I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes

Posted by Victor Mair

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Draft Minutes of UTC (Unicode Technical Committee) Meeting 185
Cupertino, California, United States — October 27-29, 2025
Hosted by Apple in Cupertino and virtually
UTC #185 Agenda
Revision date: November 26, 2025

https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2025/25226.htm#185-C3

As has been true since the beginning of Unicode (see Mair and Liu, Characters and Computers [1991], of the total number of new code points to be added to Unicode, the proportion devoted to Sinoform characters is greater by an order of magnitude than for all other scripts and symbols (cuneiform, Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Devanagari, Hebrew, Kana, Latin, Mongolian, emojis, alchemy, mathematics, etc.) put together.

Hangul syllables, which derive their basic shape from sinographs, are also Unicode code point hungry.

Feast your eyes on these tables of Unicode blocks, and don't stop reading till you get to the bottom:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_block

Some people have suggested that all of Xu Bing's made-up characters in "Book from the Sky" should also be entered in Unicode, even though we don't know what any of them mean or how they are pronounced.  That's 4,000 more meaningless code points right there.  Other artists have made similar critiques and elaborations of the Chinese writing system.  Since Xu Bing's work and most of the others like it, not to mention the already existing sinographic writing system itself, are open-ended, that means including them would subject Unicode to an infinity of additional sinoform code points.

D.1 Section 1.2 Seal Script

Discussion of the name of the block. Participants agreed that “Seal” is preferable to “Small Seal”. The ISO 15924 registrar noted that the English script name is “(Small) Seal”.

Discussion of the status of properties.

[185-C3] Consensus: UTC accepts 11328 code points U+3D000..U+3FC3F for encoding in a new Seal block based on WG 2 N5344R, for Unicode Version 18.0. Of the proposed properties, kSEAL_THXSrc, kSEAL_CCZSrc, kSEAL_DYCSrc, and kSEAL_QJZSrc are Normative. The others are Provisional. [Ref. 1.2 in L2/25-232R]

[185-A5] Action Item for Ken Whistler, RMG: Update the Pipeline to include 11328 Seal characters U+3D000..U+3FC3F based on WG 2 N5344R, accepted for Unicode Version 18.0. [Ref. 1.2 in L2/25-232R]

[185-A6] Action Item for V.S. Umamaheswaran, SAH: Update the roadmap to reflect accepted code points for the Seal script: U+3D000..U+3FC3F. [Ref. 1.2 in L2/25-232R]

[185-A7] Action Item for Michel Suignard, EDC: Update Table 4-8 in the Core Specification to include name derivation prefix for the Seal script, for Unicode Version 18.0. [Ref. 1.2 in L2/25-232R]

[185-A8] Action Item for Michel Suignard, EDC: Provide block description for the Seal block in the Core Specification, for Unicode Version 18.0. [Ref. 1.2 in L2/25-232R]

[185-A9] Action Item for Michel Suignard, SAH: In Unicode Standard Annex #60, “Data for non Han ideographic scripts”, add properties for Seal as described in WG 2 N5344R.

Some advocates of the sinographs (hanziphiles), even famous university professors, think that the sinographic writing system is superior to all others because it has far more discrete elements than do alphabets, syllabaries, abjads, and so forth.  Oy vey!

Selected readings

• "Unicode CJK Unified Ideographs Extension J and the nature of the sinographic writing system" (6/16/25)
• "Language is not script and script is not language, part 2" (7/10/22)
• "Language is not script and script is not language" (1/23/22)
• "How many more Chinese characters are needed?" (10/25/16)
• "Language vs. script" (11/21/16)
• "Triple review of books on characters and computers" (8/23/24)
• "Chinese character inputting" (10/17/15)
• "Sinographic inputting: 'it's nothing' — not" (2/22/21) — with lengthy bibliography
• Victor H. Mair and Yongquan Liu, eds., Characters and Computers (Amsterdam, Oxford, Washington, Tokyo:  IOS, 1991)
• "Is there a practical limit to how much can fit in Unicode?" (10/27/17)
• "Sinographs by the numbers" (1/22/19)
• "Idiosyncratic stroke order" (11/23/18) — and the long list of earlier posts at the bottom
• "The wrong way to write Chinese characters" (11/28/18) — You may get all the strokes of a character, but if you don't write them in the correct order, you have miswritten the character, for example, the 29 strokes of this one:

yù 鬱 ("depression; blues; dense; despondent; dismal; dispirited; low-spirited; melancholy; sweet smelling")

enlarged and animated

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Posted by Victor Mair

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Well, now, for all those doubting Thomases who insist that there was no contact between western Eurasia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia in antiquity:

