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Translation of the Ur-Nammu Law Code based on Mapping of Sumerian Signs

onto Chinese Characters

Preprint · October 2018

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19880.42248

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Translation of the Ur-Nammu Law Code based on Mapping of Sumerian Signs onto
Chinese Characters

Xi Frank Xu, Ph.D.

xixu@hotmail.com

October 16, 2018

 Translation of the Ur-Nammu Law Code based on Mapping of Sumerian Signs onto
Chinese Characters
Xi Frank Xu, Ph.D., xixu@hotmail.com

The origin of Chinese writing has been remaining unsettled with many Chinese characters
etymologically puzzling. The first attempt to link Chinese characters to Sumerian signs was made
by Charles J. Ball in a short book “Chinese and Sumerian” (1913) 1. Although Ball’s book provides
only 92 sign-character connections with quite a number of errors, in this author’s viewpoint Ball
made one of the most insightful breakthroughs in finding the origin of Chinese writing. More than
a century later, given significantly improved understanding of Sumerian language and the
evolution of Chinese characters especially about oracle bone script, this author has mapped about
1,300 Sumerian signs or compounds onto their corresponding Chinese characters. In this article,
the Ur-Nammu law code is chosen as an example to show how the mappings are made and how
the results can improve our understanding of Sumerian language and in a bigger picture the status
quo of Sumerology.
Between the set of Sumerian signs/compounds and the set of Chinese characters, the elemental
connection or mapping can be categorized into one-to-one, one-to-multiple, multiple-to-one, and
multiple-to-multiple, and it turns out a majority of the mappings belong to the first two categories.
The most distinction between Sumerian signs and Chinese characters is the former’s high degree
of polyvalence, which contributes to most of the one-to-multiple mapping, specifically denoted as
= in this article. Comparably, the meanings of Sumerian compounds or words are much more
definite, and their mappings to Chinese characters are almost all one-to-one, indicated as ≡ in the
equations below.
The most update and complete translation of the Ur-Nammu law code was given by Civil
(2013) 2. While most of Civil’s translation is confirmed with this author’s Chinese translation, there
are certain deviations present in the clauses discussed below. For comparison, both Civil’s
translation and the new translation are listed with the latter in italics, under which the relevant
equations are provided with further explanation. Numbering of the Code clauses in this article

1
Charles James Ball, Chinese and Sumerian, London: Oxford University Press, 1913.
2
Miguel Civil, “The Law Collection of Ur-Namma”, in Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts in the
Schøyen Collection, A. R. George, Ed. CDL Press, 2013, pp. 221-286.

1
follows exactly that assigned in Civil (2013). It should be noted that the Chinese translation not
shown here is completely word-for-word of the original Code, and to ensure accuracy its English
version in italics is given as literal as possible.

6. tukum-bi dam guruš-a é nu-gi4-a níg-á-gar-šè lú in-ak é bí-in-gi4 nita-bi ì-gaz-e

If a man seduces with guile a betrothed woman not yet married and takes her into
(his) household, this man will be killed.
If a person corrupts the (future) marriage of a betrothed woman not yet married of another
man, this man will be killed.

tukum≡苟 (1)
苟 means ‘if’ , always positioned at the beginning of a conditional sentence. The base sign
句 means ‘hook, join, connect’ corresponding to lal, the last sign of tukum
(ŠU.GAR.TUR.LAL), which indicates that 苟 is a simplification of tukum. The ‘grass’
determinative艹≡ ú is added to differentiate 苟 from 句.

lú ≡人 (2)
人 means ‘person’ that can be either a man (guruš) or a woman, although most times it
refers to a man, which is identical to the role lú plays in Sumerian, e.g. lú in Clause E2 of the
Code refers to a wet nurse.

é-gi4 ≡ 嫁 (3)
é-gi4 is literally translated as ‘return to (her final) house’. There are two Chinese characters
meaning a woman’s marriage, 嫁 and 歸. The first one, 嫁, consists of
女≡ munus (woman) (4)

and 家 ≡ gá (home), related to é. The character 歸, consisting of 帚≡ nin (lady), 𠂤𠂤=kur (land),
and 止=du (go), has another meaning ‘return’, corresponding to gi4. In Chinese 嫁 is used for
a woman to get married as a wife, not as a concubine. The literal meaning of é-gi4 and the two
Chinese characters indicate that the origin of the verb should be irrelevant to virginity loss.

