Magic Symbol Analysis From Manuscript Of Lingnan Yao Ethnic Group

Yao’s magic symbol is a very special symbol preserved in Yao’s Script Literature from south of the Five Ridges,which was created primarily based on polytheism and ancestor worship.It is used to protect oneself from infringement and pray for social peace and development.In the author’s field investigation site,there are very complete and abundant symbols found.Most of these symbols are used in Yao ceremonies,drawn by wizards,used together with scriptures and incantations,and it won’t work without any one of them.Taking the 181 magical symbols collected from Yao’s Script Literature in south of the Five Ridges as the corpus,this paper carries out study on them through five chapters,elaborating from the causes,symbol content and structure,construction methods and rules,current situation and social significance.Chapter 1,introduction to the research results at home and abroad about Yao’s Script Literature,Yao religion and magic symbol culture.It describes the research value and investigation methods of Yao’s magic symbols,and illustrates the collection place and the interviewees of the adopted corpus.Chapter 2,Firstly,introduction to the emergence and origin of the symbols.Secondly,it analyzes the reason,background,writing tools and materials of Yao’s magic symbols.Finally,it narrates the relationship between Yao religion and Taoism and compares the differences between them.Chapter 3,it is divided from the content and structure.The content includes several sections such as healing and curing,weddings and funerals,building homes,production and life,etc.while the structure is divided into several types of character,lines,graphics,portraits and so on.Chapter 4,it elaborates in detail about the construction methods of Yao’s magic symbols,mainly including three parts: characters,the rules of drawings and strokes.Firstly,characters are divided into Chinese characters and Yao square characters.Yao square characters are transformed basically from Chinese characters,and the changes of structure and stroke,as well as the unified changes of stroke and structure are simply analyzed.Secondly,there are four types of drawing rules: one stroke makes a symbol,interleaving,overlapping and winding.Finally,the line rules include four formats of adding stroke and reducing stroke,straight line,folding line and curving line,square or round,enlarge or shrink.Chapter 5,through the analysis on Yao’s magic symbol,we can get to know its current situation and social significance,including the literal significance,medical value,the effectiveness of psychotherapy and its influence on ethnic culture.Generally,this paper sorts out a set of relatively complete Yao’s magic symbols by using anthropological methods of participation observation,literature collection,in-depth interviews,comparative analysis,etc.,focusing on the collection and classification of Yao’s Script Literature in south of the Five Ridges through looking for Yao’s magic symbols contained,and combining with the observation of Yao religious rituals,so that we can understand its causes,production tools and cultural connotation,explore its construction methods,graphics and stroke rules,and analyze the current situation,social significance and value,so as to form a deeper understanding of the history and culture of the Yao ethnic group in south of the Five Ridge.