The Ke Hong Yin Yi is not a dictionary that summarizes and lists the general meanings of words in the traditional sense. It is closer to the nature of following the content of the book for annotation and clarification, and is designed to serve the reading of specific Buddhist scriptures. Therefore, the quality of its phonetic annotations should be assessed within the context of the scriptures themselves. Moreover, during its transmission, some version errors have been introduced, which also affect the reader’s use. This study examines the entries in Volume 17 of Ke Hong Yin Yi that contain editorial or phonetic annotation errors, among other issues. The results of this examination hold significant reference value for the in-depth research and comprehensive organization of Ke Hong Yin Yi.

The Ryō-no-shūge (令集解) is a collection of commentaries by many Enlightened legalists from the Nara period to the early Heian period, which is of a comprehensive nature, and thus preserves many precious documents, including the Shangshu (尚書). This paper will mainly focus on two aspects: firstly, on the basis of previous studies, reveal in detail the specific sources of the quotations from the Shangshu in the Ryō-no-shūge, and then try to explain the main reason for its quotation from Yupian (玉篇), and why it does not omit the name of the book; secondly, through a comparative reading of the present edition of the Shangshu, the seven quotations in the Ryō-no-shūge are analyzed by way of example to further explain their value and to explore the uniqueness of the quotations from the Shangshu in the Ryō-no-shūge in comparison with those in the Original Edition of Yupian (原本《玉篇》) and the ancient written version of the Shangshu. In all fairness, the Ryō-no-shūge’ s quotations from the Shangshu also contain many errors, which we need to identify carefully. In addition, from the Sino-Japanese book road, the Shangshu as a representative of the exchange of civilizations is mutually beneficial.

The Han Shu Yi Wen Zhi recorded a wide range of dictionaries in Han Dynasty, only Cang Jie, Ji Jiu and Analytical Dictionary of Characters had been passed down. Apart from these, scholars of the Qing Dynasty collected the lost content of Fan Jiang, Xun Zuan, Cang Jie Xun Gu, Quan Xue, which can help us to recognize and deepen the understanding of the Han Dynasty dictionaries. There are eleven kinds of books of them, reflecting the strict paradigm of editing in the Qing Dynasty. Among them, Ma Guohan’s edition contains the largest number of articles, with the strengths of detailed evidence and fine proofreading. His weakness is that it mistakenly compiles character sequences of anonymous texts as sequences of Analytical Dictionary of Characters. The disagreement among the people is whether the references to Sima Xiangru and Yang Xiong in Analytical Dictionary of Characters claim should be subsumed in Fan Jiang and Xun Zuan. The second difference lies in the collection of scattered writing style of the exegesis of Fan Jiang, Xun Zuan, Cang Jie Xun Gu, Quan Xue.

There is a character “셓” in the inscriptions on bronze wares of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and up to now, the academic community is divided on the reading of this character. From the use cases where the character appear in the inscriptions on ancient bronzes, it is used as the appellation of the clan without exception, mainly as the single clan name, and then as the constituent of the compound clan name. However, why the clan is named as “셓” and what is the meaning of its configuration have been rarely mentioned. Combining the latest research results of the history and culture of ancient society and archaeology with the inspection and proofreading of the related words of this character, besides versifying with the handed down literature the paper, the paper holds that the character is actually related to the fishery production in ancient times as the symbol of the clan. The configuration of “셓” is the reflection of an image in which a caught fish is disemboweled and then stretched out by bamboo or branches to dry. And the structural meaning is “薧” corresponding to “鱻”, also known as “鱐” in the literature handed down from ancient times “The Three Rituals”, namely the dried fish said today.