"The Amber Trade along the Southwestern Silk Road from 600 BCE-220 CE." Lü, Jing et al. Palaeoentomology 8, no. 6 (December 29, 2025): 679-682. https://www.mapress.com/pe/article/view/palaeoentomology.8.6.10.

Abstract

Amber holds significant historical importance in China, symbolizing not only the glory of ancient Chinese art and culture but also reflecting the development of cross-regional trade in antiquity. Evidence shows that Burmese and Baltic amber became widely popular during the Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE) and could be imported through various routes (Liu et al., 2023a, b; Zhao et al., 2023; Li et al., 2025). During this period, the Euro-Asia Steppe Trade Road was predominantly used for the import of Baltic amber, while the Maritime Silk Route might also facilitate the amber trade (Li et al., 2025). Additionally, the Southwestern Silk Route is regarded as a crucial pathway for amber trade in ancient Southern China. This overland route stretched from Central China through the mountainous regions of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, extending to Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries (Elias, 2024). The ancient Ailao Regional States, serving as a key node along the Southwestern Silk Road, encompassed southwestern Yunnan (China), northern Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and eastern Assam (India) (Sun, 2016). Notably, the territory of Ailao Regional States included the Burmese amber deposits in the northern Myanmar, which was also recorded in the Han historical records as the amber origin (Fan, 1965). In addition, several amber artifacts from the same period have been discovered in the Dian Kingdom, which is primarily located in Yunnan and borders the Ailao Regional States (Zhao, 2016). While there is considerable evidence suggesting that the Southwestern Silk Route played a significant role in the amber trade, there is a lack of empirical evidence detailing its specific functions in the transportation of amber.

Etymology

From Middle English ambre, aumbre, from Old French aumbre, ambre, from Arabic عَنْبَر (ʕanbar, “ambergris”), from Middle Persian (ʾnbl /⁠ambar⁠/, “ambergris”). Compare English lamber, ambergris. Displaced Middle English smulting (from Old English smelting (“amber”)), Old English eolhsand (“amber”), Old English glær (“amber”), and Old English sāp (“amber, resin, pomade”).

• • The nucleotide sequence "UAG" is named "amber" for the first person to isolate the amber mutation, California Institute of Technology graduate student Harris Bernstein, whose last name ("Bernstein") is the German word for the resin "amber".

(Wiktionary)

The English word amber derives from Arabic ʿanbar عنبر from Middle Persian (ʾnbl /ambar⁠/, "ambergris") via Middle Latin ambar and Middle French ambre. The word referred to what is now known as ambergris (ambre gris or "gray amber"), a solid waxy substance derived from the sperm whale. The word, in its sense of "ambergris", was adopted in Middle English in the 14th century.

In the Romance languages, the sense of the word was extended to Baltic amber (fossil resin) from as early as the late 13th century. At first called white or yellow amber (ambre jaune), this meaning was adopted in English by the early 15th century. As the use of ambergris waned, this became the main sense of the word.

The two substances ("yellow amber" and "gray amber") conceivably became associated or confused because they both were found washed up on beaches. Ambergris is less dense than water and floats, whereas amber is denser and floats only in concentrated saline, or strong salty seawater though less dense than stone.

The classical names for amber, Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ēlektron) and one of its Latin names, electrum, are connected to a term ἠλέκτωρ (ēlektōr) meaning "beaming Sun". According to myth, when Phaëton, son of Helios (the Sun), was killed his mourning sisters became poplar trees, and their tears became elektron, amber. The word elektron gave rise to the words electric, electricity, and their relatives because of amber's ability to bear a charge of static electricity.

(Wikipedia)

Electrifying!

Warms the cockles of your heart.

