新出字形의 접근방법과 판독유형

Abstract

This paper is based on my experience of summarizing newly encountered characters into several types. I hope it will be of help to researchers. In reading old documents, it is necessary to recognize and decide if certain Chinese characters are new to the reader or simply represent a variant form. In section two, I will discuss a three-point method to recognize difficult Chinese characters; the three points are their use in old texts, their similarity to other characters, and the contents of rhyming dictionaries (韻書). If a researcher believes that the text in question is related to the thirteen classics (十三經) or an early Chinese philosopher (諸子百家), he must first review the text and look to find the same text in the classics. If it is difficult to locate the text in question in the classics, the researcher should then search for similar content. This can be done by using a large database. The third method is using rhyming dictionaries. The researcher should look for the character’s rhyme and then search for the same or similarly shaped characters in the book. By using the way explained above, the researcher can make decisions about the new character shape and assign it to one of five categories: variant (異體字), various structural component (異形字), characters that are phonetic loans (音借字), wrong shape (誤字) and collation (校勘). Various structural components occur by reason of novelty, simplification, complication, movement, ellipsis, replacement of component, and addition. Also, the wrong shape and collation sections discusses how to review vague characters and divide them into either the category of having the wrong shape or one of various other forms of a character.