Li Professor, Chinese Department, Beijing Normal University

The terms related to what people call variant characters are the so-called tautology in ancient times. Many predecessors thought that the repetition is the word ○ 1, and the so-called "so-called sound and meaning are familiar with the same shape". Shen Jianshi first pointed out: "Xu Shu's tautology includes three properties: the change of form, the borrowing of homophones and the transformation of meaning." It is not just a tautology of the so-called sound and meaning changes in the past. " ○2 The definition of variant forms by contemporary scholars began with the arrangement of variant forms in 1950s. The problem of finishing variant characters was put forward by Ding Xilin in 1950. The earliest definition of variant forms basically inherited the usual inaccurate understanding of tautology. "How to calculate variants? Since Ding Xilin, the definition of variant characters is: words with the same sound and different shapes. " The Draft List of 400 Variant Characters to be Abolished published in 1955 is preceded by a short explanatory text, which reads: "In general publications or handwritten characters, many words (variant characters) have the same pronunciation, but they are written differently, such as' sigh',' qun',' leek',' cool' and' brick'. ○4 is to define variant characters as words with the same sound and meaning but different writing methods. However, there is no specific definition of homophones and homophones. For a scientific definition, it is obviously not clear enough. Judging from the specific situation of the first batch of variant characters receiving characters, the problem is obvious. As early as 1963, some problems in clocks and watches were clearly put forward. In the article "On Several Problems of the First Batch of Variant Characters", he said: "According to the nature of variant characters, it should be limited to different ways of writing the same word, such as ice cream on the first page, bottles and cans, and tears on the second page, Lang Lang. Not all the words included in the current list of variant forms belong to this category, but there are also one or two words with the same common meaning or the ancients used a different meaning under the guise of a meaning; It also contains words that are similar in form and sound and easy to be confused; Some typos are misused, which complicates the original simple variant. The analysis of viewpoints and concrete examples in the article remains to be discussed. However, as the author said at the end of the article: "Everyone will have different views on the above-mentioned examples, so when studying this issue, it is best to consider in principle: 1 What is a variant, and the concept and scope should be clear; 2. What is the purpose of sorting out variant characters, for today, for the past, to overcome the differences in publishing, or to overcome the differences in writing? The purpose and requirements should be clear; 3. Is there a simpler and more concise supplementary method for the differences in glyphs, which should be simple and easy to implement and unify? "However, the author himself did not give a clear answer to his questions. Until today, these problems have not been well solved. In particular, the definition of variant characters is the first problem to be solved in sorting out variant characters, and there is still a need for further discussion.

For theoretical clarity and convenience, before discussing the definition of variant characters, let's briefly define the concepts of "homophone" and "variant characters". According to the configuration or physical origin of Chinese characters, Chinese characters have three different forms: (1) words created for different words in the language, such as "sun" for the sun, "moon" for the moon, "she" for the house and "she" for giving up. (2) Words made for the same word in the language, such as "tears" and "tears" are words made for words expressing the meaning of tears, and "Shang" and "Chang" are words made for words with clothing meaning; (3) Writing variation, such as "combination" for quick writing. If the memory function of Chinese characters is considered, the situation will be more complicated. In the first case, the sound and meaning of "day" and "month" are different, and the function of memorizing words has never happened. Giving up is different from giving up, carving and withering. "Sheshe" is a word to express the meaning of buildings. But in the process of use, the word "shed" not only records the words that express the meaning of the building,

