Introduction to CENSUS categories
Manuscripts belonging to Dongba pictographic tradition are religious scriptures, dedicated to certain ceremony of Naxi Dongba religious tradition. This is a foundamental and common feature to all manuscripts which CENSUS means to reflect into manuscripts’ general index implementation, thus this structure shoud be reproduced into manuscript’s catalogation and layout.
Moreover, being CENSUS a global catalog of Dongba manuscripts, and because of existence of many collections of Dongba manuscripts organized and implemented with criteria and solutions, one independently to the others, CENSUS aims to be convergence system, a resuming resource-point of Naxi – Dongba manuscripts.
This, in practice, consists in implementing a new type of archive, a databse system projected directly on the whole manuscripts’ corpus of Dongba tradition, and not just implemented over a local collection, which the wider it could be, it always could be considered as a partial representation of Naxi – Dongba pictographic literature.
CENSUS thus is thougth to be implemented grounding on Dongba ceremonial corpus, which to every pictographic manuscripts written was dedicated, so adopting this skeletons as its architecture CENSUS system is implemented as a meta-system, able to cross-over the etherogeneity and differences made by peculiar approaches used by idependent collections and various institution which possess Dongba manuscripts.
The first step for CENSUS architecture implementation then consisted in understanding the local colections’ architecture for catalogation and layout of manusctipts; again the pilot resources because of web-availability of data were the Library of Congress and the Harward Yenching Library, which evinced the following cathegories:
- The Harvard Yenching Library Naxi Manuscript Collection
- Worship to Dongba Shiluo
- Worship of the Dragon King
- Worship to the Wind
- Prayers for Long Life
- Worship for the Worthy
- God of Victory
- Worship to the House Gods
- For the Living
- Remove Filthiness
- Closing the Door to Death
- Venerating the Dead
- Divination
- Lingza Scripture
- Scrolls
- The Collection of Naxi Manuscripts of the Library of Congress, Asian Division, Washington, D.C.
- Sacrifices to Heaven – Ji tian
- Sacrifices to the Highest Deity – Ji shi luo
- Sacrifices to the Serpent King – Ji Long wang
- Romance and love-related ceremonies – Ji feng
- Blocking malicious ghosts – Guan si men
- Prayers for longevity – Qiu shou
- Aspirations for wisdom – Ji xian
- Sacrifices to the God of Bravery and Victory – Ji sheng li
- Ancestral worship – Ji zu
- Casting out evil spirits – Chu sui
- For a better reincarnation – Ti sheng
- Divination – Zhan bu
- Ghosts and Spirits – Gui shen lei
- Naxi pictographic art – Hui hua
- Harrison Photostat Collection
Analysys and cross-study of manuscripts and manuscripts’ indexes of the two collections permitted the identification of the following concordances:
| Library of Congress | Harward Yenching |
| Sacrifices to Heaven – Ji tian | |
| Sacrifices to the Highest Deity – Ji shi luo | Worship to Dongba Shiluo |
| Sacrifices to the Serpent King – Ji Long wang | Worship of the Dragon King |
| Worship to the Wind | |
| Blocking malicious ghosts – Guan si men | Closing the Door to Death |
| Prayers for longevity – Qiu shou | Prayers for Long Life |
| Aspirations for wisdom – Ji xian | |
| Sacrifices to the God of Bravery and Victory – Ji sheng li | God of Victory |
| Ancestral worship – Ji zu | |
| Casting out evil spirits – Chu sui | For the Living |
| For a better reincarnation – Ti sheng | |
| Divination – Zhan bu | Divination |
| Ghosts and Spirits – Gui shen lei | |
| Naxi pictographic art – Hui hua | |
| Harrison Photostat Collection | |
| Worship to the House Gods | |
| Remove Filthiness | |
| Sacrifices to the Deceased – Ji si zhe | Venerating the Dead |
| Worship for the Worthy |
Such concordances then were cross-referred to Jospeh Rock classification of Naxi – Dongba ceremonies with the following scores:
| Joseph Rock | Library of Congress | Harward Yenching |
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) | Sacrifices to Heaven – Ji tian | |
| Funerary ceremonies | Sacrifices to the Highest Deity – Ji shi luo | Worship to Dongba Shiluo |
| Propitiation of Nagas 1Ssu, serpent spirits | Sacrifices to the Serpent King – Ji Long wang | Worship of the Dragon King |
| 2Har 2la 1llu 3k’o – propitiate soul of suicides or people died an unnatural death | ||
| Romance and love-related ceremonies – Ji feng | Worship to the Wind | |
| Prevention of Evil arising from the Sky and Land | Blocking malicious ghosts – Guan si men | Closing the Door to Death |
| Prolongation of life | Prayers for longevity – Qiu shou | Prayers for Long Life |
| Aspirations for wisdom – Ji xian | ||
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) | Sacrifices to the God of Bravery and Victory – Ji sheng li | God of Victory |
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) | Ancestral worship – Ji zu | |
| Propitiation and eviction of demons | Casting out evil spirits – Chu sui | For the Living |
| For a better reincarnation – Ti sheng | ||
| Books of divination | Divination – Zhan bu | Divination |
| Propitiation and eviction of demons | Ghosts and Spirits – Gui shen lei | |
| Naxi pictographic art – Hui hua | ||
| Harrison Photostat Collection | ||
| Ceremonies for prosperity of family and herds | ||
| Propitiation of Mountain and Tutelary spirits | ||
| Marriage ceremony | Worship to the House Gods | |
| Purification | Remove Filthiness | |
| Funerary ceremonies | Sacrifices to the Deceased – Ji si zhe | Venerating the Dead |
| Funerary ceremonies | Worship for the Worthy | |
| Inviting ancestors | ||
| Elimination of accumulated sins | ||
| Ceremonies performed by Llu-bu or San-nyi |
According to identified concordances CENSUS General Cataolgue cathegories were deduced, implementing wider set named according to Rock wider groups of Naxi Dongba ceremonial corpus and labelled with capital roman letter, nesting inside such wider gropus smaller sets labelled with lower roman letters implemented according to Dongba ceremonial corpus subdivision and collections’ internal classifications.
