Article

Journal of Chinese Writing Systems

The Chinese script, Confucian script, and 149–160

© 2020 The Author(s)
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Nôm script: Some reflections on writing sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/2513850220952175

and politics in monarchical Vietnam journals.sagepub.com/home/cws

Tu n-C ng Nguy n
Institute of Sino-Nôm Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Vietnam

Anh-Ch ng Bùi
VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract
“Confucian script” (ch Nho) has become a unique name used to refer to the “Chinese script” (ch Hán)
in Vietnamese. The integration between Chinese script and Confucianism had progressed through monarchical centu-
ries, motivated by Vietnam’s political tradition. Supported by rulers of the country, Chinese script overwhelmed the
difference of languages, became the official writing system, and therefore held great influence on important activities
of government such as administration, diplomacy, education, and employment. By looking carefully at how Vietnamese
monarchs managed to manipulate the Chinese script, Nôm script, and Confucianism to serve their political purposes,
we stress that it was Confucianism that served as the link tying the Chinese script with Vietnamese rulers. This link was
so strong that the Chinese script remained the dominant form of writing even with the invention of the “Nôm script”
(ch Nôm), which was a vernacular system developed to write the Vietnamese language. Furthermore, because
Confucianism itself was the spiritual core of the Chinese monarchical structure, Vietnamese rulers learned from the
Chinese model by way of the Chinese script when building their own independent state. Confucianism was viewed as
the core of Chinese culture.

Keywords
Chinese script, Confucian script, monarchical Vietnam, Nôm script, politics

Introduction
When conducting his research on East Asian orthography, American scholar William C. Hannas defined the Vietnamese
concept of “Confucian script” as “writing of the scholars” (Hannas, 1997: 79). The earliest document that mentioned
the first appearance of “Confucian script” ( ) was the (Random Jottings Amidst the

“Grammatology”

Since the Restored Lê period, candidates who participated in Civil Examinations used a version [of Chinese characters] that been
patterned on but [beginning to divert from] the regular form of the old style (Chinese Regular script ) then calling it “Con-
fucian script”.1

) of Clerical ( ), Cursive
( ), Regular ( ), or Running ( ). Developed no later than the sixteenth century, it was a true Chinese writing
style ( ) created by Vietnamese intellectuals, not another name for an already existing “Chinese script.”

Corresponding author:
Tu n-C ng Nguy n, Institute of Sino-Nôm Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, 183 Ð ng Ti n Ðông street, Ð ng Ða district, Ha Noi
city, Vietnam.
Email: cuonghannom@gmail.com
150 Journal of Chinese Writing Systems 4(3)

, i.e.
Confucian education) to new learning ( , i.e. Western education), used Nôm characters to write a poem called
Nho (Confucian script), with the two first sentences as follows:

Metropolitan and local laureates now all lie curled up miserably.)

(metropolitan and
local laureates) who represent old learning and its followers, including the poet himself. Confucian script was no longer

-
ued to use the term “Confucian script” with the meaning of the Chinese script as the vessel of old learning, in opposition

modern times, the term “Confucian script” is defined as the “Chinese script” with the explanation: “the regular name

and sees the Confucian script as an alternative name for the Chinese script in Vietnam.
There is no doubt that there has been a large change in the way that the term “Confucian script” is used in Vietnam.

representing the entirety of the Chinese script. There was a fusion between the “Confucian script” and “Chinese script”
in Vietnam, where people began to view the Chinese script as something that belonged to followers of Confucianism.

Chinese script in Vietnam slowly faded away as well, as the successive governments which supported this writing sys-
tem ceased to exist. The fate of the “national writing system” seemed to lie in the hands of new political power holders.
The previously mentioned “outdated” status of Confucian script emerged when the new rulers—the French colonial

traditional Confucian education and examination systems (both using the Chinese script), and tried to erase that influ-
ence and power by weakening the position of the Chinese script in the educational and recruitment system, indirectly

too hard to note two points: first, the Confucian script (or Chinese script) still had remarkable influence in Vietnam at

than enough to cause the French to take action against the script.

continued to support the Chinese script during the last stage of the monarchy, even when French colonialists already
existed in Vietnam.