The words expressing abandonment were also recorded by homophonic borrowing, and then the word "she" was created for the words expressing abandonment. Therefore, when recording the words expressing abandonment, the memorizing functions of "she" and "she" overlap. "Diao" is a word that means the name of a bird, and "Fei" is a word that means withering. However, in the process of use, the word "carving" is often used to record the words expressing the meaning of withering. Therefore, the recording functions of "Diao" and "Fei" overlap when recording words that express the meaning of withering. In the second case, both "tears" and "tears" are created to express the meaning of tears, and the functions of memory words have never been distinguished in use. There is a difference between "Shang" and "Chang" Although "Shang" and "Chang" are both created for words expressing the meaning of clothes, the function of memorizing words has been differentiated in the process of use. The above situation shows that there is a serious disconnect between the configuration and function of Chinese characters. On the one hand, words made for different words may overlap in use, on the other hand, words made for the same word may be different in use. This makes it extremely complicated to identify and distinguish Chinese characters, that is, to confirm the relationship between the same characters and different characters. In predecessors' works, different terms are often used to express the relationship of "homographs with different sounds". Because these terms are generally not strictly defined, the objects they refer to are very different. Some homonyms refer to different forms created for the same word in the language due to writing variation, which is regarded as a homonym relationship. Some "homographs with different meanings" refer to words with different structures and different shapes created for the same word in the language, and the words created for different words in the language are regarded as "heterographs"; Some "homographs" refer to recording different writing forms of the same word. Academic circles use "same word" and "different word" to describe the relationship between words, which is actually a dichotomy classification of the above three situations. We believe that using "the same word" to refer to different writing forms of the same word actually includes words with overlapping functions created for different words, which is like treating synonyms with overlapping functions as "the same word", which is unacceptable. However, using "the same word" to refer to different forms caused by writing variation and using "different words" to refer to different structures of writing forms called the same word in language ignores the situation of creating different forms for different words in language. We believe that the relationship between "homographs and different meanings" should consider two distinguishing standards, namely, the source of configuration and the source of function. Any relationship created for the same word in a language, whose function is not different in use, belongs to homonym relationship, and any relationship created for different words in a language, or whose function is different in the use of the same word, belongs to homonym relationship. Writing variation belongs to homonym relationship, but by going up one flight of stairs.

Based on the above standards, we can divide the definitions of variant characters in academic circles since the publication of Yi Yi Biao into two types in essence: (1) variant characters are homographs, that is, variant characters are different writing forms for recording the same word, which essentially include the above words with the same word relationship and words with partial overlapping memory function; (2) Variants are homophones, that is, variants are different forms and writing variants of the same word in the language, and the scope is equivalent to the homophone relationship we mentioned above.

Zheng Linxi, the representative who holds the first view, said: "Since Ding Xilin, the definition of variant characters is: words with the same sound but different forms. However, in the process of writing Chinese with Chinese characters, there are some variant characters, although the sound and meaning are slightly different, but they are all formed because of long-term departure. For example, the word "heart" of "Juncus" is sometimes written as "core"-"core" is an unnecessary post-phonetic word, which is a variant of the words "Juncus" and "Juncus" and can be abolished. In addition, the pronunciation of the word "core" is √ xin, which still means the central part. Used to write the words "core" and "core" and "mine core" of snakes. -the sound and meaning here are slightly different, beyond the definition of variant forms. However, it cannot be denied that it is a variant. Obviously, some words can be simplified after finishing, but it is obviously wrong to insist on drawing firmly, refuse to simplify because of the limitation of the definition of variant characters, and force children and adults to learn more and remember more. I think the correct definition of variant characters should be: memorizing several different Chinese characters of the same word. We should choose the simplest one that is conducive to reducing the number of words as orthography and abolish the remaining variants. " ○7 Very clearly define variant characters as "memorizing several different Chinese characters of the same word". What he called "variant characters" is obviously different from what we call variant characters, but refers to different Chinese characters, including variant characters with overlapping memory functions and what we call homographs.

