Chinese characters underwent the process of conversion of seal script to clerical script, transitioning from lines to strokes in composition. the degree of tokenization components increased markedly. Some characters could no longer be classified by radicals as explained under the “unified by form and meaning” principle described in Shuowen Jiezi (《說文解字》). Thus in the Ming Dynasty, Zihui (《字彙》) eliminated and combined many of the radicals in Shuowen Jiezi (《說文解字》), and adopted the principle of “classification under form and not meaning” for classification purposes. The Kangxi Dictionary (《康熙字典》) from the Qing Dynasty continued the tradition of 214 radicals included in Zihui (《字彙》). Though radicals were established and classified according to two principles: convenient perusal and being true to the meaning of characters created by ancients, the form and meaning of characters become disassociated after conversion of seal script to clerical script, though the original theory of character creation which linked external composition of character with internal meaning was passed on. As the two radical classification principles of classification through form and classification through meaning conflicted with one another, the book adopted the principle of radical classification through form to facilitate convenient perusal. Thus, some radicals were iconized, losing their function to convey meaning or sound in characters. From the perspective of the development of clerical script, clerical script from the Qin Dynasty (qinli) is also referred to as “ancient clerical script” (guli), an early form of clerical script during this transition period between ancient and modern characters. Development of clerical script reached maturation in the Han Dynasty, with the Eight Points (bafen) script. This paper attempted to organize the mark process that Chinese characters underwent during the conversion of seal script to clerical script, through utilizing ancient texts which have been unearthed, Han Dynasty steles, and texts from Qin and Han Dynasty bamboo and wooden slips unearthed in the past few decades as research material. The hope was to uncover the evolutionary process and original form of iconized radicals as they formed.

• 李綉玲(逢甲大學中國文學系助理教授) | 이수영