The Chinese script and the political tradition of Vietnam

or Giao Châu

Han rulers brought their language and writing system to Vietnam to execute their colonial policy of “Sinicization”.
While the locals continued using their mother tongue in daily life, when it came to elevated matters like running the
Nguy n and Bùi 151

was already a fully developed writing system. Therefore, it was unnecessary to adapt it to fit Vietnamese. That being
said, it was also that the Vietnamese people did not adapt this system immediately.

ruling apparatus. As recorded by historians, in the hundred years under the rule of the Han dynasty, there were only a

spread Chinese culture to the land. During the late Eastern Han dynasty

biography in the ( ). Serving as a tool for adminis-

tration was only one of the many functions of Chinese script, but this happened to be the first function that the Chinese
script fulfilled in Vietnamese territory. This made the Chinese script appear to be the symbol of the country’s rulers,

Chinese script in Vietnam.

script possessed a tradition unto itself, and this tradition had always run in parallel with Vietnamese political tradition.
-
ing the Chinese colonization period, Han rulers continuously spread their influence and control vertically, deep into
the lower level of Vietnamese society. Aside from administrative methods such as reconstructing and tightening up the
ruling apparatus, establishing an educational system was another softer but useful method for spreading the Chinese

-
ment for the Vietnamese people under the rule of Han colonialists, it was a proactive choice that led independent dynas-
ties after this period to continue to use the Chinese script despite speaking their mother tongue in daily life (DeFrancis,

this point, Hannas explained:

The brighter members of society, whom you would expect to be in the vanguard of reform, revel in their mastery of the character
writing system, their achievement made sweeter by the failure of many of their contemporaries to rise to the task. East Asian
linguists and scholars have their own complex web of loyalties and intuitions, which on balance tend to flatten out expressions of
discontent. While many do see the problem for what it is and are willing to say so privately, they see no present alternative viable

Hannas points out that the upper class of Vietnamese society did not want to give away their social status bolstered

Vietnamese locals were in continuous contact with Chinese culture brought by Chinese militaries, officials, and migrants
(including Chinese intellectuals and scholars). This contact, along with the Sinicization policy of the Chinese rulers, cre-
ated a Vietnamese elite class who attained a level of mastery related to Chinese culture and took part in spreading the

society” that Hannas refers to. When they took part in constructing the independent Vietnamese state apparatus, they
proactively borrowed the Chinese model, which they came to be familiar with, in order to maintain their advantage of
their mastery the Chinese language, indirectly maintaining the Chinese script’s high status.

Whether or not one had mastered the Chinese script, therefore, functioned as a way to classify individuals in the social
order of the time. This vertical order came from the Chinese model borrowed by Vietnamese rulers to build their own
monarchy. Alexander Woodside summarized the ways in which Chinese thought held influence over the ideology of the
Vietnamese monarchy as follows:

Woodside and Hannas make mention of the vertical order of Vietnamese monarchical society, with Woodside sug-
gesting that this order originated with Confucianism and Hannas arguing that the prerequisite to possess a higher place

stick through which one’s place in the social order social order was measured, then Confucianism was its unit of length.
152 Journal of Chinese Writing Systems 4(3)

There was a common attitude throughout history at the Chinese and Vietnamese monarchical courts that became a
social norm. This attitude was known as “Emphasizing Literature and despising the Military” ( ) and originated
from the idea “Emphasizing Literature and Restricting Military Force” ( ), an important policy of the Song

force to establish their reigns, and naturally were well aware of its potential to be a double-edged sword. Therefore,
valuing literary pursuits over military affairs was completely understandable. Still, the existence of military officers
was indispensable to reminding others of the military power of the monarch. Thus, seeking another source of power to
lower the presence and influence of the military was necessary to maintain social order. Chinese scholars often cited the

Emperor Taizong once said:

and was the first ruler to execute the policy of “Emphasizing Literature and Restricting Military Force.” This policy was

influence on the Vietnamese monarchy was the “Six Departments” ( ) administrative system from China which first

large number of military officers, with other departments under control of literati officials. Political power in the hands
of literati officials was a common feature throughout the monarchical history of both China and Vietnam, proactively
created and maintained by the will of the monarchs. The Chinese and Vietnamese governments strictly protected the
absolute power of the monarch, and his will was upheld by the whole of society. Therefore, with the support of the mon-
arch, literati had a higher position in the social order. Repaying the monarch for his support, the literati acknowledged
his absolute power and became protectors of this power. For example, the first four sentences of the book
( ), one of several foundational books for children written by Wang Zhu

The son of Heaven emphasizes those who have literary talent,

Only the literati are noble.

