Re: VMs: Manchu theory

[elvogt@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Zitat von Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> ...
> A foreign visitor to Manchuria who wished to take home a sample
> of the local knowledge would presumaby have chosen to transcribe their
> most revered books -- which, in China more than in Europe, usually
> meant the oldest ones.

But why would he invent his own writing system? I understand that the VM's
letters are -- according to the Manchu-theory -- derived from, but not equal to
an existing writing system.

If the visitor couldn't read Manchu, the book would be as worthless to him as it
is to us. (Likewise if he couldn't write Manchu and made horrible mistakes in
drawing the letters.) So we may assume he could understand and read it -- but
why the extra alphabet then? (I guess the "regular" Manchu letters would be good
enough for any medieval concealment/encryption purposes already.)

> 
> The "recipes" section of the VMS, in particular, appears to have the
> same number of recipes (365) as the Sennong Bencao ...

Which happens to be the number of days in the year. Did anybody look at the
recipe section from that angle -- that perhaps it's a kind of calendar, a
dictionary of patron saints or such?

Just a thought.

Tallyho,

   Elmar


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