There are only residual words in the fragments or those mixed with two recognizable whole words. It is very difficult to restore the word if there is only an unrecognizable residual word. However, the residual words mixed with one or two whole words can be restored by comparing them with other glyphs appearing in Huayan Shijing (華嚴石經 ). In addition to this method, the clear whole characters in the fragments can be confirmed by the location of the Huayan Shijing, and the residual words can be restored by comparing the sentences before and after. At the same time, through this restoration method, the actual location of the fragment can also be clarified or even specified in Huayan Shijing. In the final analysis, it can be concluded that the whole word is easy to recognize while the residual piece that has the same residual character is difficult to recognize.

The iconicity is a concept that opposes the arbitrariness, and refers to the similarity between the form and the content of the language sign. Peirce divided signs into a ternary logic to establish a classical concept of the iconicity, and research on the iconicity has been increasing in number and attracting much attention from scholars since then. Especially in the field of cognitive linguistics, the iconicity is one of the main topics. In cognitive linguistics, the iconicity refers to the similarity between the form and content of language sign, whose type distinguishes between the mimic iconicity and the structural one. This study starts from Peirce’s semiotics and cognitive linguistics, sorts out the concepts and types of iconicity, and examines the conception of writing sign based on the similarities between the forms and the contents of the language sign. And the way in which the iconicity is expressed in signs, especially in Chinese characters is also examined. In addition, this study aims to present some examples of contents interacting with consumers that can be applied to communication, advertising, or marketing by utilizing the iconicity of character symbols and connecting it with interaction devices.

This paper first claims that the Avatamsaka (Sanskrit) Sutra, or the Flower Ornament Sutra (大方廣佛華嚴經) is the best writing among the innumerable Sutras and other books that describe Truth. The Chinese characters in the Avatamsaka Sutra shows infinity, innumerable Bodhisattvas and the infinite Dharma body (無限法身) of Vairocana (毘盧遮那佛). Yet this dimension of the ultimate reality is not simply that of the nihilistic (虛無主義的) nothingness or void. Emptiness is the perfect emptiness with wondrous movement, and it is the most profound source (根源) of all animate existences and inanimate things. I claim that literary reading and watching films have the innate purpose (目的) of having this meditative mind, of which the most profound spiritual vision is presented as Ocean Samadhi in the Avatamsaka Sutra. In the first place, the innate (內在的) guide us to clearly see the binary structure (二元對立構造) of ego (自我). The ego is unstable between good and evil, right and wrong, decency and destitute. In order to let the audience feel free from the ego, we should take a profoundly different way than thematic approach (主題的接近). This way of understanding literary works and films is not to find the author’s intention and the main message implied in the work. Literature, film, and other arts are special areas that lead audiences outside the local, petty ego that is, into the dimension of the true self or the Transmiddle zone (領域) with special power of sensibility (感覺). As a literary text or film constructs the plot, story, and mood, it deconstructs itself (in terms of postmodernism). Ethical deconstruction would lead the audience beyond the limits of time and space into the spiritual dimension. A serious (深奧) literary text or film Great works (傑作) of literature and film direct our attention to break the shell (外觀) of our ego and encounter (直面) the source of life outside the ordinary habit of the ego. The exterior of the ego is the dimension of the pure consciousness. The unveiling process is the way in which it unlocks our spiritual sight (靈的視視) and presents with us a story of the protagonist’s failure (失敗) to flourish (繁榮) in the society (社會). The primal reality of the ego is that it is split into two, and thus fundamentally unstable. The ocean Samadhi (海印三昧) as portrayed in the Avatamsaka Sutra presents us with the vision that the whole cosmos (宇宙) and uncountable atoms are one. In this spiritual light, all phenomena in the whole universe are dependent co-arising or interdependent arising (同時發生); it is possible because everything is empty and has no stable substance. The Avatamsaka Sutra presents that the Buddha-body comprises, and thus it is truly “Emptiness (眞空) as Fullness (充滿).” Phenomena as the variances of Emptiness go through the processes of birth and death, not the Emptiness itself. It is like “empty space.” In the Hua-yen marvelous cosmos of Emptiness as fullness, one and all are interconnected with one another, and it is beyond our intellectual understanding (知的理解). In this way, Chinese characters (漢字) in the Avatamsaka Sutra (華嚴經, 大方廣佛華嚴經) describe (描寫) the infinite Dharma body (無限法身) of Vairocana (毘盧遮那佛). The ultimate truth is nondual (不二), and thus nonphenomenal (非現象的). The truth (眞理) of every existence (存在) is actually the spiritual dimension of not one, not two (不一, 不二). “Not one, not two” is the characteristic nature of the dimension beyond time and space, for it indicates the most fundamental realm (根本領域) of transcendence, where all phenomena are both separate and one.