Through education, the idea that “only the literati are noble” became widespread and infiltrated deep into the social
consciousness of the people, slowly becoming a shared social value.

Chinese script education—Confucianism and the policy of “Using literature to

appoint officials” ( )
-
itary power to forcefully manage society. Thus, they needed to find another power, softer but more effective, to
serve their purposes. Confucianism was their answer. An important Confucian idea was that every member of soci-
ety should be self-aware of their social position and responsibility and respect the absolute power of the monarch.
Woodside wrote:

Furthermore, the Vietnamese emperor’s performance of certain Chinese classical rituals became an act of continuity, expected
and anticipated by his court, which enhanced his authority. Continuity implied propriety. The Vietnamese Son of Heaven, like his
-
dition of the early Chinese Sons of Heaven, laid down thousands of years before in the Chinese (
Nguy n and Bùi 153

and supported by Heaven. Confucian principles of hierarchy and rites certainly gave him a hand or two in this endeavor.
Seeing Confucianism as a soft power to manage society, rulers of the country, not only the monarch but literati officials
as well, sought to strengthen the influence of Confucianism over society. The literati who were capable of Chinese script
literacy seemed to be perfect as advocates for this policy. Thus, followers of Confucianism were allowed to become the

these three things began to merge in the eyes of Vietnamese people.

Every state apparatus needs operators, and the operators need to run the state in the right way. This is the relationship
between education and the literati official recruitment system. The content of that education system was “the right way”
that rulers wanted their state apparatus to be run on. Likewise, the literati official recruitment system tested whether or
not the products of the education system were qualified and ready to be put to use. The more advanced the monarchical
state apparatus was, the more standard the education and recruitment systems became. Elites in the monarchy strictly
controlled the education system and used it to train operators to run their ruling apparatus.

the , to learn rites and formal music, and became a

cultured country. His contributions were [important] not only during his time but for later generations as well. Were [his contri-

(the founder of education in Vietnam) due to

his dedication to setting up an education system more considerable than ever before. And with this, Chinese culture, and

from the Chinese state apparatus. These examples demonstrate that Vietnamese rulers proactively chose to borrow the
Chinese script and Chinese model to build a government of their own. Consequently, they needed personnel who were

Literati officials in the court, if not Chinese, would be locals who were capable of [using] Chinese. They supported Lê Hoàn in

( ( -

Confucius (
Education ( -
cial script of the government and established education and recruitment systems based on this script, all in order to build

( ), we can still see

built to worship Confucius, and its construction shows that Vietnamese rulers supported Confucian ideas. During the
154 Journal of Chinese Writing Systems 4(3)

grew stronger and more widespread because it was more compatible with the policies of the monarchy. This is demon-
) was built, the Directorate of Education was
repaired in order to invite Confucianism masters to lecture, royal princes attended Confucianism classes, the civil ser-
vice examinations contained more questions about Confucian ideas, and famous Vietnamese Confucians such as Chu

official ideology of the government. During this period, the Confucian education system and examination system both
attained their complete forms.
As mentioned previously, the policy “Emphasizing Literature and Despising the Military” was adopted by Vietnamese
), which was
carried out by selecting officials through the civil service examinations. The literati officials in the monarchical government
belonged to a higher class in the vertical social order and were admired and respected by other members of society. Upward
social mobility seemed close to impossible before the birth of the civil examination system. The system theoretically opened

That said, the reality did not always (or even usually) match up to the myth of the poor peasant boy who makes it good on the

clerks (women were formally excluded). The literary requirements meant that only the children of wealthy families could compete
for examination success, and social circulation was mainly an unexpected consequence of upward (and downward) movement
between elites (gentry, merchants, and military men) and (upper) political elites with degrees. To the (limited) extent there was
upward political mobility from lower classes, it was normally first via commercial wealth, and then success at examinations, and

That being said, Elman does show that rulers would like commoners to believe in the myth:

process. Citing the , he noted that the dynasty’s search for talent had successfully reached the lowest levels of

