Character-building effect of text on a nation

These two publications honour the expertise and style of two doyens - contemporaries now in their late nineties - in Chinese linguistics and palaeography. Zhou Youguang's book first appeared in Chinese in 1997.

The new version presents the original text and a translation en face . Key expressions in Zhang Liqing's fluent translation are highlighted, and the layout is designed to allow easy grasp of both Chinese and English texts.

The book contains sections on the commonality of Mandarin; other Chinese languages; writing in a spoken style; simplification of characters; Chinese romanisation; scripts of the minorities (that is, non-Chinese ethnic groups); and, finally, a brief conclusion reviewing the standardisation of language and script required by the computer age.

Zhou's study is predominantly the story of 20th-century efforts to unify Chinese language and script. In essence, he reports what has long been official language policy, and his tone is consciously patriotic. Even though highly readable, this approach has drawbacks. In such an ambitious chronological span, the historical evolution of Chinese writing is presented as thoroughly teleological. But as Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien's Written on Bamboo and Silk shows, Chinese writing developed in multiple locations. In the wars of the first millennium BC, the political elimination of a rival usually forced the closure of once-viable alternatives for the development of writing with characters.

Clearly, too, Zhou's advocacy of a national standard of speech/ script closely in line with "spoken style" is not free of internal conflict. This is most obvious when he cites an entire civil service examination essay of the imperial period. Since attention to this maligned genre is rare, Zhou's presentation of a specimen (unattributed) is welcome. Zhang's translation of this intensely learned document makes it function more meaningfully than it does in Zhou's citation of an unmediated classical text. In a stunning reverse, however, Zhou claims that such writing should be strongly opposed because it led China into centuries-long stagnation. But it is unclear why this ancient idiom has hindered colloquial style.

Another topic seldom explored in most scholarship is the history of transcribing Chinese with the Roman alphabet. Attempts began in the 17th century when the Jesuit priests Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault developed alphabetical transcriptions to define the pronunciation of Chinese words.

Their graphic imbrications had little impact in China, but the early missionaries' efforts began a fascinating intertwining of scripts that later became - and remains - crucial throughout East Asia. Although Zhou applauds the Jesuit linguists, he scorns the competitive proselytisers of the 19th century. True, the various churches of the dominant Western powers were not preoccupied with Zhou's favourite project of promoting China's linguistic unity. Preachers perfected their abilities in a local language and evangelised crowds of bargemen and porters beneath the city walls. Good practice this may not have been in terms of forming a nation-state, but the language descriptions, vocabularies and gospel transcriptions that these disparate efforts served up for later generations of scholars are impressive.

Zhou's determined narrative makes its clear sequence and its prodigious marshalling of historical facts thoroughly engaging. Zhang's translation is mostly excellent. Only once did I wonder if author and translator were speaking in two voices: when Zhou protests the arrogance of foreign missionaries who romanised too many local dialects, he uses a classic metaphor - "to leap over the altar meats and take over from the kitchen staff", that is, not to know one's place. Elsewhere conscientious, Zhang passes silently over this wonderful expression and the intriguing argument that it trails.

Written on Bamboo and Silk , first published in 1962, is the only reliable treatise of its kind in English. Tsien's title was borrowed from a venerable definition of textuality that included, as well as bamboo and silk, metal and stone. His new edition has retained the coverage of a medium-based approach to writing on bones/shells ("oracle bones"), bronze vessels and weapons, stone stelae and jade tablets, bamboo, wood, silk and paper. The final chapters also deal with writing implements and the development of early Chinese books. Much less is said about printing, a branch of investigation that Tsien never aimed to include. The second edition is completed with Edward Shaughnessy's masterful survey of palaeographical scholarship since the 1960s. Its coverage and exhaustive references are a splendid tribute to the original edition and a guarantee of its regenerated usefulness. The illustrations of the first edition were crisper, but the new edition is more attractive, subtly promoted with an extra title page of calligraphy by Rao Zongyi, a giant figure in Chinese palaeography.

Tsien's early interest in palaeography and its bibliographical dimensions has stimulated one of the most fruitful paths of investigating China's enormous textual heritage, itself the basis of her human sciences. As Shaughnessy points out, what were once "curiosities" arousing ancillary interest in the historical development of Chinese script have become the "lifeblood of studies in early Chinese literature, history and philosophy".

For scholars wishing to understand how a number of now justly separated palaeographic fields have developed over the past half-century, Tsien's re-editing of a classic work could not be timelier.

Sometimes, original data have been reinterpreted to lead to fresh views.

Tsien reports that, with improved testing techniques, he has abandoned his earlier conclusion that "paper" was first made with silk rather than vegetable fibres. Such updated claims about printing, ink and engraving will interest not only historians of China but also cultural historians of printing and bibliography in the West.

Oliver Moore is lecturer in art and material culture, Leiden University, the Netherlands.