The collation and research of homographs are very helpful for summarizing the variation rules of writing Chinese characters, collating ancient classics, improving the compilation of large dictionaries, and researching modern Chinese characters. The homographs are very abundant in Buddhist literature, especially in the sound and meaning books of Buddhist scriptures，and many of them are not included in the current large-scale dictionaries. Compiling and analyzing them not only helps to collate the Buddhist scriptures, but also to improve the current large-scale dictionaries.

The word “Maotou” was used many times in Buddhist Scripture Document. It appeared in Chinese versions of Buddhist scriptures in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. However, Grand Chinese Dictionary has not mentioned the meanings of “Maotou” in Buddhist Scripture Document. In the present study, the word “Maotou” in Buddhist Scripture Document is combed and analyzed; its meanings are explored; and the etymologies of its relevant words are traced.

“jiǎo (腳)” can refer to the body part, which is a common concept. Since the Tang dynasty, the word “jiǎo” has been used as a common word, which has features of the ordinary shape, high frequency, and strong ability of word-formation. It can be illustrated by the fact that Grand Chinese Dictionary collects more than 600 entries that contain the morpheme “jiǎo”. Therefore, when not knowing the motivation of word-making, people find it easy for the word “jiǎo” to be borrowed for another character. The main reason for the shape error of “jiǎo” is found in the phonetic similarity. “zhǐ jiǎo couple (指腳夫妻)” has the shape error, so some people can only explain its meaning according to the text regardless of its formation reason. Others just undertake studies on the word “zhǐ (指)”, which can not provide the right answer, either. The form “zhǐ jiǎo (紙腳)” can refer to more than one word. Some of them are fake forms. These words marked by “zhǐ jiǎo” may not be received or collected completely, which is unhelpful for us to understand ancient books.

The word-symbolization of Chinese characters’ forms is the transformation from the representation of objects to the sound and meaning of words. The process of word-symbolization is the only way to develop Chinese characters. In the theoretical framework of word-symbolization, this paper probes into the influence of the word-symbolization process on the formations of Chinese characters. By paying attention to the specific performances of Chinese characters’ forms by the word-symbolization, this paper analyzes and summarizes how the conversion modes, the transforming methods, and the evolutionary causes and laws concerned with the changes in the formation of Chinese characters during the word-symbolization process take place. The specific performances include the “form” level and the “form+consciousness” level, and the former is embodied as the lines and the word-symbolization while the latter is embodied in the formed radicals and the square-shaped structure. The conversion modes can be classified into two categories: the original conversion code and the modification conversion code. The transforming methods mainly include the direct transformation method, the modified transformation method, the adding components method and the replacing components method. Initially, the forms of Chinese characters represent only objects rather than words, and this “congenital defect” of deviating from the original due state should be the internal motivation to drive the word-symbolization’s occurrence. In addition, there are external factors such as politics, writing and people’s aesthetic psychology that promote the word-symbolization process. In essence, the word-symbolization of Chinese characters’ forms is the result of the combined effect of cognitive law and practical law. The process of word-symbolization makes the whole Chinese characters’ forms and structures achieve the self-improvement so as to return to the state of representing the sound and meaning of the word. And it is the word-symbolization that makes Chinese characters possible to be passed down from generation to generation, and to be in use until now.