Some scholars and Zheng Linxi have completely different definitions, but there is no essential difference between them. For example, Lv Shuxiang defined variant characters as: "Variant characters are different ways of writing a word. Two or more glyphs must have exactly the same sound and meaning in order to be regarded as variants of a word. " ○8 "One word" refers to the different writing forms created for the same word in the language, which is essentially a homonym. But then he wrote: "Some words can only be written in another way when used in one meaning, but they can't be written in that way when used in another meaning." "The real variant won't be too much trouble. The trouble is this part of the variant. " ○9 Examples of quotation include some words with overlapping functions caused by borrowing. Obviously, the so-called "partial variants" refer to words whose memory functions partially overlap, which contradicts the variants defined earlier. In the definition, variant characters "must be consistent in sound and meaning" and are "one word", which belongs to the same word relationship; However, "some variant forms" are essentially only a part of homonyms and belong to the relationship of variant forms. If we admit that variant forms must have exactly the same sound and meaning, then the so-called "partial variant forms" with only partial sound and meaning are not variant forms in essence; If we admit that the so-called "part of variant forms" have the same sound and meaning, then the definition of variant forms cannot be defined as "the same sound and meaning". This contradiction shows that the author thinks that variant forms should have the same word relationship in theory, but when dealing with practical problems, he extends variant forms to include the word relationship of variant forms. The root of this contradiction may be related to Yi Yibiao. As mentioned earlier, the definition of variant characters in Yi Yi Biao is "words with the same sound but different writing methods". Although it is not clear enough as a scientific definition, the defined variant characters should essentially refer to the relationship of the same word, in fact, the words included in the glossary include quite a few words with overlapping memory functions and different word relationships. Gao Gengsheng once divided the variants of Yi Yi Biao into five categories: typical variants, including variants, cross variants, homophones and variants. Among them, only the typical variant forms conform to the definition of variant forms, while the other four types do not, which is beyond the scope of the directory itself, resulting in a serious disconnect between theory and practice.

The variant forms defined by the second viewpoint all belong to the same word relationship, but the scope of variant forms is slightly different. The second view has the greatest influence on the definitions in Ancient Chinese edited by Wang Li and Outline of Philology edited by Qiu Xigui. The definition of variant characters in Wang Li's book is: "Two (or more) words have exactly the same meaning and can be substituted for each other under any circumstances." ○ 1 1 lists the types of variant characters, including: "First, know the difference between characters and pictophonetic characters. For example,' tears' is a knowing word, and' tears' is a pictophonetic word. Second, change signifiers with similar meanings. For example, from the' snapping' of the beam sound to the' snapping' of the beam sound. From' sighing' to' sighing'. From awkward squatting to clothes squatting. Third, change the phonetic symbols with similar pronunciation. For example,' walking' gets sound from the sound, while' walking' gets sound from the spring. " Kun "changed from boasting to library sound." Fourth, change the position of each component. Some change the position of phonetic symbols and signifiers, such as' shame',' harmony' and' goose? Xun, etc. Some of them just change the phonetic symbols or ideograms, such as' Hua' and' Write' Yao'. "○ 12, which are all different writing forms and writing variants of the same word in the language through different word-forming methods. The textbook further explains which situations are not variants. The textbook says: "There are three situations that are not considered as variants: First, some words, although similar in meaning and pronounced the same by their descendants, cannot be regarded as variants. Second, some words have complex relationships, similarities and differences, and cannot be regarded as variants. Third, some words are conditional and cannot be considered as variants. " ○ 13 explicitly excludes different characters with overlapping functions.

Qiu Xigui defined variant characters in the Outline of Philology: "Variant characters are characters with the same sound and meaning but different shapes. Strictly speaking, only words with exactly the same usage, that is, variants of a word, can be called variants. But generally speaking, variant characters often include words with the same usage. Strictly speaking, variants can be called narrow variants, and some words with the same usage can be called partial variants. Together, the two are broad variants. " ○ 14 Obviously, the broad variant he said mainly takes care of the reality of Yi Yi Biao and focuses on the narrow variant. He divided the narrow-sense variants into eight categories: 1, with or without radicals; 2. Differences in structural attributes such as ideographic and phonological features; 3. The same ideograph is different from the radical; Both of them are pictophonetic characters with different radicals; 5. The radicals are the same but the configuration methods are different; Omitting a part of a glyph is different from not omitting it; Some special simplified forms are different from traditional forms; The writing is slightly different or different due to mistakes. ○ 15 The range of variant characters listed in it also includes two kinds: different words and writing variations of the same word in the language with different word formation methods.