Radicals serve as the central elements in the semantics of Chinese characters, but what foundational and extended meanings do they convey? This paper examines all characters with the radical ‘目’ related to attributes, as recorded in Shuowen Jiezi and The Standard Dictionary of Chinese Characters. In Shuowen Jiezi, the ‘目’ radical encompasses four conceptual categories—physical attributes, scale, color, and value. Specific elements under these categories include physical attributes such as ‘dimness, disease, clarity, order, and dryness,’ scale including ‘size, depth, height, thickness, density,’ value comprising ‘beauty and gentleness,’ and color represented by ‘white.’ Over time, these categories have been substantially reduced, with only physical attributes, limited to ‘dimness’ and ‘disease,’ being retained in later literature. This reduction highlights that ancient Chinese vocabulary contained a broader range of conceptual and semantic elements than modern vocabulary. Additionally, synonyms associated with the attribute concept of ‘目’ have mostly disappeared, while newly introduced vocabulary shows a shift towards polysemy, indicating an evolution in lexical structure. Extended meanings have followed mechanisms such as the expansion from attribute to action, metaphorical extensions, and grammaticalization. Semantic expansion frequently shifted to perceptual verbs, while metaphorical extensions moved from ‘human to object’ and ‘action to time.’ Grammaticalization trends were also observed, extending meanings to adverbial and modal uses. These findings reveal that ancient and modern uses of the ‘目’ radical differ significantly in both meaning and conceptual application.

This paper discusses the ancient phonetic loanword “grapes” in Chinese Buddhist scriptures, examining the relationship between the phonetic translations in the scriptures and the collation notes, and considering the cognitive recognition of phonetic loanwords by Chinese users and the influence of characters on the Sinicization of phonetic loanwords. In the translation of Buddhist scriptures, ancient phonetic loanwords not only accept the phonetic translations of foreign terms into Chinese but also undergo further Sinicization, making them more acceptable to Chinese users. For example, the use of the word “grapes” in Buddhist scriptures not only retains its original phonetics but also integrates into the Chinese writing system, allowing it to be transmitted and used in Chinese. This study summarizes the usage of ancient phonetic loanwords in Chinese Buddhist scriptures, analyzing their role in language contact and cultural exchange. Ancient phonetic loanwords are not just products of language contact; they are also witnesses to cultural fusion.

This paper explores the origins, structural composition, and evolution of the ancient Chinese characters 橐 (tuo) and 囊 (nang). Through an analysis of oracle bone inscriptions, bronze script, and relevant archaeological documents, this study examines the existence of a “base” in the 橐 character and compares its morphological features across different periods. The research reveals that 橐, through the clerical script transformation, evolved in form in line with its usage and extended meanings, often being used interchangeably with characters such as 囊 and 櫜. The paper further addresses the question of 橐’s radical classification as discussed in the Shuowen Jiezi and proposes insights into the character's evolutionary patterns and phonetic borrowing processes, aiming to provide new perspectives for the study of morphology and semantics in ancient Chinese script.

This article takes the semantic symbol “走” in “Shuowen Jiezi” as the research object. Firstly, starting from the combination relationship of the semantic symbol “走”, it analyzes and summarizes the actual semantic categories of the semantic symbol “走” in constructing characters, providing a context for extracting the semantic function of “走”. Starting from the aggregation relationship of the semantic symbol “走”, the distribution of the actual semantic classes of the six semantic symbol parameters in the “足” group was compared, and the synchronous and diachronic substitution phenomena of the semantic symbol “走” and the semantic symbols “止”, “辵” , “彳”, “行”, and “足” were examined. The following conclusion can be drawn: In Shuowen Jiezi, the construction of “走” is rich, with “running” as the most typical and advantageous construction. the semantic symbol “走” has the most action semantic characters, while the ability to construct characters for the five major components of “running,” “jumping,” “falling forward,” “walking” and “foot movements” decreases in order. The ability of “走” to construct state and object meanings is weak, and it is often replaced by its variant characters. In the process of historical evolution, the number of preserved characters with the semantic symbol “走” has gradually decreased, and their semantic functions have become increasingly singular. Finally, explore the internal and external factors of language that influence the formation and historical evolution direction of the semantic symbol “走” From a cognitive perspective, the prototype status of the basic construction meaning “run” in the semantic symbol “走” construction meaning category determines the number and historical stability advantage of its constituent characters. In the systematization of Chinese characters, the three factors of “the tendency of semantic symbol construction”, “the mode of semantic symbol construction”, and “whether the function of semantic symbol construction is powerful or not” have led to the semantic symbols “走” in ancient times, resulting in a tendency to “run” through a layer of associative parameters to express action semantic Chinese characters.

