Sawgoek ("root script", IPA: ) or sawva ("insect script", ) was a mythological ancient script mentioned in the Zhuang creation epic '' Baeu Rodo'' ( modern Zhuang script: ''Baeuqroekdoz''). The primordial god Baeu Ro was said to have brought ''sawgoek'' containing four thousand glyphs along with

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

to the Zhuang people. However, in their unfamiliarity with fire, the people stored the fire under a thatched roof, causing the house to catch on fire. The ''sawgoek'' was consumed in the ensuing conflagration, and knowledge of writing was lost. Some Zhuang scholars believe that this myth stems from a vague remembrance of ''sawgoek'' in the collective consciousness of the Zhuang people long after knowledge of the writing system had been forgotten. Sawveh ("etched script", ) refers to some 140 individual symbols inscribed on stonework, pottery, and bronzeworks excavated in western Guangxi, dating from the late

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

, the earliest examples being contemporary with the

Shang Dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

in the North China Plain. The glyphs bear some semblance to the glyphs of the

Hemudu culture The Hemudu culture (5500 BC to 3300 BC) was a Neolithic culture that flourished just south of the Hangzhou Bay in Jiangnan in modern Yuyao, Zhejiang, China. The culture may be divided into early and late phases, before and after 4000 BC respec ...

Wucheng culture The Wucheng culture (吳城文化) was a Bronze Age archaeological culture in Jiangxi, China. The initial site, spread out over , was discovered at Wucheng Township, Jiangxi. Located on the Gan River, the site was first excavated in 1973. The Wuche ...

, Maqiao ruins (stratum V), Taihu Late Neolithic, and other Old Yue ruins in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

. Some scholars suggest that these inscriptions are characteristic of an undeciphered

logographic In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...

writing system A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable fo ...

proto-writing Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium BC in Eastern Europe and China. They used ideograp ...

, but this is disputed due to the lack of evidence of complete phrases. As Chinese cultural influence spread through the Lingnan region from the

Qin Dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), ...

onwards, the

Chinese script Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

came to dominate the region. From the Tang and Song Dynasties onwards, a script for the

Zhuang languages The Zhuang languages (; autonym: , pre-1982: , Sawndip: 話僮, from ''vah'', 'language' and ''Cuengh'', 'Zhuang'; ) are any of more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi and adja ...

based on Chinese characters called ''

sawndip Zhuang characters or ''Sawndip'' (Sawndip: ; ) are logograms derived from Chinese characters and used by the Zhuang people of Guangxi and Yunnan provinces in China to write the Zhuang languages for more than one thousand years. The script is used ...

'' ("raw script", ) came into use.

References

{{Reflist

External links

"Firemaking" section of the ''Baeu Rodo''
(in modern Zhuang script) Proto-writing