The above two viewpoints can be summarized as homophones and homophones. There is an essential difference between the two. We believe that the essence of variant characters is not homophones, but homophones.

As mentioned above, homophone is essentially a word with many different writing forms, and both ancient and modern written languages exist objectively. Variants of the same word come from many sources. The writing variation of words creates different shapes for the same word, and the differentiation of words and the borrowing of words will cause the abnormity of the same word. Take Yi Yibiao as an example. The meaning in the table is different from the meaning in the table. The inserted characters are written in different forms, tears and tears, umbrellas and umbrellas are created by the same word. Chestnuts and plums, beans and beans are different, carving and withering, and Su and Su have borrowed. Each of them can record the same words in use, but the nature is completely different. Inherent and inherent, insertion and pressure, tears and tears, umbrellas and umbrellas are all variants, so the same words are recorded; Chestnut and coat, bean and bean, carving and withering, Su and Su are essentially different characters. Variant characters should be homographs in essence. It confuses the relationship between homographs and homographs in theory and is not conducive to the standardization of Chinese characters in practice.

The reason why the academic circles define variant characters as homographs is that the starting point is not to clarify the concept scientifically and guide practice with scientific theory, but to make theory obey practice for practical purposes. As mentioned above, although the definition of the variant characters used in Yi Yi Biao is not clear enough, they should belong to the variant character relationship of the same word in essence, Sub Biao broke the definition limit when collecting characters, and objectively collected some variant characters with overlapping memorization function. Some scholars intentionally or unintentionally modify the definition of variant characters and expand the scope of variant characters in order to safeguard the facts of variant characters. Other scholars try to expand the scope of variant characters by changing the definition of variant characters, so as to achieve the purpose of expanding, streamlining and standardizing the number of Chinese characters. Theoretically, we agree with the view that simplifying and standardizing Chinese characters cannot be based on drawing places. However, we don't agree with the theory and practice that simplifying standardized Chinese characters is equivalent to simplifying variant characters. In our opinion, there are three things to be done to standardize the writing form of Chinese: one is to simplify the redundant glyphs caused by writing variation and repeated word-making; the other is to merge over-differentiated words; and the third is to determine the standardized form of some words whose memory functions overlap due to borrowing and other reasons, that is, to create words. These three situations are different in nature and form, so they can't all be defined as variant characters in theory and can't be treated uniformly in practice.

We are in favor of limiting variant characters to homographs, which is completely consistent with the views of Wang Li and Qiu Xigui. However, we disagree with their definition. As mentioned above, Wang Li's definition of variant forms is that "two (or more) words have exactly the same meaning and can be substituted for each other under any circumstances". Qiu Xigui defined variant characters as "words with the same sound and meaning but different shapes", all of which defined variant characters from the perspective of function. Generally speaking, the definition of function has only descriptive meaning, and can't be defined from the essence of things. It is also difficult to distinguish between variant characters and those whose functions overlap with words in practice by simply defining variant characters from their functions. Therefore, we agree with Jiang's definition. In the Outline of Ancient Chinese Vocabulary, he defined variant characters as: "Variant characters are words with different forms created by people for the same word in the language. These words have exactly the same meaning and can be substituted for each other. " ○ 16 In his definition, he emphasized that variant characters must be "made for the same word in the language" and added configuration conditions on the basis of functional conditions. It's just that the scope of variant forms does not include writing variation, which artificially narrows the scope of variant forms.

