World Natural Heritage World Geopark The First National Forest Park of China
Nv Book, as the only found female characters , is originated from a county in the southern part of Hunan province, China-Jiangyong county. So it is also called Jiangyong Nv Book.
As an unique symbol system of female characters, Nv Book is also known as “female characters” used only by female of Yao People who live in Jiangyong and surroundings.By now ,there are nearly 2000 characters with dot, perpendicular,slash,arc four strokes,which characterized in rhomboid shape and slim script.Due to its particularity, “female character” is endowed with another name-Mosquito-shaped Words.
A legend had come down through thousand years about Nv Book.It was said ,long long ago, a youngest daughter of Queen Mother came to the Earth unnoticed.She made friends with females on the earth and learned embroidery from them.However,she noticed that females on the earth had no languages by themselves.Therefore, she transformed the Sealed Book from the Heaven into a kind of slim and particular character .During their needleworking time,she taught females how to sing the new characters .From then on, Nv Book is created.
For Nv Book,a rule is obeyed by Yao females for over thousand year that the female characters are only passed to female descents .To some extent, it contributes the particularity of this mysterious language.
By Aileen
