We examined the Chinese rubrics in the Kaifeng manuscripts previously. The Royal Ontario Museum has items Bishop White bought or procured in Kaifeng. One is a leaf above and below, from a Rosh Hashanah prayer. At the top, four Chinese characters are written:
The characters to the left read three generations and the blocked out characters are, according to White Chinese surnames of a non-Jewish origin. On the back of the paper, this is written:
White believe this was written to approximate this Arabic phrase:
This is a possible assumption. White claims it was written by a person who did not know Arabic, as it is more a design than script. The one issue I have with this is the assumption that Kaifeng Jews spell and write poorly, an accusation that nearly always accompanies scholarly work of their manuscripts. I am weary of these assumptions. Is this really a design of this phrase in Arabic?
It seems unlikely that these writings are rubrics, or guides to the Rosh Hashanah service. As this leaf of liturgy was in the hands of the Kaifeng Jews long after the community ceased to have services, in this case, nearly one-hundred years, this page was probably used for other purposes, i.e. to note names and maybe even doodle.
White provides his 'corrections' to the text. Eventually, we will review this work:
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