Selected readings

• "China Babel" (3/26/24) — with numerous important references
• "Celto-Sinica" (12/30/25)
• “Correspondences between Old Chinese and Proto-Celtic Words”, by Julie Lee Wei, Sino-Platonic Papers, 373 (December, 2025), 1-85.
• "Volts before Volta" (1/3/26)
• “The Baghdad Battery: Experimental Verification of a 2,000-Year-Old Device Capable of Driving Visible and Useful Electrochemical Reactions at over 1.4 Volts", by Alexander Bazes, Sino-Platonic Papers, 377 (January, 2026), 1-20.
• "Battery-Powered Prayers" (1/8/26)
• "The Trans-Eurasian Exchange: The Prehistory of Chinese Relations with the West", by Andrew Sherratt, published posthumously in Victor H. Mair, ed., Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World (Honolulu:  University of Hawaii Press, 2006), pp. 30-61.
• Joyce C. White and Elizabeth G. Hamilton, “The transmission of early bronze technology to Thailand: new perspectives”, Journal of World Prehistory 22 (2009), 357–97 (Google Scholar)
• Hajni Elias, H, "The Southwest Silk Road: artistic exchange and transmission in early China," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 87 (2024), 319–344. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X24000120
• "The Wool Road of Northern Eurasia" (4/12/21) — comment:
• Annie Gottlieb reminds me that there was also an Amber Road. I had written about that in various places, and was fascinated by the fact that there is clear evidence for flourishing trade along this route from the Baltic to the Mediterranean already during Neolithic times (although recent scholarship emphasizes the last three thousand years). 
• — traceable right over the Alps.
• That further reminded me of this lecture that was given in my department on July 13, 2017: "Wine Road before the Silk Road: Hypotheses on the Origins of Chinese and Eurasian Drinking Culture". It was delivered by Peter Kupfer, Professor, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
• Liu, Q., Zhang, Y.H.., Li, X.P., Qin, X. & Li, Q.H. (2023b) Some amber artifacts excavated from tombs of the Han Dynasty in Hunan Province. Journal of Gems and Gemmology, 25, 146–157. https://doi.org/10.15964/j.cnki.027jgg.2023.04.013
• Luo, E.H. (2000) Chinese “Southwestern Silk Road” in the Han and Jin Dynasties. Journal of Sichuan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 1, 84–105. [In Chinese]
• Na, X.X. (2020) The research of the gemmological characteristics and colour grading of Burmese amber. Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 34–40. [In Chinese]
• Shi, Z.T., Xin, C.X. & Wang, Y.M. (2023) Spectral characteristics of unique species of Burmese amber. Minerals, 13, 151. https://doi.org/10.3390/min13020151
• Sun, J. (2016) The spatio-temporal patterns and geographical imagination of ethnic groups in the Southwest of China, among Qin and Han Dynasties. China Social Sciences Press, Beijing, 530 pp. [In Chinese]
• The Archaeological Team of Guizhou Provincial Museum (1979) The tombs of the Han Dynasty in Xingyi and Xingren, Guizhou Province. Cult Relics, 5, 20–33. [In Chinese]
• Zhao, D. (2016). Exotic beads and pendants in Ancient China: From Western Zhou to Eastern Jin Dynasty. Science Press, Beijing, pp. 103–107. [In Chinese]
• Zhao, T., Peng, M.H., Yang, M.X., Lu, R., Wang, Y.M. & Li, Y. (2023) Effects of weathering on FTIR spectra and origin traceability of archaeological amber: The case of the Han Tomb of Haihun Marquis, China. Journal of Archaeological Science, 153, 105753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2023.105753
• "Of a Persian spymaster and Viking Rus' in medieval East Asia: Scythia Koreana and Japanese Waqwaq" (6/1/25) — from Scandinavia to Korea and Japan; strikingly illustrated
• Victor H. Mair, "Language and Script:  Biology, Archaeology, and (Pre)history", International Review of Chinese Linguistics, 1.1 (1996), 31-41 (large format, twin columns) — hard to get hold of, but well worth the effort

    plus hundreds of Language Log posts documenting east-west contact in ancient times by Lucas Christopoulos, Brian Pellar, Sara de Rose, and others.

[Thanks to Ted McClure]

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