Brushtalk

Brushtalk (simplified Chinese: 笔谈; traditional Chinese: 筆談; pinyin: bǐtán) was first used in China as a way to engage in "silent conversations".[2] Beginning from the Sui dynasty, the scholars from China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam could use their mastery of Classical Chinese (Chinese: 文言文; pinyin: wényánwén; Japanese: 漢文 kanbun; Korean: 한문; 漢文; hanmun; Vietnamese: Hán văn, chữ Hán: 漢文) to communicate without any prior knowledge of spoken Chinese.

The earliest and initial accounts of Sino-Japanese brushtalks is dated during the Sui dynasty (581–618).[3] By an account written in 1094, minister Ono no Imoko (小野 妹子) was sent to China as an envoy. One of his goals there was to obtain Buddhist sutras to bring back to Japan. In one particular instance, Ono no Imoko had met three old monks. During their encounter, due to them not sharing a common language, held a "silent conversation" by writing Chinese characters on the ground using a stick.[3]

老僧書地曰：「念禪法師，於彼何號？」(The old monk wrote on the ground: 'Regarding the Zen Master, what title does he have there?')

妹子答曰：「我日本國，元倭國也。在東海中，相去三年行矣。今有聖德太子，无念禪法師，崇尊佛道，流通妙義。自說諸經，兼製義疏。承其令有，取昔身所持複法華經一卷，餘无異事。」(Ono no Imoko answered: 'I am from Japan, originally known as the Wa country. Situated in the middle of the Eastern Sea, it takes three years to travel here. Currently, we have the Sagely Virtue Crown Prince (Prince Shōtoku), but no Zen Master. He venerates Buddhism and Taoism, propagating profound teachings. He personally expounds upon various scriptures and creates commentaries on their meanings. Following his orders, I have come here to bring with me the single volume of the Lotus Sutra that he possessed in the past, and nothing else.')

老僧等大歡，命沙彌取之。須臾取經，納一漆篋而來，(The old monk and others were overjoyed and instructed a novice monk to retrieve it. After a moment, the scripture was brought in, placed in a lacquered box.)

The Vietnamese revolutionary Phan Bội Châu (潘佩珠) in 1905-1906 conducted several brushtalks with several other Chinese revolutionaries such as Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) and reformist Liang Qichao (梁啓超) in Japan during his Đông Du movement (東遊).[4][5] During his brushtalk with Li Qichao, it was noted that Phan Bội Châu was able to communicate with Liang Qichao using Chinese characters. They both sat at a table and exchanged sheets of paper back and forth. However when Phan Bội Châu tried reading what he wrote in his Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation, the pronunciation was unintelligible to Cantonese-speaking Liang Qichao.[4] They discussed topics mainly involving the pan-Asian anti-colonial movement.[5] These brushtalks later led to the publishing of the book, History of the Loss of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam vong quốc sử; chữ Hán: 越南亡國史) written in Literary Chinese.

About a hundred of Phan Bội Châu's brushtalks in Japan can be found in Phan Bội Châu's book, Chronicles of Phan Sào Nam (Vietnamese: Phan Sào Nam niên biểu; chữ Hán: 潘巢南年表).[6]

There are several instances that he mentions that he used brushtalk to communicate.

以漢文之媒介也 ('used Literary Chinese as a [communication] medium')

孫出筆紙與予互談 ('Sun [Yat-sen] took out a brush and paper so we can converse')

以筆談互問答甚詳 ('using brushtalk, we engaged in serious and detailed question and answer exchanges.')

Kōno Tarō (河野 太郎) during his visit to Beijing in 2019 tweeted his schedule, but only using Chinese characters (no kana) as a way of connecting with Chinese followers. While the text is not like Chinese nor is it like Japanese, it was fairly understandable by Chinese speakers. It is a good example of Pseudo-Chinese (偽中国語) and how the two countries can somewhat communicate with each other with writing. The tweet resembled how brushtalks were used in the past.[7]

八月二十二日日程。同行記者朝食懇談会、故宮博物院Digital故宮見学、故宮景福宮参観、李克強総理表敬、中国外交有識者昼食懇談会、荷造、帰国。(Daily schedule of 22 August. Breakfast meeting with accompanying reporters, visit to the Forbidden City’s Digital Palace, visit to the Forbidden City’s Jingfu Palace, courtesy visit with Premier Li Keqiang, lunch meeting with experts on Chinese diplomacy, packing, and returning home.)

One famous example of brushtalk is a conversation between a Vietnamese envoy (Phùng Khắc Khoan 馮克寬) and a Korean envoy (Yi Su-gwang 이수광; 李睟光) meeting in Beijing to wish prosperity for the Wanli Emperor (1597).[8][9][10] The envoys exchanged dialogue and poems between each other. These poems followed traditional metrics which was made up of eight 7-syllable lines (七言律詩). It is noted by Yi Su-gwang that out of the 23 people in Phùng Khắc Khoan's delagation, only one person knew spoken Chinese meaning that the rest had to use brushtalks to communicate.[11]

• Classical Chinese

• (Translation) 芝峯集