Study On Huo Ti In Shuowen Jiezi

Shuowen Jiezi (abbreviation: Shuowen), written by Xushen in Donghan Dynasty, embodys 9353 characters. Among them there are 1163 Chong Wen including 530 Huo Ti or so. There have been lots of research on Ancient characters and Zhou Wen, while Huo Ti has received less attention. This thesis aims to a more general and systematic study on this issue.From the viewpoint of diachrony and synchrony, the thesis explores Huo Ti comprehensively and carrys out a thorough comparison between HuoTi and other characiters in different times.The characteristics and definition of Huo Ti are discussed and identified. It is defined as a set of highly standard variants of Zheng Zhuan in Shuowen that are consistent with the rule of Liu Shu and share the same significance as Zheng Zhuan in the time of Xiao Zhuan. Based on the definition, the graphemic structure of Huo Ti is studied, among which phonogram study constitutes the main part as its dominant proportion over others. The structure of phonogram can be decomposed into three categories: accessorial part, substitutional part and subtractive part, and each category is divided into more subclasses. In addition, the structure of pictographic characters, ideographic characters are also studied. At last, the inscription on oracle bone, the inscription on bronze, other Chong Wen in Shuowen and the subsequent characters are compared in the aspect of graphemic structure. The thesis clarifies the historical development of Huo Ti and indicates some Huo Ti should be Ancient characters or Zhou Wen, moreover it explains some questions such as why Huo Ti belongs to Chong Wen while it precedes Zheng Zhuan. The thesis makes improvements on the study of Chong Wen in Shuowen, which forms a solid base for the future study of Huo Ti, and it also helps the standardization of variant characters.