A Studv On The Confusion Of Chinese Character Forms In Chu Bamboo Slips

To examine the components of Chinese characters is fundamental to paleographic research,especially for the study of Chu bamboo slips,whose writing has so many variants.Since the characters of the Warring States period have no standardized form,there might be confusion between different words.The term confusion in this thesis refers to the phenomenon of confusing one Chinese character with another due to the similarity of writing form.This paper is divided into two parts including five chapters.In Chapter One of the First Part,above all,the author gives the definition of confusion.Secondly,the author analyses the characteristics of confusion,such as diachronic and directional.Thirdly,the author introduces the significance of this research.Now paleographers are paying more attention to the confusion of some ancient Chinese character forms.However,the study is quite limited and the monograph which summarizes the whole examples and cases systematically has not come out yet.With large quantities of Chu bamboo slips being published,the research on confusion becomes more and more urgent.Besides,studying the confusion cases of Chu characters can help us to explain and collate classical documents.In Chapter Two,based on other scholars’ achievements,the author explores six factors which cause confusion,namely,the omission and simplification of character form,the additional part of character form,the change of the component’s placement,the change of the strokes,the confusion of the components,and the incomplete character form.In Chapter Three,the author shows some approaches to distinguishing the confusion characters,such as the comparison of the character forms,finding distinctive features,examining the context,comparing with the classical documents,and the using of new materials and new methods.In the Second Part,Chapter Four and Chapter Five offer some typical examples of confusion with interpretation.Chapter Four deals with single characters while Chapter Five analyses compound characters.The two chapters share the same research method and the line of thinking.First the author gives one pair of confusion character forms,then discusses them in the context of Chu bamboo slips documents,and at last solves the form-related problems in classical documents,mainly the Pre-Qin documents.A Chu character often has different forms,but when giving examples only the one that causes confusion is chosen.To clarify the confusion characters in Chu bamboo slips,opinions from many experts are quoted and the idea of the author is also provided.The major materials are Chu bamboo slips documents,as well as the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty,inscriptions on ancient bronze objects,inscriptions on seals and pottery,and bamboo slips or wooden documents of the Qin and Han Dynasty when necessary.At the end of the thesis,there is an appendix.The author gives some examples of confusion due to researchers’ misinterpretation of Chu characters.It is composed of two sections.The first section deals with the misinterpretation of similar characters,and the second section discusses the misinterpretation of characters with different writing forms.