From this point of view, the civil service examination system was a political tool that functioned as a form of bait.
Using this bait, rulers attracted people to participate in the Confucian education system and then directly or indirectly

“emphasizing literature and despising the military” and came to respect Confucian principles. That being said, the civil
service examination system still was an effective method to recruit new officials to run the country for the monarchy.

was not only the sole official writing system of the exams, but also a symbol of Confucianism (Confucian script) and
even of the monarchy. One example was the law prohibiting forbidden characters. Anyone who violated it suffered, espe-
cially candidates participating in examinations.

omit one or two strokes of the character in accordance with the law, would be punished by having to wear shackles and be exposed
to the sun for three days or be forever forbidden to participate in the examinations. Those who committed heavy violations would

(literati or literati elite) was the common name for intellectuals in Vietnam. From the Lê dynasty period, this
name had mostly been used for followers of Confucianism. They were an important group that helped to spread the prin-

As our people always said: “[Move] forward being an official, [move] backward being a teacher”. Those who became officers were
only a few. They were tools in the hands of the government. Those who became teachers lived with commoners. […] They were
Nguy n and Bùi 155

The
Monarchy

Su
pp
e
or

or
Re
r

ter
rte

pr
al
o

es
tu
pp

iri

en
Su

Sp

t
a ti
ve
Spiritual core

Confucianism Representative Chinese script

Figure 1. Relationship between the Monarchy, Confucianism and Chinese script in Vietnam

other local schools. As the popularity and influence of Confucianism reached its peak, public schools seemed unable to

( book repositories),
(learning houses), headed by famous Confucians. There

rulers. We have illustrated the relationship of the monarchy, Confucianism, and the Chinese script in Figure 1.

The Chinese script and diplomatic tradition

During the period of Chinese colonization, the Chinese language and script were the only way that the people of Giao

diplomatic partner for Vietnamese dynasties. The decision to make the Chinese script the official writing system of

the same way, by making Confucianism the main political ideology of the court, Vietnamese dynasties made it easier to

so strong that a Vietnamese monarch needed an official edict from China to be considered a rightful king.
As noted previously, the policies “emphasizing literature and despising the military” and “using literature to appoint
officials” originated with the will of the monarch, who sought to create a government run by literati officials. Officials
conducted their duties, including diplomacy, under the influence of Confucian values. Therefore, reasoning and civility
-
versation which side had the diplomatic advantage over another and how much respect one side would show another.

not bowing down when receiving an official edict from Chinese Son of Heaven and having his seat set higher than the
. At the end of the
letter, the following advice was given: “The [noble person] is respected when he is self-aware of his mistake

demonstrates that Confucian principles were the common value system present during diplomatic negotiations between
the two countries. When arriving in Vietnam, Chinese diplomats usually looked at the level of Confucian civilization
156 Journal of Chinese Writing Systems 4(3)

( ),

treats them nicely.” Not only the diplomats of the Ming dynasty, but also diplomats from other Chinese dynasties praised
-

as a bridge between the different states. Writing Chinese poems as a way of communicating with each other was a dip-

(
diplomat at the time. The preface ended with:

that is great merit! [Reading this book], one can confirm that the minds and souls of those living east of the eastern sea are the

the same common values as the Vietnamese (those living at south of the southern sea), despite the distance between the

During diplomacy in the Sinosphere, the ranking or level of one’s state was decided by the level of Confucian civilization
and the capability the literati of that state to use Chinese script. Thus, in the field of diplomacy, Confucianism and the
Chinese script seemed to be irreplaceable.

Nôm script—a possible threat to the dominant status of the Chinese script
The decision of Vietnamese dynasties to keep using the Chinese script created an integrating interaction between the
Vietnamese and Chinese languages which led to two creations: in phonetics, Sino-Vietnamese readings, and in writing,

writing system of the Vietnamese state.

already reached a mature level of development. The Nôm script had a natural advantage over the Chinese script of being

Literary Chinese should be considered as the biggest obstacle that makes things harder in both directions: encoding

When the government announced any policy or command, they definitely wanted everyone to be able to read it by eye and hear it
by ear. Just a half could understand by reading, another half had to find interpreters. Nowadays, our country does not have a script