| Joseph Rock categories | Zhu Baotian (Library of Congress) | Harward Yenching Library | CENSUS MAIN | CENSUS sub | MAIN Id | sub Id |
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) | Sacrifices to Heaven – Ji tian | Propitiation | Sacrifice to the heaven | E | c | |
| Funerary ceremonies | Sacrifices to the Highest Deity – Ji shi luo | Worship to Dongba Shiluo | Propitiation | Cult of Dongba Shilo | E | d |
| Propitiation of Nagas 1Ssu, serpent spirits | Sacrifices to the Serpent King – Ji Long wang | Worship of the Dragon King | Propitiation | Serpent deities – Naga cult | E | e |
| 2Har 2la 1llu 3k’o – propitiate soul of suicides or people died an unnatural death | Romance and love-related ceremonies – Ji feng | Worship to the Wind | Funeray ceremonies | Violent and un-natural death | B | a |
| Funeray ceremonies | Dongba funeral | B | b | |||
| Funeray ceremonies | Natural death funeral | B | c | |||
| Prevention of Evil arising from the Sky and Land | Blocking malicious ghosts – Guan si men | Closing the Door to Death | Prevention | Close door to malicious ghosts – Guan si men | D | a |
| Prolongation of life | Prayers for longevity – Qiu shou | Prayers for Long Life | Propitiation | Longevity | E | f |
| Aspirations for wisdom – Ji xian | Propitiation | Aspirations for wisdom – Ji xian | E | g | ||
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) | Sacrifices to the God of Bravery and Victory – Ji sheng li | God of Victory | Propitiation | Sacrifice to the spirit of victory | E | h |
| Nature worship (earliest primitive ceremonies) | Ancestral worship – Ji zu | Propitiation | Nature ancestral cult – Ji zu | E | i | |
| Propitiation and eviction of demons | Casting out evil spirits – Chu sui | Purification | Casting out evil spirits – Chu sui | F | a | |
| For a better reincarnation – Ti sheng | Propitiation | For a better reincarnation – Ti sheng | E | m | ||
| Books of divination | Divination – Zhan bu | Divination | Divination | Divinatpry books | A | a |
| Propitiation and eviction of demons | Ghosts and Spirits – Gui shen lei | Ceremonies for propitiation and evicting of demons | Propitation and evicting demons – Gui shen lei | E | n | |
| Naxi pictographic art – Hui hua | Misc | Naxi pictographic art – Hui hua | C | a | ||
| Harrison Photostat Collection | Misc | Harrison Photostat Collection | C | b | ||
| Ceremonies for prosperity of family and herds | Propitiation | for prosperity | E | b | ||
| Propitiation of Mountain and Tutelary spirits | Propitiation | propitiation of tutelary spirits | E | o | ||
| Marriage ceremony | Worship to the House Gods | Propitiation | for family, marriage and house | E | p | |
| Purification | Remove Filthiness | Purification | Remove Filthiness | F | b | |
| Funerary ceremonies | Sacrifices to the Deceased – Ji si zhe | Venerating the Dead | Propitiation | Cult of ancestors – Ji si zhe | E | q |
| Funerary ceremonies | Worship for the Worthy | Propitiation | Cult of the Worthy | E | r | |
| Inviting ancestors | Propitiation | Inviting ancestors | E | a | ||
| Elimination of accumulated sins | Purification | Elimination of accumulated sins | F | c | ||
| Ceremonies performed by 2Llu 1bu or 2Ssan 1nyi | Misc | Ceremonies performed by Lu-bu or San-nyi | C | c | ||
| Scrolls | Scrolls | Scrolls | Scrolls | G | a | |
| Undefined | not studied yet | H | a | |||
| Lingza Scripture | Misc | Lingza Scripture | C | d |
Finallly, from previous resuming table implemented doruing CENSUS categories identification, an ordined list of CENSUS cathegories of Dongba manuscripts corresponding to the left navigation main menù¹.
CGC – Census General Catalog Categories
- Divination
- Funeray ceremonies
- Misc
- Prevention
- Propitiation
- For ancestors
- For Prosperity
- Sacrifice to the heaven
- Cult of Dongba Shilo
- Serpent deities – Naga cult
- for Longevity
- Aspirations for wisdom – Ji xian
- Cult of the spirit of victory
- Nature ancestral cult – Ji zu
- For the Living
- For a better reincarnation – Ti sheng
- Propitation and evicting demons – Gui shen lei
- Cult of tutelary spirits
- For family, marriage and house
- Cult of ancestors
- Cult of the Worthy
- Purification
- Scrolls
- Undefined
Xiulong – Stefano Zamblera, 11/01/2011 h. 12:22
Xiulong – Stefano Zamblera, 17/01/2023 h. 19:37
Xiulong – Stefano Zamblera, 16/06/2026 h. 15:33