2014-11-15 15:21
Received today, Kychanov's "Catalogue of Tangut Buddhist Monuments at the IOS of RAS" (1999) -- more on this soon!
2014-09-17 19:03
Arrived today, the crucial 1969 edition of the "Sea of Characters" (Море письмен), a Tangut rime dictionary.
2014-09-13 10:20
Arrived today, Kychanov's 1966 "Chinese Classics in Tangut Translation" (Китайская классика в тангутском переводе)
2014-09-08 20:44
Also arrived today, Nevsky's monumental 1960 "Tangut Philology" (Н. А. Невский, Тангутская филология) ...
2014-09-08 19:31
Arrived today, Sofronov's 1968 "Grammar of the Tangut Language" (М. В. Софронов, Грамматика тангутского языка).
2014-07-09 19:22
Copies of my 1996 book 《三國演義版本考》 are still available for purchase directly from me babelstone.co.uk/Publications/B…
2014-01-26 14:02
When I was in China last month I didn't buy any books, but I didn't need to as I got these Tangut & Yi books for free
2020-03-31 14:14
I've just found this sheet of 60 Guangxi 1984 ration tickets for six feet of cloth ... you could make quite a few Mao suits with that!
2020-03-31 12:57
A roll of Chinese 10 yuan commemorative coins for the year of the Gold Rat (2020)
2019-04-29 19:08
From exactly 50 years ago, Chairman Mao and Lin Biao at the 1st Plenary Session of the 9th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, on a tin plaque with Tibetan inscription published by the Nationalities Press (Minzu chubanshe) ...
2018-08-02 13:26
Japanese postcard to Mrs Phelps, i.e. Rose Janet née Hutchinson, wife of John Jay Phelps (1861–1848) of Red Towers Hackensack NJ, found in a second-hand book purchased from the #Yale Co-op in 1995.
2023-07-17 15:07
30 years ago this month (exact date unknown) I successfully defended my PhD dissertation "Quest for the urtext: The textual archaeology of 'The Three Kingdoms'" at the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University proquest.com/openview/f8e39…
2022-08-31 18:53
Where were my toes today?
2022-08-20 23:02
Feeding the capybaras today (spot the Tangut)
2022-04-07 23:11
My toes (stepping gingerly onto the vast expanse of 𗾟 tiles in front of the old Xixia Museum in Yínchuān)
2022-03-31 13:33
30 years ago, on the way to my wife's ancestral home, 3 hours walk from the main road
2022-03-11 13:44
I spent the long summer of '78 before university digging up Anglo-Saxon skeletons here
2021-01-24 15:10
Busy morning in the snow!
2020-08-16 15:00
I like round numbers.
2020-04-15 15:55
OK, what the world's been waiting for, here is my anime self via waifu.lofiu.com/index.html
2019-10-01 09:16
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the 35th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, here is a photo of me recently arrived in China circa October 1984, with 35th anniversary poster in the background (roommate photographer Adrian Bradshaw cropped out).
2018-12-31 14:25
No New Year's resolutions; no predictions for 2019; no complaints about what I failed to achieve this year; just my highlights of 2018 in eight tweets:
2018-10-26 19:11
It's only fair that I post Then and Now photos of myself, so here's an original Adrian Bradshaw photo of me at Chengde in 1985 wearing a hat decorated with a plastic lobster ...
2018-10-26 00:01
This evening I attended the preview of my friend Adrian Bradshaw's exhibition of photographs from 1980s China at Oxford Brookes University brookes.ac.uk/public-art/gla…
Ningxia and Inner Mongolia 2016
Travels in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia with @cosmicore from 17 to 31 August 2016, in search of relics of the Tangut and Khitan peoples.
Beijing, Inner Mongolia and Ningbo 2017
Travels in Beijing, Inner Mongolia and Ningbo, 18 September to 7 October 2017, mostly looking at pagodas.
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