Yupian (Jade Chapters) edited by Gu Ye-Wang (519-581) in the Liang Dynasty is an important work in the history of lexicography, grammatology, and philology of Chinese characters. In 674, during the Tang Dynasty, Sun Qiang revised and expanded Yupian. In 1013, a scholar in the Song Dynasty, Chen Peng-Nian further revised Yupian and expanded into Daguang Yihui Yupian (Expanded and Enlarged Jade Chapters). In this work, Gu analyzes and interprets Chinese characters mostly with the terminology used in Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters) by Xu Shen (c. 58 – c. 148), where jinzuo (modern form) is a term involving topics covering “orthographic form and modern form”, “variant”, “derivative characters”, and “phonetic loan characters”. To trace the origins of such changes, this paper investigates the origins of the form and interrelations of characters in their modern form through a comparative study of archaeological findings, historical literature, the surviving parts of Gu’s Yupian, and Daguang Yihui Yupian published by Chung Hwa Book Company, Limited.

This article makes a textual research on the characters of “机”, “据”, “據”, “𤧫”, “脺”, “熇”, “㸌”, “薳”, “𨗨”, analyzing the reasons for the Homograph. Through consulting various kinds of literature, this paper makes a supplementary explanation for the missed sounds and meanings of Grand Chinese Dictionary in order to put forward personal opinions on the editing and editing of contemporary large-scale dictionaries, and also contributes to the analysis, examination, and compilation of identical words in large-scale dictionaries.

Chinese characters used in the ancient Korean peninsula continued to occupy a leading position in the information processing process. Many literatures used Chinese characters as a means of recording. The main examples include Samguk-sagi (literally meaning the Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms) of the Goryeo Dynasty and the rest are listed as the Memory of the World: Joseonwangjo-sillok (literally meaning the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty), Joseonwangjo-uigue (literally meaning the Royal Protocols of the Joseon Dynasty), a well-known medical book of Joseon Dynasty, Dongui-bogam (literally meaning A Priceless Book about Medicines of an Eastern Country), and Printing Woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana and miscellaneous Buddhist scriptures (2007) of the Haeinsa Temple that amounts to about 87,000 pieces of woodblocks. However, only 9 books about Chinese characters in the Joseon Dynasty have been preserved up to date as the genealogy and dictionary of Chinese characters. These genealogies and dictionaries provide valuable data for studying common-use Chinese characters in the Joseon Dynasty. This study was intended to investigate the purpose of making Chinese characters and the frequency of common-use Chinese characters at that time through computerized data of Genealogy and Dictionary of Sillok-ja Types and the statistics of the frequency of Chinese characters.

During her time as Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Ze Tian created a number of new characters. Later generations called them “Wu Queen New Characters”, and some also called “Ze Tian Characters” and “Ze Tian Xin Characters.” Since the Tang Dynasty, although many scholars have studied the writing methods, word counts, and circulation areas of new characters, there are many different opinions, especially about the number of new characters and that of glyphs, which makes future studies much more difficult and impossible to restore the original appearance at that time. In addition, the timing of the promulgation of each new word is hardly recorded in the classics, and it is difficult to know the actual use of the word and the circulation situation. Therefore, this article uses Collection of Epitaph of Tang Dynasty, Sequel Collection of the Epitaph of Tang Dynasty, Collection of Epitaph of Tang Dynasty and Research, and Beijing Library Collection of Stone Carving of Each Chinese Generation etc. to set the age of the research material from “Zai Chu” first year (A.D.689) to the end of “Chang An” fourth year (A.D.704), 16 years in total, 422 piece of epitaphs. They are arranged according to the grave owner’s burial time, sorting out Queen Wu’s implementation process for new words, actual use of new words, word count, and word font, and staging and spread area. By means of this, the article makes the appearance of Queen Wu’s new words possible, even further presented in front of everyone, and finally making a new investigation for the Queen Wu’s new words.

