["Unicode"] tablature characters for the Chinese guqin

[Andrew West]

On 30 May 2014 05:50, suzuki toshiya <mpsuzuki at hiroshima-u.ac.jp> wrote:
>
> BTW, a few (only one?) characters for the latter style are
> sampled in a normal dictionary "CiYuan", and will be included
> in CJK Unified Ideograph Extension F.

I hope not.  Just because it occurs in a Chinese dictionary does not
mean that it is a Han ideograph, and guqin tablature signs most
definitely are not Han ideographs.  The component elements of guqin
tablature signs should be encoded in a separate block, with an
encoding model that allows for the composition of arbitrary tablature
signs by fonts.

> However, I don't think
> encoding only one glyph for the tablature is so useful -> there is any avantgarde number using only one note?

It would be extremely unuseful to do so.

> Attached is IRG42 t-shirt of a tablature(?) taken from Dunhuang
> manuscript (Pelliot P3808).

Yes, it is tablature used for the pipa lute during the Tang dynasty.
I have a table of pipa tablature signs at:

http://babelstone.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/one-to-twenty-in-jurchen-khitan-and-lute.html#Lute

And I discuss Song and Yuan dynasty flute tablature signs at:

http://babelstone.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/one-to-ten-in-tangut-and-flute.html

Glyphs for both flute and pipa tablature signs are available in my
BabelStone Han font in the PUA at E000..E01D and E020..E04B
respectively.

Andrew