Literary
Vietnamese Chinese Chinese script Document

Vietnamese Nôm script Document

Figure 2. Two ways to document Vietnamese in monarchical Vietnam

Nguy n and Bùi 157

Even in China, the Chinese script and Classical Chinese were not commonly known by commoners. Wi-vun Taiffalo
Chiung, a Taiwanese scholar, points out the following:

From the point of [view of] learning a language, not only is the Chinese script complex and hard to learn but the Chinese classical
documents written in “Classical Chinese” are also even harder to understand. Therefore, “the right of interpretation” was in the

that once allowed only Chinese script but eventually allowed the Nôm script to be used. Finally, there were fields that

was active: (a) folk culture, (b) belief and religion, (c) science and education, (d) national policy and bureaucracy, and

almost every aspect of society. Folk culture might have been the field that cherished the Nôm script the most, as this
field related closely to the Vietnamese language. This was exemplified in things such as folk songs and idioms. The
Chinese script and Nôm script were both used in the remaining four fields. However, this can still be considered a great
advancement for the Nôm script. The Nôm script was even used in Confucian education, which was previously solely
home to the Chinese script. Several Chinese classics were translated into Vietnamese, such as
(Vietnamese Explication of the ), (Concise Explication of the ),
(Poetic Explication for the ), and
(Explication for the
-

of the translator as it relates to the idea of “the gentleman (

Chinese Confucian classics into Vietnamese (using the Nôm script) would also help rulers to more easily extend their
soft power. The Nôm script proved to be a promising tool with which to carry this out. Classical Chinese was indeed an
obstacle, but it also had the advantage of being written in the Chinese script. The monarchical state apparatus needed

-
tem, and Classical Chinese was an important barricade that kept out the crowds. Therefore, civil service examinations
were still the domain of the Chinese script. The appearance of Sino-Vietnamese dictionaries such as
( ) or (

written with the Chinese script, there was a percentage of them, including important documents, that had been written

a user of the Nôm script.

The official writing system of the Nguy n dynasty

written by Emperor Gia Long suggests that before being crowned, he usually used the Nôm script to communicate with
-

of kinds of official documents. This is the reason why DeFrancis was interested in Gia Long’s policies regarding the Nôm

missionaries had been acquainted with the Nôm script over the previous hundred years and had even had Catholic books
-
158 Journal of Chinese Writing Systems 4(3)

The country needs talented [officials], but they can only be found through literary examinations. Previous dynasties set the rules
-

This decision to reinstate the traditional examinations also meant the resurrection of Confucian education and marked
the official comeback of the Chinese script. This edict seemed to indirectly declare that the spring of literati was coming

supported him in his war, but besides their friendship, Gia Long saw in the French a threat as well. Marcel Gaultier

the church and was always worried about invasions by Western countries. As Gaultier also points out, Gia Long was not

tradition that had already lasted nearly two millennia and was deeply rooted in the social awareness and traditional cul-

the other side, he relied on Confucian values to unite the core of the state, forbidding Catholic missionaries from preach-

Chinese script to write a poem called ( ) and ordered that the royal families name

to change village names from Vietnamese to Chinese.

Pressure from overseas, along with the incessant activity of Catholic missionaries, seems to have forced the next

order forbidding missionary actions and closed harbors. On the other hand, they placed their faith in Confucianism and
attempted to use their Confucian soft power to fight against Catholicism and keep the country stable and intact. During

the thought of intellectuals toward criticizing Catholicism, encourage them to believe in Confucianism, to increase their
faith in the court, and to persuade them to be loyal.

also protected the foundation of their dynasty. The Chinese script was the symbol of political tradition in Vietnam from

titled (

Conclusions
The Nôm script is the classical visual form of the Vietnamese language. Compared with the Chinese script, it has the
advantage of being able to encode and store information on Vietnamese culture. However, in terms of politics, the Nôm

Nôm did not really have an opportunity to be a part of constructing any long-lasting dynasty in Vietnam history. Thus,
Nguy n and Bùi 159

it did not become a part of the political tradition of Vietnam. On the other hand, when the Chinese script first appeared
in Vietnamese territory, it was already a fully developed writing system that was used to store information recorded
during centuries of Chinese civilization. The political tradition of Vietnam and the Chinese script were bound together
since the beginning. Through the Chinese script, Vietnamese rulers learned from the political tradition of China and
built their Vietnamese monarchical apparatus with Confucianism as its spiritual core. The political and cultural influ-
ence of Confucianism over Vietnamese society was so strong that Confucianism slowly engulfed the Chinese script and

and was accepted by every class of Vietnamese society. The decision to choose the Chinese script to be the official writ-

dynasties. Chinese dynasties were always the main diplomatic partner of Vietnamese dynasties. The absolute status of

Notes
1. Original text: “ ” (National Library of Vietnam, call number

who passed the Civil Examination held in provinces.

