On 19/10/05, suzmccarth <suzmccarth@...> wrote:

>
> Morris Rossabi. Khubilai Khan. 1988.
>
> That is what I read - I am not going to defend it. There are obvious
> difficulties in getting the straight story about the life and times
> of Khubiali khan.
>

It is difficult to judge for certain exactly what the motivation
behind the introduction of the new 'Phags-pa script by Khubilai Khan
was, and to what extent it was intended to be used by ordinary people
rather than just by the bureaucratic elite. However, the script was
most certainly familiar to everyone in the Yuan empire, poor and rich
alike, as it was widely used on both coins and banknotes. Although you
didn't need to be able to read the script to tell how much a coin was
worth, it did mean that people would be coming into contact with the
script on a day-to-day basis, and you can imagine that many people
would learn to read the simple Chinese 'Phags-pa text inscribed on the
coins that they handled.

One interesting fact that does lend support to Suzanne's thesis is
that the popular Chinese encyclopaedia "Shilin Guangji" 事林廣記 (printed
in numerous editions throughout the 14th century) transcribes the
"Hundred Family Names" into the 'Phags-pa script (see
<http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Phags-pa/Baijiaxing.html>). The "Hundred
Family Names" was one of the basic elementary texts that all school
children had to learn, and perhaps the ability to write one's family
name in the 'Phags-pa script was considered to be the minimum
requirement of literacy under the Mongol rule.

Andrew