Abstract
Creation of Khitan scripts
In the fifth year of the Shence reign (920), Emperor Taizu Yelü Abaoji of the Liao Dynasty, with the assistance of Yelü Tulübu and Yelü Lubugu, created the Khitan Large Script, modeled after Chinese characters. Later, Yelü Diela, younger brother of the emperor, devised the Khitan Small Script, also drawing on Chinese character forms. Both were early-stage phonetic writing systems.
The forms of the two scripts were derived from Chinese characters used by Han people inhabiting southern Khitan territories, while their phonetic system was modeled after the Uyghur script employed by Turkic and Uyghur peoples in western Khitan regions. Designed to record the Khitan language—regarded by academia as proto-Mongolic language—they stand as typical products of exchanges and integration among diverse ethnic groups.
Usage of Khitan scripts
After their creation, Khitan scripts were used alongside Chinese characters throughout the Liao Dynasty. They were mainly used for inscribing merit monuments, recording the names of tribes and villages, writing diplomatic correspondence and flags, engraving tallies or badges, as well as for examinations, composing poems, and translating books.
Following the fall of the Liao and the rise of the Jin Dynasty, Khitan scripts remained in use until the twelfth month of the second year of the Mingchang reign (1191), when Emperor Zhangzong of Jin issued an imperial edict to abolish them. In total, Khitan scripts were officially employed for over 270 years across the Liao and Jin dynasties. After that, the Khitan script gradually fell into obscurity and had largely become a dead script, unrecognizable to anyone, by the late Yuan to early Ming period. During the Jin dynasty, the Jurchen people, modeling themselves after the large and small Khitan scripts, created the Jurchen large script (1119) and small script (1138), which also belonged to the category of “Chinese-character-type script.” Therefore, the academic consensus holds that Chinese characters constitute the source of the Khitan script, while the Jurchen script represents its subsequent derivation.
Discovery of Khitan scripts
The Khitan Small Script was first discovered on 21 June 1922 by Belgian missionary E.P. Louis Kervyn at the Qingling Mausoleum of the Liao Dynasty in Baarin Left Banner, Inner Mongolia. The Khitan Large Script was unearthed in October 1935 by Japanese physician Yamashita Taizou in Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia.
Up to now, a total of 50 sets of epigraphic documents in Khitan Small Script and 20 sets in Khitan Large Script have been discovered, together with one handwritten manuscript of Khitan Large Script. The total extant characters of Khitan scripts exceed 100,000.
Khitan epigraphic materials are scattered in major museums, universities, and research institutions in China and abroad. Inner Mongolia University boasts the largest collection of Khitan script inscriptions worldwide.
Research on Khitan scripts
Research on Khitan scripts is a niche yet profound discipline in the study of ancient Chinese ethnic writing systems, serving as a core research direction in Liao–Jin history, northern ethnic linguistics, and ancient paleography. Restricted by scarce handed-down historical materials, a unique dual writing system, extreme difficulty in script decipherment, and complete discontinuation of practical use in later generations, coupled with inadequate research methodologies, domestic and international studies on Khitan script failed to achieve substantial progress for about half a century. Later, the Khitan Script Research Group fundamentally broke the stagnation of relevant research.
Over the past century, scholars across China have inherited and advanced this field, breaking through traditional research limitations. Early sporadic character decipherment and material identification have gradually evolved into systematic and refined research covering documentary collation, textual system deconstruction, semantic verification, digital transformation, and theoretical exploration. Continuous efforts have been made in the decipherment of Khitan Large and Small Scripts, collation of stone inscriptions, judgment of script nature, lexical system analysis, and international encoding standardization. These endeavors have gradually filled academic gaps, resolved long-standing scholarly disputes, improved the theoretical system of Khitan studies, and unlocked the enduring academic and cultural value of the millennia-old Khitan scripts.