-
guage of faraway conquerors, but developed as a result of the long presence of a living Sinitic language rooted in the Red River
Delta, called Annamese Middle Chinese.
, . , . Other versions of in Vietnam always took the
name (Five words poems for children at preschool) and had several differences from the Chinese
version. For example, the first sentence in the Vietnamese version includes the phrase “ ” while the Chinese version contains
“

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Albert Errickson (PhD Candidate at Columbia University) for English editing of the manuscript.

Funding
This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant number

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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CONTENTS
Special Issue: Vietnamese Sinography

Editorial

JOURNAL
Editor’s Word 147

Articles
The Chinese script, Confucian script, and Nôm script: Some reflections on writing and politics

OF CHINESE
in monarchical Vietnam 149
- ,

The Basic grammatological unit in Vietnam’s Nom script and its relationship with those in Chinese script 161

WRITING
Sesquisyllabicity, Chu~ Nôm, and the early modern embrace of vernacular writing in Vietnam 169
John D. Phan

Sino-Vietnamese initials reflected in the phonetic components of 15th-century Nôm characters 183

SYSTEMS
Masaaki Shimizu

The Tày and Zhuang vernacular scripts: Preliminary comparisons 197

David Holm

Chinese character variants in Vietnam: A case study of characters in The Complete Secrets
for Buddhist Monks in Practice of Precious Rites 215

Continuance and innovation: A study of Chinese character variants in late modern

Vietnam’s village customs texts 227
Special!Issue"!Vietnamese!Sinography

Graphic abbreviation of Chinese characters in Vietnam: A case study of ‘dot and bend’
in Sino-Nom texts 245
journals.sagepub.com/home/cws
ecnu.edu.cn | wenzi.cn

ISSN: 2513-8502 ISSN: 2513-8502

CWS_A_COVER_4-03.indd 1 28-09-2020 19:41:32


Editor-in-Chief
Zang Kehe, East China Normal University, China
Managing Editor
Deshao Zhang, East China Normal University, China
Associate Editor
Françoise Bottéro, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France
Nguyen Tuan Cuong, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Vietnam
Park Heungsoo, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Korea
Wolfgang W. Kubin, University of Bonn, Germany
Tiziana Lippiello, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
Zhiji Liu, East China Normal University, China
Stephen Selby, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
Ohgata Tohru, Osaka Prefecture University, Japan
Advisory Editor
Nguyen Quang Hong, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Vietnam
Hongkai Sun, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China
Atsuji Tetsuji, Kyoto University, Japan
Ning Wang, Beijing Normal University, China
Ha Youngsam, Kyungsung University, Korea
CWS_A_COVER_4-03.indd 2
Editorial Board
Ágnes Birtalan, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
Mengqi Cai, Hunan Normal University, China
Ryu Dong Chun, Sogang University, Korea
Deno Fumiri, Osaka Kyoiku University, Japan
Qian Gu, Nanjing University, China
Chuanren Ke, University of Iowa, USA
Lee Kyoo-Kap, Yonsei University, Korea
Lars Peter Laamann, University of London, UK
Hongyin Nie, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China
Yukun Pan, East China Normal University, China
Edward L. Shaughnessy, The University of Chicago, USA
Yuanlu Wang, East China Normal University, China
Zhenwu Wu, Jilin University, China
Jing Zhou, East China Normal University, China
Jianjun Zhu, Shanghai International Studies University, China
Editorial Office
Rui Guo, East China Normal University, China
Haozhe Peng, East China Normal University, China
Chunfeng Zhang, East China Normal University, China
Shaolin Zheng, East China Normal University, China
Aims and Scope
Chinese writing systems, different from the alphabetical systems of Europe and America, which are often a natural part of
language studies, turn out to be an independent academic concern. Chinese writing systems become a crucial factor in the con-
struction of Chinese language, literature, philosophy, psychology, etc. It is the fundamental influential element for all humanity
studies concerning China.
Chinese writing systems are different in many aspects from major writing systems of western languages, with complex structures
and the employment of thousands of individual characters. The research of them will reveal the diversity of the usage of symbols
to record a language, thus makes them the important objects of investigation in the field of language studies.
Journal of Chinese Writing Systems is the first journal published which especially and systematically focuses on the Chinese
writing systems, in an attempt to promote the understanding of Chinese writing and build a platform for the studies of related
fields.
The journal welcomes articles within the scope as below:
modern Chinese characters, ancient scripts
writings of Chinese minorities, e.g. Mongolian, Dongba scripts, etc.
comparative studies on hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and on other Asian writing systems
semiotic concerns of Chinese writing systems
cognition and acquition of Chinese characters
the cross-disciplinary studies between Chinese writing systems and ancient history, ancient documents, archeology are also
encouraged. The philosophical concerns of symbol and meaning are particularly welcome.
28-09-2020 19:41:44
Volume 4 Number 3 September 2020

