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Re: Possible Chinese characters on f 1r




Consider the two big red "weirdo" characters on page f1r. The top one
has been tentatively identified as an old symbol for Aries, but the
bottom one has been yet another Voynich mystery.

However, turn the page upside down, so that the binding is on the
right side (as in a modern Chinese book 8-). Those two symbols now
look vaguely similar to Chinese characters -- more precisely, to
Chinese characters copied by someone thoroughly illiterate in Chinese,
as one occasionally sees in Western comic books.

http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/vms-images/f1r-rot180.jpg

Assuming for the moment that those weirdos are indeed badly copied
ideographs, what could those be?


Interesting, and more persuasive than anything that has come up
previously. If these are Chinese characters, I would guess them
both to be attempts to write da4, 'great'. The character identified
by Gabriel is, I believe, a radical which seldom occurs as an
independent character. However, the Greek letter pi also fits the
bill, and so does the picnic table character of the VMS script.


Among the representative works of the Bai people are 
      Transit Star Catalogue for Time Determination by the Ming Dynasty
      scholar Zhou Silian, Collection of Secret Prescriptions by Chen
      DONGTIAN and Tested Prescriptions by Li Xingwei. These classics
      recorded and summarized in detail the valuable experience of the
      Bai people in astronomy and medicine.


Nice, but irrelevant unless Chen Dongtian wrote his name with the
characters 'winter' and 'day'. Did he?

I'm intrigued but still not convinced.

Regards

Philip Neal



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