There has been a long history of concern and research on Chinese characters by Western scholars and have achieved fruitful results. According to the current construction of Western Sinology history and the development of Western Chinese Grammatology itself, the history of Western Chinese Grammatology could be divided into five periods: the germination state, the missionary period, the initial stage of specialized Chinese Grammatology in the west, the expansion period of specialized Chinese Grammatology in the west, and the peak period of specialized Chinese Grammatology in the west. The initial stage showed the tendency of specialization, disciplinarity and rationalization. The research subjects included Protestant missionaries, philosophers, politicians and linguists, etc. Systematic research results were obtained in the aspects of characters’ nature, characters’ characteristics, characters’ etymologies, characters’ analysis and characters’ phonology. Under the guidance of comparative linguistics theory, American scholar Peter S. Du Ponceau’s work A Dissertation on the Nature and Character of the Chinese System of Writing has conducted in-depth research and elaboration on the nature and characteristics of Chinese characters, which is representative. This paper attempts to take this work as a representative monograph to describe and analyze from the aspects of research content, thoughts of Chinese characters studies, research methods, academic influence and value, deficiencies and limitations, etc., giving an objective evaluation of its value in the evolution of western Chinese Grammatology in the west.

After the invention of woodblock printing in China, It gradually spread to Vietnam and achieved rapid development. Among the existing Sino-Nôm/Chinese-Nôm Literature, there are many Chinese inscriptions, which are valuable materials for studying the Chinese characters used in Vietnam. This paper analyzes the forms of simplified vulgar characters in Vietnamese Chinese printed texts from the perspectives of inheritance and variation. The inherited simplified vulgar characters, mainly include types such as the adoption of “ancient characters,” cursive script standardization, symbol replacement, and partial deletion. The variant simplified vulgar characters, primarily include types such as cursive script variations, reduction variations, and symbol variations. The purpose of this study is to explore and analyze the acceptance and usage of Chinese characters in Vietnam, in order to provide a reference for the study of Chinese character cultural exchange and mutual learning in East Asian sphere.

Using three influential physical translations from the mid-19th century as the main materials, 54 groups of 81 physical translations were obtained. These translations are all free translation terms, mainly disyllabic and polysyllabic; there are 19 translations that use traditional terms, 6 translations that use physical terms selected or created during the Ming and Qing dynasty, and 56 newly created terms. Out of 81 translations, 22 were used in the later edition of “Physical Vocabulary” and 39 were used in “Physical Terms”. In addition, 33 newly created terms appeared in “Vocabulary”; there are 21 newly coined terms in “Terms”, and their meanings are more scientific, concise, accurate, and systematic. The features of physical translations in the late Qing Dynasty are distinct, including the frequent occurrence of multiple translations with one meaning, significant differences in term usage, loose structure of some translations, strong systematic nature, and a high proportion of newly created terms.

For a long time, the teaching concept of “monism” has made the field of international Chinese teaching focus on “words”, not “Chinese characters”. Chinese characters that are difficult to teach and learn have not been effectively improved. In 2021, the introduction of the “Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education” set a new direction for international Chinese education, and the practice of listing a handwritten Chinese character list separately for the first time also reflects the importance of Chinese character teaching. Long before the introduction of the “Grading Standards”, a small number of international comprehensive Chinese textbooks had compiled handwritten Chinese character lists, but there were many handwritten Chinese characters that were not included in the “Grading Standards”. This kind of Chinese characters or have a large number of strokes, or the shapes of the strokes are more difficult, or the structures are more complex, or the ability to form words is weak, etc., which is exactly the opposite of the characteristics of the “Grading Standards”. According to the results of the relevant analysis, it can provide practical reference for the compilation of Chinese characters in textbooks in the future.

