“打码子”——现存原始阶段文字“书契”的活化石

Damazi"-- The Vivid Fossil of "Shuqi", An Original Character

“打码子”亦称“肉码字”,即在生产劳动中 ,杀猪匠用刀在肉皮上刻上简单的笔画来标识猪肉的重量 ,笔画以“竖画”、“横画”为主 ,依刻在不同部位 ,而分别代表“斤”或“两”,便于外出交易。这种计数方式与史书所载“书契”极为相似 ,堪称为原始阶段文字——“书契”

Damazi' is also called 'Roumazi'. In some remote villages of Zhuxi County in the northwest of Hubei province of China, one custom has been passing down. At the end of each year, the local villagers ask the butchers to kill pigs and weigh the meat, and then carve some special marks on the skin of the meat to signify the weight. These marks are carved in different parts of the skin which mainly consist of vertical and horizontal strokes and signify accordingly the units of Chinese weight, 'jin' or 'liang'. And the local people call it 'Damazi'. This way of marking numeral is similar to 'Shuqi' recorded in historical works. After several on the spot surveys,this paper basically discloses that 'Damazi' can be called the vivid fossil of original character 'Shuqi'.