A Comparative Study Of The Written Characters Between Han Jian And Bamboo Slips Of The State Of Chu

The Han Jian is a book of characters compiled by Guo Zhongshu in the early Northern Song Dynasty,based on the materials of the ancient texts that have been handed down to him.The majority of characters in the book are from the Six Kingdoms of the Warring States period,interspersed with characters from other periods.A comparison of the characters in Han Jian with those eleven types of Bamboo Slips in the State of Chu can reveal the similarities and differences between the ancient texts that have been handed down and those that have been excavated,and show the variation in characters during the process of transcription.The current edition of the Han Jian contains 2,961 characters,but if you omit the repetition,it has a total of more than 2400 words.According to statistics,there are about1000 characters corresponding to the shapes of Han Jian and Bamboo Slips in the State of Chu.According to whether the character patterns are similar or not,these characters can be divided into two categories: the ancient characters of Han Jian are the same as those Bamboo Slips in the State of Chu,and the ancient characters of Han Jian are different from those.In terms of the same characters,component positions can be divided into two categories: radical characters and non radical characters.The number of identical radical characters is 129 characters,accounting for 25.34% of the total number of radical characters,and most of these characters are pictographs and self explanatory characters.Due to the diversity of components in the same non radical characters,the number of characters is relatively small,and some special "person names" and "chapter names of handed down documents" have been completely preserved.In addition to the same characters,there are also similarities in the rules of configuration,such as the substitution of sound symbols and form symbols,the mixing of forms and near radicals,and synonymous substitution.The differences between the two are mainly reflected in the differences in strokes and components: the differences in strokes are manifested in the variation of strokes,the addition and subtraction of strokes,and the adhesion and splitting of strokes;the variations in components are manifested in the flourishing,simplification and dissimilation of forms.In addition,from a morphological point of view,the reasons for the differences are related to the misinterpretation of the characters and the drastic erroneous changes in their forms during the process of transcription,with erroneous changes being the main cause;from a phonetic point of view,the Han Jian does not screen the characters it contains,and includes a large number of pseudonyms,making it possible for characters with no connection in form to appear under the same interpretation.Through comparison,it is found that many of the shapes in Han Jian have no direct connection with the characters of hose Bamboo Slips in the State of Chu,which is related to the characters origin of Han Jian.From a synchronic and diachronic perspective,analysis and collation show that there are various characters in Han Jian,such as the ancient characters of Shang and Zhou Dynasties,the characters of other systems of the Warring States period,the Xiao zhuan and ancient characters in Shuo wen,and the common characters in official script after the Han Dynasty,with a wide range of characters.At the same time,it is concluded that the proportion of Qi characters in the Han Jian is very high,which further confirms that the ancient writings in the Han Jian indeed have evidence of their origin.Comparative research is an indispensable method in the study of Chinese characters.As a book of ancient Chinese characters,Han Jian also has its value that cannot be ignored.Comparing the unearthed ancient characters with the transcription ancient characters can not only correct errors in the transcription ancient characters,but also assist in identifying difficult characters in the unearthed texts.