In most cases, studies on the Zushoryō edition (圖書寮本 ) of Ruijū myōgi shō (類聚名義抄 ) has been centered on “source research”. They have been mainly about the exploration of the cited source manuscripts on the basis of which the editor’s intent and linguistic consciousness projected on them can be traced. The main target of such methodology is the definition of the Zushoryō edition of Ruijū myōgi shō because the source notes are clearly illustrated. However, it is difficult for the methodology to be applied to the entry because there are no clear clues such as source notes. Thus, if one needs to conduct his or her research on the entry, looking into source manuscripts only may not be sufficient. In order for such research to be worked out, it is necessary to find out the actual “relationship” between the definition(s) and the entry. I, in this research, focus primarily on the formality of the entry themselves. To start with, the entries under examination are confined to formal features with respect only to a plurality of letter proponents. And then, the entries are classified according to the criteria of the morphological feature and functional property, and simultaneously the amount and types of information are investigated. By means of examining how the entries and definitions respond to each other, I seek to clarify the substantial relationship between them. Resting upon such findings, I shall, in the final analysis, put forward an argument that there is a logical structure in Ruijū myōgi shō as a dictionary.

The intent of this paper is to introduce a method of deciphering oracle bone characters; specifically the interpretation of the Compound Ideograph. Utilizing this method, the article applies known characters to hypothesizing the expression of unknown characters. This view of Chinese characters comes from such work as I Ching or Classic of Changes and Shi-poem or Classic of Poetry, where the figurative mean and depiction of a realistic scene or parable are captured and symbolized within a pictorial representation or ideograph. By returning pictographic combinations to the realistic scene, all the meanings of an ideograph are derived from the scene and scene’s parable. The following explains the correlation between the combinations with the intended meaning. The ideographs are shown in that the first part is the pronunciation sound in Chinese while the second part in italics is the scene combined pictographs. [1] The English character of Bow for shooting arrows is borrowed figuratively to express “to bend the knee or body, as in reverence, submission”, “to cause to bend; make curved”, and is extended to Bowl to denote the Container figure like a bow. [2] The character of Sol means the sun, and its scene maps a lonely man like the sun without partners around, so Sol is used to denote solitary (alone, lone), sole (single), etc. in its figurative sense. [3] The Chinese character Gou-ear (句) is a scene of the ear with an ear-hook. Gou-ear means the hook in ear’s figurative sense, for a man uses his ear as a hook, or an ear looks like a hook on the wall. In another perspective, Gou-ear depicts Be-hooked, meaning Arrest, Capture, or Chain-up. When an ancient encounters a hook or a man stooping to work, and tries to tell others about it, he may say a tool like the ear (projecting out of the head) or a man working like the ear (figure), which is similar to saying that it looks like a bow in the West. [4] A character Fu-man:tiger (赴) is made of a tiger and man, reading ‘the tiger is like a man standing up’. A scene-parable of the tiger standing suggests “pounce, jump”, extending its meaning to “go to like a tiger jump, dedicate on”. It is a man determinative ideograph: the tiger is determined by a man standing. ‘Man is read as his feature: standing’ is called semantic loan. Similarly, Yue-man:deer (跃), means a deer like a man standing, also meaning a leap. Xiong-man:pig (熊) means a bear; a pig standing is like the bear. [5] A character Lian-ear:mouth (聯) is a narrative scene of the mouth-ear-mouth, words to words through the ear, telling a narrative story of people that are connected in the ear in the wild restricted visibility, which is derived to the connection, union, and contact. [6] Dong-kid (動) means a move, a scene of a boy (semantic loan), for a child’s behavior is the non- stop action for a moment. [7] A character Yu-pup:gape (欲) is a scene of the mouth opened up, which maps ‘want’. Man’s want means wish, man’s want from heart or by nature is hard to draw and ancient Chinese oracle priest to draw ‘animal’s want’, which was used metaphorically to mean the very wish, appetite, and desire (sex, material). Overall, an ideo-character is a narrative picture or story which tells thoughts or ideas, not record language words, and then is pronounced the glyph in it later. Thus the character creates the word.

