A Study Of The Variant Characters On Steles In Jinping County,Guizhou Province

The study of variant characters on tablet inscriptions began in the Song Dynasty,and various scholars have collected a large number of variant characters while sorting out tablet inscriptions.Especially in the Qing Dynasty,the trend of imitating ancient steles flourished,setting off a new upsurge in the study of epigraphy.During this period,with the discovery of many new materials for tablet inscriptions and the excavation of epitaphs,a large number of new achievements in the study of tablet inscriptions emerged,which laid a solid foundation for future generations to study variant characters on tablet inscriptions.This article takes the variant characters on the inscriptions of Jinping County as the research object,selects about 500 variant characters from88 valid physical photos and rubbings collected,classifies and explores them,and summarizes the causes,characteristics,and impact of the variant characters on the inscriptions of Jinping County.The purpose is to reflect the use of characters in Jinping County’s inscriptions during the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China,reveal the internal evolution of their variant characters,and deepen theoretical research on characters.The main body of this article is divided into four chapters.The first chapter describes the debate on the definition of variant characters in the academic community,draws on the opinions of various schools to limit the scope of variant characters,and establishes the standard of formal characters;Clarify the relationship between ancient and modern characters,traditional and simplified characters,and folk characters,laying a theoretical foundation for subsequent research.The second and third chapters mainly explore the five sources,seven types,and construction issues of variant characters in Jinping County’s tablet inscriptions;In addition,through the description of the variant characters on the inscriptions in Jinping County,the overall characteristics of the variant characters on the inscriptions in that area and the internal and external factors that formed them are summarized.On this basis,the paper analyzes the impact of a large number of inscription variants on the development history of Chinese characters.The fourth chapter,based on practice,specifically selects 32 groups of variant characters on Jinping County steles for textual research and interpretation,aiming to comprehensively and systematically understand the existence and development of variant characters,and ultimately understand the composition,changes,and development of variant characters.In order to ensure the authenticity and reliability of the research materials,the author takes effective steles as the blueprint,and the inscriptions on the steles involved are all based on the actual objects,in an effort to restore the original appearance of the inscription.Therefore,this study should be the first systematic study of variant characters in Jinping County’s stone inscriptions,which not only enriched the research results of stone inscriptions,but also clarified the relationship between variant characters and folk characters,ancient and modern characters,and traditional and simplified characters through extensive research,enabling people to have a clearer and more specific understanding of variant characters.