The Study On Shengxing In Shuowenjiezi

Shengxing is coined in comparison to Shengsheng which stands for the reduction of phonetic component by modern linguists. Shengsheng is frequently utilized in Shuowenjiezi while a single character Sheng is employed to mean much more than the denotation of the modern term Shengxing. The reason why Sheng is more inclusive than Shengxing is listed as follows. First, the ancient doesn’t use a term so accurately as we do today in the academic world due to epistemological changes taking on in thousands of years. Second, Sheng and Shengsheng can be easily confused with each other during the process of transcription and printing of Shuowenjiezi,in which way Sheng is actually Shengsheng in mistake. Third, scholars in different dynasties have made changes to the book thinking that they are correcting and revising mistakes. Only after the exclusion of falsified analysis which makes use of Sheng, can we achieve those characters that could be defined as Shengxingzi in corresponding to the modern term.The modern term Shengxing has several advantages comparing to the original term Sheng, among which is that the phenomenon distincts itself from Shengsheng by its name in the first place.However, as Shengsheng is specified to Xingshengzi, the title of Shengxing implies that can only be employed in the same field as its opposite. And most dictionaries define Shengxing just basing on this presumption, or illusion. In fact, Shengxing can also be applied to Huiyizi and Hetixiangxingzi. Shengxing is defined as the reduction of ideographic components in Hetizi in this dissertation. As for Xingshengzi, there exists a unique type of Shengxing. A small part of the original character is replaced by a phonetic component to contrive a new character which relates closely to the original one in its connotation.Primarily, all the characters analyzed using the term Sheng in Shuowenjiezi revised by Xu Xuan and Shuowenjiezixizhuan written by Xu Kai are singled out and compared with each other. It turns out that sometimes the same character is analyzed in different ways in the two versions of Shuowenjiezi. To judge which one is correct, Yiqiejingyinyi which quotes the Tang version of Shuowenjiezi in huge amount is referred to. In this procedure, 60 characters which are analyzed using Sheng in either version are excluded from the left 195.The next step is to decide which of the left characters are altered ones. There are approximately three situations concerning the falsified text. First, editors of Shuowenjiezi added characters to the book and analyzed them in the light of other philological books. Several books written in Tang dynasty are resorted to to confirm that the added characters are not authentic Xiaozhuan but vulgar characters during Tang dynasty. Second, the original characters in the book had been slightly altered and as a consequence, new analyses were made to fit into the altered character. The original characters are looked up in Yiqiejingyinyi, Wujingwenzi, Jiujingziyang and the fragments of Yupian and are compared with those in Song version of Shuowenjiezi. And then the altered character clearly exposes itself. Third, the original analyses of some characters had been lost, and text from other philological books were filled into the blank. Again Yiqiejingyinyi is referred to as it quotes multiple philological works from Jin to Tang dynasty as well. If the quotation matches with the analyses in Shuowenjiezi, there’s high possibility that the latter is taken from the text of the former.Finally the authentic Shengxingzi can be scrutinized to judge whether the analyses of them are correct. The following standard are adopted to give judgment. Suppose the regular form is character X has its ideographic components reduced from Y, then: first, the main part of X should coincide with that of Y; second, the meaning of X and Y should be closely connected; third, the components of X cannot achieve its meaning without the introduction of Y, or there exist an ancient form of X exactly with Y as its part, or X includes a component which is not treated as radical in Shuowenjiezi. A certain X which cannot meet any of the three standard is not regarded as a correct Shengxingzi.To conclude, Shengxing is adopted to bridge the gap between the meaning and the components of a character. Normally a character has multiple meanings, and a piece of analysis using Shengxing can only respond to a single one among them. The analysis has to change itself along with the meaning. As to the disputed type of Shengxing, the reduction of the ancient forms, if the term authentically exists in the original text, then it by no means indicates the diachronic change of a character, but possibly inadequacy of its components considering the ideal form that corresponds to its meaning.