Khitan script research at Inner Mongolia University
Khitan script research is a distinctive and advantageous discipline at Inner Mongolia University and constitutes an important part of its Chinese Language and Literature program. After nearly half a century of academic inheritance, Inner Mongolia University has become the earliest established, most influential, and most productive research base in the field of Khitan script studies in China. Through the efforts of two generations of scholars, the discipline has developed a strong talent echelon, distinctive characteristics, comprehensive platforms, and substantial achievements.
In the 1970s, Professor Chinggeltai, Liu Fengzhu, Chen Naixiong, Yu Baolin, and Xing Fuli jointly established the Khitan Script Research Group. Using Chinese loanwords recorded in Khitan script as a breakthrough, they successfully initiated the deciphering of the Khitan small script. In 1977, the Journal of Inner Mongolia University published a special issue on Khitan script research titled On the Study of Khitan Script 关于契丹文字研究, which attracted widespread attention both domestically and internationally. Their landmark monograph, Research on the Khitan Small Script 契丹小字研究, published in 1985, represented the highest academic standard in the field at the time and established China's leading position in Khitan script studies.
In the new century, young scholars of Inner Mongolia University have further advanced disciplinary development, building a comprehensive system covering research, data compilation, digital innovation, talent cultivation, international cooperation, and platform construction. The research team has completed more than 10 scientific research projects, including major key projects of the Ministry of Education's Philosophy and Social Sciences Research and key projects of the National Social Science Fund of China. They have published six monographs and over 60 high-level research papers, and have received numerous accolades, including the Second Prize of the Eighth Outstanding Achievement Award for Research in Higher Education (Humanities and Social Sciences) from the Ministry of Education, as well as multiple awards from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Government.
The university has also made significant efforts in archival and digital construction. It currently holds 10 epitaphs in Khitan Script—the largest such collection in the world. The team has developed a high-precision font for the Khitan Script and a comprehensive digital platform for editing, typesetting, and retrieval. They have also submitted encoding proposals for Khitan scripts at ISO (International Organization for Standardization) meetings, advancing digitalization, standardization, and internationalization in China.
In talent cultivation, the university has established a systematic curriculum—including Research on Ancient Northern Ethnic Scripts, Introduction to Khitan Script Research, and Selected Readings of the History of Liao—forming a continuous training system from undergraduate to doctoral levels. Since the 1990s, the program has produced eight doctoral and 15 master's graduates in Khitan script studies, co-trained two doctoral candidates, and hosted three postdoctoral researchers and 2 visiting scholars. Currently, nine doctoral and eight master's students are enrolled, effectively addressing the talent shortage in this niche field and supplying high-quality researchers for national Khitan studies.
In terms of international exchange and platform building, the team has established global partnerships. Core researchers have conducted postdoctoral work at the University of Helsinki and served as visiting professors at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The team has organized multiple international symposia on Mongolian linguistics and Khitan-Liao culture. University delegations have visited Hungary and Italy, signing cooperation agreements and establishing an overseas Khitan Script Research Center at University of Szeged in Hungary. Domestically, the university has founded the Inner Mongolia Research Center for Ancient Northern Ethnic Scripts and joined the Inner Mongolia University Innovation Team Development Program.
Motivations and objectives of this special issue
After decades of persistent academic accumulation, the Khitan Script Research Team of Inner Mongolia University has achieved continuous breakthroughs in basic documentary collation, decipherment, theoretical research, and digital construction, accumulating abundant newly discovered materials and original academic findings. To systematically summarize the team's phased research progress, showcase the latest disciplinary achievements, inherit the academic heritage of Khitan script studies, and fill the academic gap of balanced published research on both Khitan Large and Small Scripts, we launch this special issue on Khitan script research.
This special issue was supported by Key Project of the National Social Science Fund of China “Interpretation of Newly Discovered Inscriptions from the Liao Imperial Consort Clan and Research on Khitan Small Script Orthography” (Grant No. 21AYY023).
