The traditional Zhuang script is a character script based on Chinese, adapted for the purpose of writing the Tai languages of southern China and northern Vietnam. Mapping the Old Zhuang Character Script by David Holm, presents for the first time a systematic overview of such a script, based on a survey of traditional texts in 45 locations among the Zhuang and related peoples in Guangxi, Guizhou, eastern Yunnan, and northern Vietnam. Complete with 133 maps, it looks at patterns of geographic variation in relation to dialect, the domains of former native chieftaincies, the activities of...

This work is an annotated edition of a ritual manuscript, written in the traditional Zhuang character script. The Hanvueng epic is a narrative in verse about murderous enmity between two royal step-brothers, recited when there is fraternal feuding, death by violence, outbreaks of smallpox, or other such disasters. The theme of enmity is an important one that resonates deeply in the Tai societies on the periphery of the Chinese empire. The narrative touches on many other aspects of life in the valley-kingdoms in the highlands of Guangxi: marriage and inheritance, match-making, slavery and...