Combining the definitions of Jiang, Wang Li and Qiu Xigui, and drawing lessons from Jiang's definition method and the range of variant characters determined by Wang Li and Qiu Xigui, this paper advocates defining variant characters from two dimensions: configuration and function, limiting the range of variant characters to the range of the same word, and defining variant characters as different words made for the same word in a language and different forms of a word caused by writing variation. Variant characters must meet two conditions: configuration and function, and both conditions are indispensable. Configuration conditions can not only reveal the physical characteristics of variant characters, but also distinguish variant characters from generic characters. Functional conditions can distinguish between variant forms and differentiated words. For example, there is a word in the language that stands for tears. When creating words, the pictophonetic method is used to create the word "tears" and the knowing method is used to create the word "tears". In the process of using words, the functions of tears and tears are not distinguished, and tears and tears are variants. Engraving and withering overlap in the function of recording words indicating the difference between birds, but engraving is made for words indicating the name of birds and withering is made for words indicating the meaning of withering. Essentially, they are two different words made for two different words. However, due to the coincidence of some functions in homophonic borrowing, carving and withering are interchangeable, not heterogeneous. Both "ink" and "eye" are created to express the meaning of sunset. However, the MO and the management department were created to separate their functions. After the appearance of Mu Zi, Mo Zhi's function was only to record negative pronouns, negative adverbs and other words, while Mu Zi specially recorded words indicating sunset. Therefore, Mohe is a differentiated word, not a variant.

It can be clearly seen from the above discussion that there are two main sources of variant characters, one is from configuration, and the other is from writing. According to the formation of variant forms, variant forms can be divided into variant forms and variant forms.

(1) Variant characters, that is, variant characters formed by different configurations or different components. There are several kinds of heterographs: 1, which are generated by different collocation methods. Generally speaking, Chinese characters have different configuration methods, such as pictograph, signifier, knowing, pictophonetic characters and phonology. Because people at different times and places make words separately, or later generations transform the previous artificial words, they often consciously or unconsciously use different methods to make words for the same word, thus forming heterogeneous words. For example, "Yi" and "Yi" are both written for the characters representing the curved shin in the recording language, "Yi" is an pictographic character created in a pictographic way, and "Yi" is a pictophonetic character created by adding phonetic symbols on the basis of "Yi", and the relationship between them is heterogeneous. Both tile and tile are words that represent the smell of sheep, tile is a knowing word made of Sanyang, and tile is a pictophonetic word made of sheep, which constitutes an isomeric relationship. 2. Choose different words with different radicals in the same configuration mode. If the same word is coined with the same configuration, different radicals will also form heterogeneous words, which is also an important way to produce heterogeneous words. There are two main types, one is the variant in which the same ideographic character chooses different radicals, and the other is the variant in which the same pictophonetic character chooses different radicals. (1) is a variant of a different radical. For example:? And dust are all words coined for the meaning of dust. From Sanlu, from soil, take the configuration principle of soil flying when deer runs, from the configuration principle of dust, from soil, take small soil as dust. These two words are understandable words, but they use different radicals and have different motivations for word formation. (2) The same pictophonetic characters use different radicals to form different characters. Pictophonetic characters are composed of two parts: shape and sound. Generally speaking, the shape of pictophonetic characters is related to the meaning of the words on which it is based. When choosing a shape, it can be synonymous, universal, tool, object, nature and state, etc. Phonemes of pictophonetic words are related to the pronunciation of words based on them. When choosing phonemes, the pronunciations can be the same or similar, while most syllables in Chinese have a large number of words with the same or similar sounds. This makes the choice of pictophonetic characters very wide. People at different times and places often choose different pictophonetic characters for the same word. A large number of different words are caused by this reason. For example, scorpions and limbs are words made for the meaning of limbs. Scorpions and meat only make sounds; Limbs, from meat, branches sound. Because limbs are the names of all parts of the human body, meat is the shape of limbs. Because the two words "zhi" and "zhi" are pronounced the same as the words expressing body meaning, either a single word or a branch word is used. Zhen and Xu are both words written for son-in-law. Because Xu and Xu are homophones, Xu is chosen as the next word. Because you are a husband, you may use your husband's taxi as a model. Moreover, because the husband is the title of kinship formed by marriage, either the word "female" is used as an adjective, and the words "marriage" related to marriage are used as adjectives. 3. Using the same configuration method, we choose different words generated by the same radical with different positions. Generally speaking, the position of Chinese character radicals does not reflect the intention of configuration, so the position of Chinese character radicals is not fixed. In early Chinese characters, the shape has not been finalized, and the position of radicals is not fixed. There are a large number of heterographs in Oracle Bone Inscriptions which are formed by different radical positions. Later, with the constant finalization of Chinese characters, the position of radicals became more and more fixed. However, after Li Kai, there are still a considerable number of heterographs formed by different radical positions. For example, the word "harmony group", "saddle and hammer", "harmony" and "autumn" are all isomeric words formed by the change of radical positions.