In recent years, the research on the new word family of modern Chinese and some morphemes with affixation like tendency has been continuous. Most of the research focuses on word formation, syllable characteristics, and the components in the sentence. However, the semantic evolution of some affixes is not very clear, or because the morpheme meaning of this type of affixes is relatively diverse, which leads to the fact that several word families with different sources and types seem to be confused. This brings some troubles to some specific language teaching practice. The new words “X寶” is such a typical example, Although it seems that the morphology is the same and “X” and “寶” form the noun of the fixed structure, in fact, “寶”, as a common morpheme, has various morpheme meanings. Therefore, “X寶” word family also has several different sources and types. This paper starts with the semantic evolution of the word “寶” and makes a classification study of the new words of “X寶”. This paper argues that the sources of new words of “X寶” in A (financial APP name) and B (general entity product name) are different from those in C (nickname of people) and D (gem). They not only have obvious differences in semantics, but also in syllable number, word formation, productivity and so on. Finally, this paper discusses the motivation of the extension of the new meaning of “寶” and the generation of the new words of “X寶” from the perspective of external and internal factors of language. Thus, the author summarizes several types of word families of “X寶” in modern Chinese.

Zaoye (造業) has appeared in the documents of pre-Qin Dynasty, indicating the establishment of a career. The extensive spread of Chinese-translated Buddhist scriptures gives Ye (業) a specific Buddhist connotation, which refers to the corresponding results produced by various thoughts and behaviors. Ye (業) is associated with Nie (孽) after biased towards evil karma. The thesis examines the semantic and usage frequencies of Zaoye (造業), Zaonie (造孽), Zaonie (遭孽), Zaoye (遭業), Zuoye (作業) and Zuonie (作孽) in historial documents and dialect materials, arguing that the phonetic and semantic proximity of the morphemes readily results in semantic blending among these words. Zaoye (造業) in Southwestern Mandarin expresses pity. Zaonie (造孽) in Southwestern Mandarin, Xiang, Gan and Hakka dialect expresses pity. Zaonie (遭孽) in Jianghuai dialect and Southwestern Mandarin also expresses pity. Zaoye (遭業) in Beijing dialect expresses pity. Zuonie (作孽) in Jianghuai and Wu dialect expresses pity. Based on the literal semantics of the word Zaoye (造業), it is not possibe to deduce why the word can express pity. The thesis suggests that Zaoye (造業) expresses pity because it is confused with word Zaonie (遭孽). Zaonie (遭孽) means suffering from bad things, which leads to the meaning of pity. Due to the phonetic similarity and semantic overlap between Zaoye (造業) and Zaonie (遭孽), Southwest Mandarin dialect areas use the simple character form Zaoye (造業) to express pity.

Inspired by the Sound-change Trajectory Method to identify the original written form of a word proposed by Mr. Pan Wuyun潘悟雲, it is proved that the lost iconographic symbols for the orphanized lexical item used as a verb which means crying (read as [da31]) in Wenling and Yuhuan dialects of Wu吳language is “Tuo (沱)”, which is Change-resistant form of the grade 1 of non-labial vowel in Guo Auslaut 果摄开口一等. “Tuo (沱)” is an adjective, which extends its meaning along the line of “abundant water” “rain drooping” and “tears drooping”. With the expansion of collocation range, it is extended to a verb which means flowing. The verb “Tuo (沱)” which means crying in Wenling and Yuhuan dialects is derived from the verb which means flowing, and is a feature word in Wenling and Yuhuan dialects.

Yuan yin (元因) used to be a common Chinese word, but it was replaced by yuan yin (原因), but we still don’t know the exact evolution of the word. This paper concludes that yuan yin (元因) was first used in the Tang Dynasty and was widely used in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The word yuan yin (原因) was first used in the late Song and early Yuan dynasties, and gradually replaced yuan yin (元因) in the Ming dynasty, and then completely replaced it in the Qing dynasty. The original, fundamental meaning of yuan (原) is more intuitive and clearer than that of yuan (元), which is the root cause of the replacement of yuan yin (元因), and the most popular theory of “avoiding the fear of the Yuan Dynasty” is wrong. Yan yin (言因) is yuan yin (元因) of the loanwords, regional strong, only circulated in the southern region, especially common in Fujian, we can rely on the use of Yan yin (言因) to partially help determine the place of publication of the work.