2
 According to Eq. (2), é-gi4 should be translated as ‘marriage’, similar to ama-gi4 translated as
‘freedom, exemption’ in Clause 7 below, instead of the literal meaning. In the OB period the
compound was replaced by a-gi4 (Civil, 2013), which implies perhaps a certain change of
culture.

á-gar≡敗 (5)
敗 has two meanings, defeat and spoil/corrupt/destroy. The sign 貝 denoting shell or pot
means thing or money, corresponding to níg and gar, i.e.
níg/gar = 貝

The original form of the sign 夊 in 敗 is 攴 which means ‘to attack with the right hand’,
representing á. There is also a variant of 敗, 贁, with two 貝 corresponding to níg-á-gar. The
‘spoil/corrupt’ meaning of 敗often applies to morality and social codes. The transgressions
implied in Clause 6 are not necessarily limited to seduction or guile, e.g. taking a woman by
force is surely such a transgression. A relevant verb mentioned in Civil (2013) has the
following equation
á-dar ≡ 奪

which in Chinese means ‘take by force’ 3. 奪 consists of 雀 a bird related to darmušen, and 寸 a
right hand sign, i.e.
á=寸 (6)

敗 has little in common with 奪, and so is á-gar not synonymous with á-dar. A further
comment on Eq. (6) is that, when adding 人 the ‘person’ sign to 寸, it results in 付 meaning
‘to pay to someone’, which confirms Civil’s translation of á in Clause D1b of the Code.

šè = 引 (7)

3
The verb á-dar is translated “zu Unrecht zurückhalten” by Falkenstein 1956–57/3: 90 s.v.; “to sequester (i.e. seize
lawfully)” or, neutrally, “to take hold of” by Steinkeller 2004d: 101 n. 29; “to confiscate” by Sallaberger 2008: 172,
but “to seize illegally, to sequester” by Molina 2008: 133.

3
 引 means string/cord, to lead/cause, and a length unit that is 10 丈≡ nindan (rod and a
length unit), corresponding to the polysemous meanings of the sign of šè.

7. tukum-bi dam guruš-a me-te-a-ni-ta lú ba-an-ús úr-ra-na ba-an-ná munus-bi lú ì-gaz-e nita-bi
ama-ar-gi4-ni ì-gar
If a betrothed girl, on her own initiative, pursues a man (and) sleeps with him, (if) he (the
prospective husband) kills the woman, he will be set free.
If a spouse of a man, on her own initiative, seduces another man, sleeps with him, (and) a
person kills the woman, he will be set free.

dam = 偶 (8)
偶 means spouse. Eq. (8) is confirmed by noting a similarity of the structure between the
base sign 禺 and 商 (≡DAM.GAR3). Note that the oracle bone script of 商 is identical to
Damgar in not only the meaning but the exact structure of the individual signs. As indicated
in Clause 6, a ‘dam’ can be either married or just betrothed not married yet. In this Clause, the
‘dam’ should refer to either a man’s wife (dam-bàn-da) or, if he has, a concubine.

bi = 彼 (9)
彼 means ‘that, those’, a phonetic spelling pronounced exactly as ‘bi’ even nowadays. In
Clause 7 nita-bi refers to the man killing the woman, who is not necessarily her husband,
otherwise the phrase ‘lú ì-gaz-e’ should be written as something like ‘guruš-bi ì-gaz-e’.
According to certain adultery laws in ancient China, anyone killing an adulteress and/or an
adulterer shall not be punishable 4.

8. tukum-bi gemé lú é nu-gi4-a níg-á-gar-šè lú ì-ak é bí-gi4 lú-bi 5 gín kù ì-lá-e

If a man seduces with guile an unmarried slave and takes her into (his) household, this man will
pay five shekels of silver.

4
Records of the Grand Historian, Basics Annal of Qin Shi Huang, Section 44 numbered in
https://ctext.org/shiji/qin-shi-huang-ben-ji/zh#n4776, 夫為寄豭，殺之無罪 translated as ‘Anyone killing an
adulterer shall not be punishable’.

