A study on the variant writing of the character “Zhi” and “Xu” in the “Mati” chapter of the “Zhuangzi” from the configuration of “Zhi” in the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips
In the “Zi Yi”子儀chapter of the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips清華簡 (six), the character “Zhi” appears twice. For the first time, it is written “ ” and the second time is written “ ”, which has the component “Si”糸 in the left and the component “Ma”馬 is omitted. The editor of this text has indicated that the character “Zhi” should be the character “Zhi”馽 in the Shuo Wen 說文. According to the character “Ji”𦌭 is written variously as “Ji” , this paper adds conclusive evidence which proves the character “Zhi” should be the character “Zhi”馽. In the Warring States Qin Zongyiwashu宗邑瓦書, the character “Ji” is written as which is the variant character of “Ji”𦌭. This shows the character “Zhi”馽 which is the Xiaozhuan小篆 writing is simplified by the components “Si”糸written on the horse’s foot. The character “Ji”𦌭 in the “Mati”馬蹄 chapter of the “Zhuangzi”莊子 is written variously as the character “Xu”𦄼. There is no reasonable explanation about the relationship between the two characters. This paper argues that the writing of the character “Xu”𦄼 should be changed from the writing of the character “Zhi” . The reason is the character “Xu”須 has a very similar writing with the word “Ma”馬 which appears in the ancient writing of the Qin Dynasty. Therefore, both the variant writing of the character “Zhi”馽and “Xu”𦄼 should be changed from the writing of the character “Zhi” . This situation may occur in Qin Dynasty or during the change of Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty.