A Study On Vulgar Form Of Tongwentongkao Written By Araihakuseki

Tongwentongkao,which is a stated by Japanese scholar Mr.Araihakuseki Druingthe Edo period of Japan,is with reference to vulgar form of characters,reflecting thefeatures of diction and the real condition of characters in the middle period of Edo inJapan. This book discusses the origin and development of Hanzi in both Chinese andJapanese from the perspective of the cultural cycle of the Chinese characters on thebasis of the fact that the Chinese characters exist in Chinese as well as in Japanese. Inits volume four, it records some information about Chinese characters that can not befound in Chinese documents. According to its relation with Chinese characters,theauthor divided those information into six types.Broadly speaking, those five types canbe classified as Wosuzi with the exception of GuoXun. The classification andidentification of Wosuzi is flawed on some level due to the limitation of era in which theauthor lived.In spite of the limitations mentioned above, TongWenTongKao still reflectsthe basic situation regarding the usage of Chinese characters in the society of Edoperiod of Japan and represents the research progress on this subject at that time. Thisbook has a profound influence on the study of Chinese characters in Japan and holds asignificant value in the comparative research of Chinese characters between Chineseand Japanese.However, with only few reference, adequate attention has not been paid to the studyof this precious literature by researchers around the world, monographic study on thisissue is still a vacancy. Therefore, our study chooses the Wosuzi recorded in the fourthvolume of TongWenTongKao and its author’s research as our target. We plan to evaluateAraihakuseki’s study through a scutiny against types of Wosuzi in TongWenTongKaoWe are also trying to analyse the origin and the form of Wosuzi by consultingdocuments and literatures to compare from both synchronic.This article is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is Introduction, introducingthe writing process, edition and content of TongWenTongKao,describing currentsituation on the study of vulgar form of characters in Japan with a briefcomment.Besides that,the first chapter also introduces the content, methods andimportance of this research, clarifying the definition of vulgar form of characters andthe relationship between Suzi and Guozi, Jiezi.The second chapter analyses how thevulgar form of characters is processed and classified in TongWenTongKao andintroduces how Araihakuseki defines vulgar form of characters with an assessment of our own. The third chapter analyses the formation types of vulgar form of charactersrecorded in the TongWenTongKao on the synchronic level applying the principle ofmorphemicology of Chinese characters, discussing the origin and development ofvulgar form of characters in Japan. The fourth chapter focuses on the variations ofvulgar form of characters, dividing those variations into partly variations and completevariations according to their connections on forms with regular script. We also picksome of those variations to study their origin and development, revealing how theyevolve in Japan. The last chapter is conclusion, summarizing the features and basic lawsof how vulgar form of characters evolve and spread. Through this research, we find outthat Japanese absorbed many Chinese vulgar form of characters in Nara period anddeveloping many variations during the usage throughout history which deriving newforms of characters enriching the system of vulgar form of characters.