4
 If a person corrupts the (future) marriage of an unmarried slave girl, this person will pay five
shekels of silver.
See the explanation in Clause 6. A typical transgressor indicated in this clause is the male
owner of a slave girl. In such a case the previous translation ‘takes into his household’ becomes
redundant as normally a slave is already a property of the owner’s household.

9. tukum-bi lú dam-PI-ni ì-tak4-tak4 1 ma-na kù-àm ì-lá-e

If a man divorces his favorite wife, he will pay sixty shekels of silver.
If a person divorces his wife (not a concubine), (he will) pay sixty shekels of silver.

dam-PI ≡ 妻 (wife) (10)

The oracle bone script of 妻 consists of a sign of a woman and a puzzling right hand sign
又 next to her. Regarding the compound dam-bàn-da (wife), there is a one-to-one mapping
about bàn-da,
bàn-da ≡ 子

with 子 meaning child, which is confirmed by 妻子, an oral Chinese compound word to call the
principal wife. Identical to bàn-da, 子 is also an honorable title of sagacity. At the time of
Confucius, many scholars held the title 子, including Confucius (孔子) himself with 孔 as the
surname. Thus the right hand sign in 妻 comes not from bàn-da. To explain the right hand sign,
we need the following equation
tuku ≡ 取 (11)

in which 取 means ‘to take’ and ‘to marry the wife’. It should be remarked in Chinese 取 (tuku)
applies to a man marrying his wife and not to a concubine, and 嫁 (é-gi4) in Eq. (2) applies to

a woman getting married as the wife and not as a concubine. The right hand sign in 取 , 又,
indicates the action of taking. The other one, 耳, has a sign of ear with the exact same meaning,
which leads to the following equation

5
 ĝeštug ≡ 耳

An explanation to the use of 耳 in 取 is the compound sign ĝeš-tuku meaning ‘to listen, to hear’,
that is obviously a phonetic spelling of ĝeštug. It is therefore proposed that the right hand sign
in 妻 is actually a simplification of 取, the compound of which with a woman sign indicates a
woman getting married, the exact meaning of 妻 or ‘wife’.
Now let us look at dam-PI. The appearance of the ear sign in 取 may be related to the ear
sign in dam-PI. If read as dam-ĝeštug or dam-ĝeš-tuku, dam-PI may be looked as an alternative
spelling for dam-tuku. Another reason to propose Eq. (10) is actually this clause itself, as it
makes more sense to translate dam-PI as the wife rather than the favorite wife (or spouse), the
latter of which would certainly give rise to judicial difficulties. With Eq. (10), another clause
containing dam-PI, i.e. Clause E4 is translated as “If a man dies, his wife (not a concubine) will
act in the house like a single heir”, which further confirms Eq. (10).

14. tukum-bi dam guruš-a-da úr-ra ná-a lú ì da-lá íd-dè ù-um-zalag-zal[ag] lú ì-da-l[á-a] 1/3 [ma
na kù] ì-[lá-e]
If a man accuses someone of sleeping with a betrothed woman, after the river clears him, the
man who made the accusation will pay twenty shekels of silver.
If a person accuses a spouse of a man of sleeping with someone else, (after) the river clears
her, the person who made the accusation will pay twenty shekels of silver.

The ‘dam’ is explained in Eq. (8). This clause states two persons only, the ‘dam guruš-a’
and the ‘lú ì da-lá-a’, and no third person is mentioned as previously translated.

18. tukum-bi lú lú-ra gištukul-ta gìr-pad-du al-mu-ra-ni in-zi-ir l ma-na kù-babbar ì-lá-e
If a man fractures another man’s . . . bone with a weapon, he will pay sixty shekels of silver.
If a person fractures another’s shin bone with a stick weapon, (he or she will) pay sixty shekels
of silver.

gìr-pad-du ≡ 骨 (12)

6
 骨 means bone, and this one-to-one mapping is proposed based on their uniqueness in both
Chinese and Sumerian vocabularies.

al = 亥 (13)
The oracle bone script of 亥 has a sign puzzling Chinese linguists, which is actually very
close to the proto sign of al indicating a hoe. Equation (13) is confirmed by the compound of
亥 with
dug4 ≡ 言 (14)

which results in 該 meaning ought or deserve, the meaning of ‘al dug4’.

gìr-pad-du al-mu≡骸 (15)

The compound of 骨 in Eq. (12) and 亥 in Eq. (13) results in Equation (15). In Chinese 骸
refers to the shin bone specifically.

tukul≡棍 (stick used as a weapon) (16)

giš

棍 consists of a ‘wood’ determinative 木≡giš and 昆 that is considered to be a phonetic

loan, pronounced as ‘kun’ nowadays.

27. tukum-bi lú ba-úš dam-ni úr-a-na-šè ì-na-ni-tuš sag a-ga-na ne-dé-a ha-ba-an-túm-mu
If a man dies (and) his wife goes to reside with her father-in-law, she can take with her the
slaves of her inheritance and the marriage gifts.
If a person dies (and) his spouse goes to reside with her father, she can take with her the slaves
of her inheritance and the marriage gifts.

a-ga ≡ 殿 (17)
Identical to a-ga, 殿 is a polysemy with two meanings, ‘rear’ and ‘building’. With the
meaning ‘rear’, 殿 has a synonym 後 while the latter also means ‘inheritance’. Equation (17)
thus confirms Civil’s translation of a-ga in this clause.

7
 úr = 氐, 艮, 婚, 襟, 岳 (18)
Both 氐 and 艮 mean ‘root’. A compound of 氐 and 女 in Eq. (4) results in 婚 meaning a
man’s father-in-law. With the ‘cloth’ determinative
衤≡ túg

氐 becomes túgúr = 袛 meaning a certain undershirt. If 氐 is replaced with 禁 (prohibitive), 袛

becomes 襟 which means the chest part of a garment and also ‘brother-in-law’, corresponding
to úr. 艮 is always related to the root of a mountain, and its supposed meaning of father-in-law
somehow transfers to 岳 that also means ‘high mountain’. It is remarked that the father-in-law
meaning of 岳, same as 婚, applies to a man’s father-in-law only, never to a woman’s.
Furthermore, Clause 27 is phrased from the man’s standpoint, i.e. dam-ni refers to his
spouse, and therefore úr-a-na should refer to his father-in-law, i.e. the wife’s father. In the
ancient Chinese society, it was a very distinctive tradition that the wife has an absolute life-long
ownership to her marriage gifts, and it was not uncommon for a widow to return to live in her
own father’s household. Another point is a couple may live with the husband’s father in the
same household, which is a tradition in ancient China if the husband is the eldest son.
While the spouse mentioned in Clause 27 could be either the wife or a concubine, the clause
is considered to mainly aim at the former. A concubine normally comes from a poor family, as
evidenced in the ancient China society, and in such a case this clause makes no much sense to
her.

28. tukum-bi gemé nu-tuku 10 gín kù-babbar hé-na-lá-e

If she has no female slaves, she can pay him ten shekels of silver.
If (she does) not take (her) female slaves, (her late husband’s household) should pay (her) ten
shekels of silver.

29. tukum-bi kù nu-tuku níg-na-me nu-na ab-šúm-mu

If she has no silver, she does not need to give him anything.
If (she does) not take silver, (her late husband’s household) does not need to give (her) anything.

39. tukum-bi a-šà.GÁN lú níg-á-gar-šè lú ì-na ba-an-uru4 di ì-bí-dug4 gú bí-gar lú-bi á-ni íb-ta-è

8
If a man takes up by deception another’s man field, and tills it, after a trial, the yield will be
assigned (to somebody else), and this man will lose his rent.
If a person spoils another person’s field that is being tilled, (as) judged from the yield, an arm
of this person will be tattooed (as a punishment).

di-kud ≡ 判 (19)
The left sign of 判, is originally the symmetric sign 半 meaning equally half, corresponding
to di. The right sign刂 means a knife corresponding to kud, i.e.
Kud =刂 (20)

The meaning of 判 is ‘to judge’, mostly used in legal cases.

di dug4 ≡ 評 (21)
The right symmetric sign 平 means ‘fair, equal, flat’, corresponding to di. The left sign is
given in Equation (14). 評 means ‘comment, judge’, less formal than 判 and normally not used
in legal cases. In Clause 39 the usage of di ì-bí-dug4, rather than di-kud, indicates that the yield
of the spoiled field is simply judged by common people as a witness.