(2) Variant characters, that is, variant characters formed by writing variation. Heterographs are different from heterographs. From the source, heteromorphic characters are the product of coinage, and heteromorphic characters are the product of writing variation. From the point of view of maintaining motivation, variant characters can directly explain the configuration motivation, orthography can explain the configuration motivation, and variant characters often lose the configuration motivation because of writing variation. The main sources of heteromorphic characters are: (1) heteromorphic characters with slightly different strokes due to writing variation. For example, sub-characters are used for quick writing or writing. Ya and Qiu have different styles of writing, which makes them different. (2) Abnormal writing caused by radical simplification. For example, eagle is a collection word, which means that many birds fall on the same tree to reflect the meaning of collection. Later, because the shape was complicated and it was not convenient to write, three pieces were saved as one piece to form a word set. Because of the simplicity of form, the combination of Qi and Ji is a different writing form. (3) Different writing methods caused by official decrees. It turns out that the official script was written in official script after it was passed. Later, it also refers to writing ancient characters in regular script, also called regular script. Li Ding and Li Bian have different shapes, which constitute different writing styles. For example, Ji Yun Lao Yun: "Zuo Lipu." The word "Li Ding" is an official script, and the word "Libian" is a general script. They are different characters.

From the source, we divide variant characters into two categories: homographs and heterographs. In fact, heteromorphism and heteromorphism are not at the same level, and each heteromorphism may produce its own heteromorphism, which is at the level below heteromorphism. For example, umbrella and rice, umbrella is a knowing word, and rice is a pictophonetic word. These two words constitute a heterogeneous word. And an umbrella to write with? Jane is an umbrella; Writing again? ,? And umbrella are different words for umbrella. It's different writing for me. It is best to describe clearly the hierarchical relationship between heterogeneity and heteromorphism, and sort the genealogy, so as to facilitate further research and reference when standardizing variant characters.

Precautions:

○ 1 Shen Jianshi's An Example of Chinese Characters' Semantic Reading, Shen Jianshi's Academic Essays, 139, Zhonghua Book Company, 1986.

2 Same as above.

3 Zheng Linxi's Theory and Practice of Simplifying Chinese Characters, 66 pages, China Social Sciences Press, 1982.

4 Draft List of 400 Variant Characters to be Abolished, China Language 1955No. 1, 8 pages in total.

○5 minutes, "On Several Issues of the First Batch of Variant Characters", No.4 of Cultural Reform, 1963, 10.

6 Ibid., p. 12.

○7 Same as ○ 3, pp. 67-68.

○8 Lv Shuxiang's China Talk, 26 pages, Joint Publishing Company, 1980.

9 Ibid.

10 Gao Gengsheng's Study of Chinese Characters, 285-288 pages, Shandong Education Press, 2000.

○ 1 1 Wang Li's Ancient Chinese, 155, Zhonghua Book Company, 1962.

12 ditto, 155- 156.

○ 13 ibid., p. 156- 157.

14 Qiu Xigui's Outline of Philology, 205 pages, Commercial Press, 1988.

15 ibid., pp. 206-208.

○ 16 Jiang's Vocabulary Outline of Ancient Chinese, 19 1 page, Peking University Publishing House, 1989.