Word: jao
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Until now, scholars have had to work with a Chinese dictionary written about 100 A.D. that provides little or no help in deciphering texts predating two centuries B.C. Jao estimates that the Ch'u Silk Manuscript will reveal the meanings of 300 hitherto-undefined characters. Working with infra-red photographs, which help make the characters legible, Jao has begun translating the manuscript into modern Chinese. Dr. Noel Barnard, a senior fellow in Far Eastern history at Australian National University, is converting it into "pidgin English...
...Mounted on a simple wooden frame, the 15-by 19-in. manuscript bears 926 ancient Chinese characters in two blocks, surrounded by sixteen paintings of trees and weird mythological creatures. Dr. Jao Tsung-yi, professor of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong, believes it is "the most valuable find in the history of Chinese archaeology." His reasons: the Ch'u Silk Manuscript is the earliest and largest of its kind, and the larger the manuscript the easier it is to decipher unknown characters in context with known characters. In addition, says Dr. Jao, "it is a very important...