gú = 穀 (grain) (22)
The existing translation of ‘gú gar’, to heap up, can be well applied to Clause 39 to infer
its possible meaning as the yield (of the spoiled field). As gar itself means ‘to heap up’, we
should further look at the meaning of gú here. gú has a relevant meaning ‘pulse, bean’. In the
compound noun gú-nida (hulled grain), gú is also related to grains. In Chinese 榖 is a generic
term to describe all types of grains, and it is pronounced exactly as ‘gu’ even nowadays.

e11=砭 (23)
As the U version is considered to be more faithful than the X version (Civil, 2013), hereby
we adopt íb-ta-an-e11-dè of the U version to replace íb-ta-è in Clause 39. 砭 means to pierce a
human body part using a stone needle. The left sign 石 serves as a “stone” determinative, i.e.

9
 na4 ≡ 石 (24)

The main part of the right sign, 之，indicates a foot meaning ‘to go’, which corresponds to du,
the second sign of the compound verb e11 (LAGAR@g.DU). The first sign, LAGAR@g,
seemingly a stone tool or a stone needle, is simplified into one stroke above 之. The phrase ‘á
íb-ta-an-e11-dè’ is thus translated as ‘to tattoo on an arm’. Forced tattooing is a major
punishment in the ancient Chinese laws. In the laws of the most recent Qing dynasty effective
until year 1911, there were multiple clauses stating clearly a punishment of forced tattooing on
one’s forearm 5.

40. tukum-bi a-šà.GÁN lú lú a-e bí-gub 1 iku 3 še gur ì-ág

If a man causes another man’s field to be flooded, he will pay three gur of barley for each iku
(of cultivated field).
If a person builds a dyke to block another’s field, (he will) pay three gur of barley for each iku.

e = 迺 (25)
In Chinese 迺 serves as a functor, typically located before a verb, which is similar to the
role of e in the ergative case. The proto sign of e is 凵 like a vessel, exactly identical to the
oracle bone script of 迺, while the latter in addition contains 西, interpreted as salt.

è = 是 (26)
是 consists of 日(sun, day) and 疋 ( a foot sign meaning ‘to go’), which correspond exactly
to the two signs of è (UD.DU). A confirmation of Equations (25~26) is that, 迺 and 是 are near-
synonyms in Chinese, so are e and è.

a-e ≡ 隄 (dyke) (27)

Based on Equations (25~26), the right sign of 隄 corresponds to e. The left sign 阝means
a raised strip of land or mound, which somehow replaces water ‘a’ in describing a dyke.

5
Ta Tsing Leu Lee; Being the Fundamental Laws, and a selection from the Supplementary Statutes, of the Penal
Code of China, London: Cadell and Davies, 1810

10
 a-da ≡ 防 (dyke) (28)
In the U version (Civil, 2013), a-e is replaced with a-da. The sign ‘da’ is mapped as
da = 方(quarter, country, now), 旁 (side)

For example, the three meanings of 方, ‘quarter, country, now’, correspond to ub-da, ma-da,
and a-da-al, respectively. Identical to 隄 , by connecting ‘a’ to the sign 阝 , Eq. (28) is
established. A further confirmation of Equations (27~28) is that 隄 and 防 are synonyms as a
dyke, so are a-e and a-da, as evidenced by their parallel positions in the U and X versions (Civil,
2013).
Dykes and ditches are critical to the irrigation system of agriculture in both Sumer and
ancient China. For thousands of years, even up to nowadays, the distribution and drainage of
irrigation water has been a major source of neighboring conflict in the cultivated land of China.
A dyke built unilaterally by a neighboring farmer, with no cooperative effects or agreement, is
expected to more or less block neighboring fields, resulting in a lack of water issue and/or a
drainage/flooding problem.

42. tukum-bi a-šà ki-dur5 lú lú apin-[lá]-šè in-na-šúm 18 iku maš-bi 2 gín-àm a-šà in-da-gál-àm
If a man gives to another a field with access to water for cultivation, the field will provide a
“tax” of two shekels per bùr (of field).
If a person gives to another a field with access to water for cultivation, the field will provide a
gain of two shekels per bùr.

maš = 利 (29)
The right sign of 利,刂, represents a knife corresponding to maš, same as kud in Eq. (20),
probably due to their synonymous meaning of ‘extispicy’. The left sign 禾 refers to grain crops.
In Chinese 利 means ‘gain, profit, interest, benefit’. In this clause it is translated as ‘gain’, while
in Clause D11 should be ‘interest’.