The history of the spread and development of Chinese characters in Korea is very long. Chinese characters were introduced into the Korean peninsula as early as in the period from the end of the Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms (A.D. 3C). Until the end of the 19th century, Chinese characters were the official writing system in Korea. The Korean peninsula has a history of using Chinese characters for over 1,500 years. It has an incomparably rich collection of ancient texts and documents written with Chinese characters. Of them are a considerable number of stone carvings that authentically recorded the profound literacy of the Korean people in the Middle Ages as far as the culture of Chinese characters is concerned. At the same time, these stone carvings are also of valuable reference for the developmental transformations and the configurational patterns since the formation of the clerical script, through the Wei-Jin period, the Sui and the Tan dynasties, and all the way through modern times. The present study takes as an example of the stone tablet of Master Chinkam Sŏnsa of the Silla era collected in Korean Grand Compendium of Ancient Inscriptions published by the Korean Studies Institute. I specifically summarized and analyzed the alternative script of ancient Chinese characters in the Korean stone carvings. I found out that there are characters written with different strokes or in a different internal structure, those which have been simplified, those which some parts have been added to or subtracted from, and those with a different position. Then I explored the formation and the developmental trajectory of individual variant forms of a Chinese character. Thus, I grasped the reasons for the formation of the variant Chinese characters in Korean ancient stone carvings as well as their writing characteristics.

Focused on Xixia dictionaries, this paper collects and arranges allographs of Tangut script. Its type can be divided into allographs with variant configurations and allographs with form-altered, among which there are more of the former and fewer of the latter. Most patterns of the variations are bidirectional and general. Not only does the formation of the allographs have an objective basis but is also influenced by certain subjective factors such as convenient writing, beautiful figure, and taboo.

In this study, the historical process of the Chinese characters was briefly summarized in Korea based on prior research to date. It also analyzed the current status of Chinese characters’ use in Korea, and based on this, it presented prospects and challenges for the future. The process of acceptance and development of early Chinese characters in Korea has changed from the invention and enlightenment period of Hangul and the two periods From the period before the creation of Hunminjeongeum to the period of the Three Kingdoms Period, the Unified Silla Period, and the early Joseon Dynasty, Chinese characters were common characters, and there was a significant gap from the words used by Koreans at that time. In an attempt to narrow the gap even a little, a number of techniques such as Idu (吏讀), Kugyol(口訣), Hyangchal (鄉札) have emerged. Even after the creation of Hunminjeongeum, the official writing system was still Chinese for the ruling class, and most of the writing life, except in special cases, progressed to Chinese characters. Also, Idu or Kugyol continued even after the creation of Hunminjeongeum. The period of modern Korean language from the beginning of the Japanese colonial period, when the various conceptual and technical words of the West flowed from the outside, and the Japanese colonial period that failed to use Hangul, was also an important turning point in the formation and development of Chinese characters and Chinese characters. This is not only a very important period in the formation and development of Chinese characters and Chinese characters, but also a transitional period. Not only were many Japanese translations and conceptual words poured in, but they also had to learn Japanese words and writings instead of Korean words and writings. After Korea’s liberation from Japan’s colonial rule, it has led to the appearance of today’s Korean language after much effort, including studying Hangul in earnest and devising language policies. In this process, Chinese characters and Chinese characters have become increasingly hidden or marked in Korean and Korean, and with the presence of Chinese characters in the large context of Korean, the perception of Chinese characters and Chinese characters is gradually disappearing. In the present situation where Chinese characters, Chinese characters, and Chinese character education are extremely limited, simply claiming the current status or importance of Chinese character education can be seen as a return to the past or an outdated empty discussion. Therefore, the problems of using and educating Chinese characters and Chinese characters need to be addressed with strategic and practical problems, reflecting the language reality of Korea now, not just the matter of the party satellite. In addition, there is a future of Chinese characters in Korea when they are developed in a modern sense by making good use of their merits, such as Ideographic, economic, and connotation.