This special issue serves three core objectives. First, it systematically collects new materials, new textual interpretations, and innovative viewpoints produced by the team, fully demonstrating the balanced and cutting-edge development of the university's research on both Khitan script systems. Second, it builds a high-end academic exchange platform to provide fresh materials and innovative research perspectives for global studies of Khitanology, Liao–Jin history, and ethnic linguistics, promoting in-depth development of this niche discipline. Third, it inherits the academic tradition of ancient northern ethnic script research, highlights the pluralistic charm of traditional Chinese culture, facilitates the exploration, inheritance, and revitalization of the academic and cultural value of Khitan scripts, and promotes high-quality and sustainable development of the discipline.
Composition and content overview of the special issue
This special issue features a balanced and well-structured collection of six high-quality academic papers, with three studies dedicated to the Khitan Large Script and three to the Khitan Small Script. It forms a multi-layered research framework integrating micro case decipherment, meso lexical analysis, and macro theoretical judgment, covering new material collation, verification of previous research, glyphs, and lexical interpretation, and exploration of script nature. The collection fully reflects the current research priorities and academic breakthroughs of the team.
The three papers on the Khitan Small Script focus on the in-depth interpretation of epitaphs to consolidate the foundation of small script research. A study of the lexicali Interpretation of the Epitaph of Yelü Yugulin Taishi in Khitan small script systematically sorts out the glyph–lexicon correspondence of the epitaph, verifies existing research findings, improves the lexical database of the Khitan Small Script, and provides solid textual support for research on its linguistic and grammatical features. ‘On Dao in Khitan Small Script’ carries out specialized research on the “Dao道” in Khitan script, exploring its original meaning, contextual usage, and semantic evolution, refining the semantic system of the Khitan Small Script and resolving long-standing interpretative controversies. Interpretation of the Epitaph of Ritual Commissioner Yelü Jiulin in Khitan small script conducts systematic textual decipherment, collation, and historical analysis of the epitaph of Yelü Jiulin, correcting previous interpretative deviations, supplementing missing textual and historical information, and enriching the documentary records of Liao figures and historical events.
The three papers on the Khitan Large Script integrate micro textual collation with macro theoretical research, breaking the limitations of fragmented case studies. A Study of the nature and features of the Khitan large script transcends fragmented decipherment paradigms. It comprehensively explores the origin logic, creation rules, structural features, and functional attributes of the Khitan Large Script, scientifically judging its essential textual nature and systematic characteristics, resolving long-standing academic disputes, and constructing a theoretical framework for systematic research on the Khitan Large Script. Collation and new research on the Epitaph of Xiao Hanning Prince of the Xi in Khitan Large Script and A Textual research on newly discovered characters in the Epitaph of Gentleman Tulibu in Khitan Large Script focus on newly unearthed stone inscriptions, conducting textual collation and interpretation. These studies supplement brand-new Khitan Large Script materials, verify and revise previous academic conclusions, and fill multiple gaps in current research.
Overall, the papers compiled in this special issue are innovative and academically rigorous. They include in-depth reinterpretation of handed-down documents and collation of newly discovered materials, as well as refined microscopic lexical research and macroscopic theoretical exploration. The collection fully embodies the solid academic accumulation, advanced research vision and phased core achievements of the Khitan Script Research Team at Inner Mongolia University. It is hoped that domestic and international scholars will engage in continuous academic exchanges and in-depth research to sustain the inheritance and innovation of Khitan script studies and revitalize the millennia-old Khitan cultural heritage in the new era.
Finally, we sincerely thank all the editors of Journal of Chinese Writing Systems, East China Normal University, for their hard work and careful editing. You have devoted substantial time and efforts to polishing English expressions and inputting special Khitan script characters. We extend our sincere gratitude to Professor Zhang Chunfeng for her strict review and meticulous, step-by-step guidance from beginning to end.