A Study On The Erroneous Spellings In Chu Bamboo And Silk Documents

The erroneous spellings in the Chu bamboo and silk documents have become aconsensus among researchers. However, as for the number and extent of erroneousspellings, no specified research has been done. Based on this, this paper discussestentatively the erroneous spellings of Characters in Chu bamboo and silk documents.There are five chapters in this thesis, and the main contents are as follows.Chapter One introduces the main data or research materials this paper depends on, thedefinition of erroneous spellings, its research significance, research methodology andachievements that predecessors have made. It also analyzes the relationships amongerroneous spellings, erroneous changes and erroneous confusions in the definition part.Chapter Two can be seen as the supplement of definition of erroneous spellings,in which it elaborated on how to identify erroneous spellings from five aspects.Chapter Three talks about the relationships among erroneous spellings andapperception, erroneous spellings and isomorphs, erroneous spellings and Deformationof sound, erroneous spellings and mixture of Characters, erroneous spellings andwriting habits in six sections. Apperception and assimilation had a great relationshipwith erroneous spellings. And they were the phenomena which are inevitable in thedevelopment of Characters. Such phenomena may result in erroneous spellings. Dodistinguish the differences between them, not affirm others as erroneous spellings.Chapter Four divides the erroneous spellings into two types, namely, regularerroneous spellings and irregular erroneous spellings, based upon the research resultsof Chu bamboo and silk documents. The first part exemplifies regular erroneousspellings from five aspects, which is believed to bear great significance to theinterpretation of characters; the second part classifies irregular erroneous spellings intofive classes, namely, bad words, mistakenly leak strokes, mistakenly increase stroke,mistakenly fracture strokes and so on.Chapter Five makes detailed distinctions among eleven pairs of erroneousspellings, such as ,甲,亡,乍,見,視,古,由,弋,戈,天,而,舉,興,遷,異,畢,員. After an exhaustive study of the eleven pairs of erroneous spellings, we reach a conclusion that erroneous spellings do exist between each pair of thosecharacters which are similar in form, some of which are two-way erroneous spellings.We also have made a statistical list of the distribution and erroneous spellings. We alsooffer some interpretations of form-related issues in the process of discussing erroneousspellings.Finally, in the appendix, two graphs have been made to list erroneous spellings onthe basis of component and wholeness of erroneous spellings for readers'reference.The erroneous spellings listed in the graphs were common in the Chu bamboo and silkdocuments and they were determined for the components and the whole words oferroneous spellings. The cognition of such erroneous spellings can be conducive for usto know some difficult characters in the Chu bamboo and silk documents.