Contents
Special Issue: Vietnamese Sinography

Editorial
Editor’s Word 147
Nguy n Tu n C ng

Articles
The Chinese script, Confucian script, and Nôm script: Some reflections on writing and politics in
monarchical Vietnam 149
Tu n-C ng Nguy n, Anh-Ch ng Bùi

The basic grammatological unit in Vietnam’s Nom script and its relationship with those in Chinese script 161
V n-Khoái Ph m

Sesquisyllabicity, Ch Nôm, and the early modern embrace of vernacular writing in Vietnam 169
John D. Phan

Sino-Vietnamese initials reflected in the phonetic components of 15th-century Nôm characters 183
Masaaki Shimizu

The Tày and Zhuang vernacular scripts: Preliminary comparisons 197

David Holm

Chinese character variants in Vietnam: A case study of characters in The Complete Secrets
for Buddhist Monks in Practice of Precious Rites 215
Kh c M nh Tr nh

Continuance and innovation: A study of Chinese character variants in late modern Vietnam’s village
customs texts 227
Ph ng Chi Ðào

Graphic abbreviation of Chinese characters in Vietnam: A case study of ‘dot and bend’ in Sino-Nom texts 245
Bích-Tuy n Th Ð
Guest Editorial

Journal of Chinese Writing Systems

Editor’s Word 147–148

© 2020 The Author(s)
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DOI: 10.1177/2513850220957822
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Although geographically situated in Southeast Asia, Vietnam should be considered an East Asian civilization, when
considering issues of culture, religion, and script. Regarding its script tradition, Vietnam is unquestionably a member of
what has been called the Sinographosphere or Sinographic Cosmopolis. In particular, in addition to the Indian script and
the Roman alphabet, which each contains within itself diverse subdivisions, there have existed within Vietnamese history
those scripts derived from the Sinographic tradition, which we may consider “Vietnamese Sinography.” These consist of
-

vuông,
Hán Nôm,
Whereas the field of Sinographic studies in China, Japan, and Korea has reached high levels of development, the

in English- and Chines-language-based academic circles (see Appendix). In order to promote the field of Vietnamese
Sinography to Anglophone researchers, the Journal of Chinese Writing Systems has organized this special issue of

,
) in Vietnamese classical texts.

hope this issue will help attract attention from Anglophone scholars to promote the field of Vietnamese Sinography. This
issue is also organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary (1970–2020) of the establishment of the Institute of Sino-

and classical texts.

Guest Editor
Nguy n Tu n C ng ( )
Director of the Institute of Sino-Nôm Studies, Vietnam
cuonghannom@gmail.com, cuongnt@vnu.edu.vn
148 Journal of Chinese Writing Systems 4(3)

Appendix: List of key publications on Vietnamese Sinography published in English and Chinese
] (2016) Journal of
14 ].

Chiung WT (2003)
Romanization
] (2017) Yuenan hun: Yuyan, wenzi yu fabaquan :

-
ese, pp. 124–165).
Hannas W (1997) Asia’s Orthographic Dilemma

] (2020)
].
] (2017)
Dictionaries ].
] (2019)
].
] (2014) -

Journal of Chinese
Writing Systems

Century CE
] (2015) :

pp. 1–72.
] (2004)
].