19-09-2026, 04:31 AM
I have a certain understanding and analysis of the conjectures and deductions Professor Stolfi has provided, and I am drafting a formatted reply to your earlier views. But before that, I still have a very puzzling question.
You said earlier that the hypothesis you roughly discussed is that you think this might not be a cipher, but rather that a European who had been to China listened to Chinese doctors reciting medicinal materials and then used an alphabet he invented to record Chinese pronunciation as dictation notes? But what I really don’t understand is: why did he have to listen to Chinese doctors reciting, and why did he have to use an alphabet he invented to record Chinese pronunciation? Why didn’t he do something simpler: take a copy of an ancient Chinese book back with him, or print one, or even copy a medicinal book word for word without missing a single character? He could have taken it back to his own country and found a relevant diplomat or a scholar who knew both languages to translate it. Wouldn’t the result obtained that way be more accurate? Wouldn’t it be less likely to produce misleading errors?
Take me as an example. My English is not very good, and sometimes I rely on a translator. If I come across an English word I don’t know how to pronounce, I used to use Chinese that I could understand to write one or two words. Reading these words together sounds close to the pronunciation of that English word I couldn’t pronounce. But this can only serve as my method for practicing spoken English and reading words. The problem is, if they tried their best to write down the same pronunciation, why did they still invent their own alphabet? Isn’t that more error-prone or more complicated?
You said earlier that the hypothesis you roughly discussed is that you think this might not be a cipher, but rather that a European who had been to China listened to Chinese doctors reciting medicinal materials and then used an alphabet he invented to record Chinese pronunciation as dictation notes? But what I really don’t understand is: why did he have to listen to Chinese doctors reciting, and why did he have to use an alphabet he invented to record Chinese pronunciation? Why didn’t he do something simpler: take a copy of an ancient Chinese book back with him, or print one, or even copy a medicinal book word for word without missing a single character? He could have taken it back to his own country and found a relevant diplomat or a scholar who knew both languages to translate it. Wouldn’t the result obtained that way be more accurate? Wouldn’t it be less likely to produce misleading errors?
Take me as an example. My English is not very good, and sometimes I rely on a translator. If I come across an English word I don’t know how to pronounce, I used to use Chinese that I could understand to write one or two words. Reading these words together sounds close to the pronunciation of that English word I couldn’t pronounce. But this can only serve as my method for practicing spoken English and reading words. The problem is, if they tried their best to write down the same pronunciation, why did they still invent their own alphabet? Isn’t that more error-prone or more complicated?