A Study On The Historical Levels Of Popular Characters In The Dunhuang Version Of "Laozi"

The numerous characters in popular form of Laozi in Dunhuang version have high research value due to the reflection about the state of Chinese characters in the great changes of form and structure of Chinese characters,such as in script form and in standard script of handwriting form.Therefore,the historical strata analysis method is used in this thesis with the handed down documents and the unearthed Chinese characters to analyze the historical level and the development process of the characters in popular form of Laozi in the Dunhuang version aiming to trace back the origination of the characters in popular form.This thesis can be divided into four chapters.Before the Chapter one is the introduction,which introduces the significance of the topic,current researches and research methods.Chapter one summarizes the the text features and versions of Laozi in Dunhuang version and makes a detailed description of part of it used in this thesis.Chapter two digs into the two different concepts between characters in popular form and the historical strata analysis method.In the first place,it gives the definition of the characters in popular form and analyzes the relationship among the characters in popular form,scrip characters and characters in wrong form,interchangeable words as well as ancient and modern words.And then,it defines what is the historical level of the characters in popular form and explains the difference and connection between historical level and historical strata analysis method.At last,it puts forward the procedure to analyze in historical level.Chapter three gives an introduction of characters in popular form about the the conceptual historical level system firstly,then selects more than 40 characters in popular form to find the historical evolution process of these characters in popular form in historical strata analysis method.The chapter four combines Chapter three's analysis in the historical level and gives an summary about the evolution rules of the system about characters in popular form of Laozi in Dunhuang version,which means that colloquial character system of Laozi in Dunhuang version is an orderly and heterogeneous structure with each colloquial character and component heterogeneous individually,and the whole part of these heterogeneous components develops and changes according to the hierarchical rule.In this structure,due to their different natures,scrip characters and characters in popular form change their identities constantly under the influence of internal and external factors.