B7. tukum-bi [l]ú dam ì-tuku-àm dam-ni in-tak4 itu 6 ù-na-tuš-àm SAL.DAM šà-ga-na-ke4 ha-ba
an-tuku-tuku

11
 If a man has taken a wife and his wife divorces him, (only) after she has waited six months for
his benefit, is the woman allowed to marry the spouse of her choice.
If a person has married a spouse and divorces her, (after) six months not living together, (then)
the woman can marry the spouse of her choice.

ù ≡ 眔 (30)
It can be clearly seen that the character 眔 has a sign of eye on the top with tears flowing
down, which correspond to the two signs of ù (IGI.DIB). Later 眔 evolves into 泣 meaning ‘cry’
and 暨 meaning ‘and, with’, again, matching the two meanings of ù exactly.

tuš ≡ 処 (31)
処 consists of 几 representing a chair, and the other sign indicating a person. The original
meaning of 処, ‘sitting’, has been largely lost, and been replaced with ‘place, to stay, to live
together’. With Eqs. (30~31), the phrase ‘itu 6 ù-na-tuš-àm’ is word-for-word translated as ‘6
months and not living together”.

E3b. tukum-bi lú ì-sa10-a ba-úš lú-ba dam-ni he dumu-[ni] he lú ki-inim-ma-ni he [na]m-erím ù-

ku5 ˹sag ha˺-ba-an-túm-mu
If the one who made the sale died, (only) after the wife of this man, or his son, or his witness,
had taken an oath, the slave could be taken away.
If the person who made the sale died, (after) the spouse of this man, his son, and his witness
had taken an oath, (then) the slave could be taken away.

he ≡ 齊 (32)
The Chinese proto sign of 齊 is three exact Sumerian signs of ‘he’ together. The original
meaning of 齊, ‘mixing of melted metals’, also matches the meaning ‘mix, alloy’ of ‘he’. In
Chinese 齊 has another much more popular meaning ‘together, and, equal’. In the context of
Clause E3b, it is also more reasonable to translate ‘he’ as ‘and’, instead of ‘or’.
The spouse stated in this clause should refer to the wife, according to Clause E4 “If a man
dies, his wife (not a concubine) will act in the house like a single heir”.

12
F2. [tuk]um-bi 1 sar é-[(dù-a) lú in-sa10 kù-b]i [x gín-àm]
If a man has bought one sar of a building, its silver will be [x shekels].
If a person has bought one sar of an estate, its silver will be [x shekels].

é-dù-a ≡ 宅 (33)
The sign 宀 in 宅 means ‘house’, and it is clear that
é≡ 宀 (34)

The role of the other sign, 乇 , played in this character has been puzzling Chinese linguists. As
it turns out, the sign 乇 should denote a nail, that is the sign of dù. The clue comes from the
original meaning of 宅 in Chinese, that is an estate comprising the main house, outbuildings,
and the courtyard. For a large 宅, the estate further comprises gardens, woods, ponds, etc. No
wonder é-dù-a is misunderstood as a building, so is 宅 in Chinese that has almost lost its original
meaning due to its confusing 宀 (house) sign.

F3. [tuk]um-bi 1 sar KI.[KAL lú] in-sa10 kù-bi 1 gín-à[m]

If a man has bought one sar of an empty lot, its silver will be one shekel.
If a person has bought one sar of hunting land, its silver will be one shekel.

kal ≡ 韋 (35)
The character 韋 consists of three signs, the middle one indicating a vessel or a city, the
top one and the bottom two feet surrounding the vessel/city. In Chinese 韋 serves as a base
character to form the following compounds:
人(person) + 韋  偉 (mighty, outstanding)
王 (jade) + 韋  瑋 (fine jade, rare, valuable)
口 (circle) + 韋 圍 (encircle)
行(way, walk)+ 韋  衛 (protect)

13
 The above derivatives correspond to multiple values of the sign ‘kal’. Note that 衛 (protect) is
related to dlamma who is a goddess of protection. Eq. (35) is therefore firmly established. The
phrase ki.kal in Clause F3 is therefore translated as 圍場, a term for hunting land, with 場
referring to an empty lot.

14

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