Vietnamese Chinese-language Yanxing documents are Chinese records and pictures left by Vietnamese envoys when they were on mission to China or when civilians traveled to China in history. Among them, the main forms are the Yanxingji, the Northern Envoy's Poems and Essays, and the Northern Envoy’s Journey Map. Many common Chinese characters are used in Vietnamese Han Yanxing literature, and the words Kai ( ), Kou ( ), Zhan ( ), Huo ( )、Zhan ( ) are some of the common characters. These words are either not included in the dictionary or have nothing to do with the dictionary’s definition. Judging from the rationale for the composition of the common characters and their meaning in sentences, they are the common characters for Kai (開), Kou (叩), Zhan (瞻), Huo (獲) and Zhan ( ) respectively.

This study develops an automatic procedure for mapping and analyzing Korean and Vietnamese readings of Chinese characters. The dataset was constructed from the graded Chinese-character list (급수별 배정한자) provided on the official website of the Society for Korean Language & Literary Research (한국어문교육연구회). Characters with multiple Sino-Korean readings were divided into separate records according to their meaning–reading distinctions. When multiple Sino-Vietnamese readings remained unresolved because sufficient lexical context was unavailable, the first-listed reading was used for analysis. The final dataset contained 6,236 records. Unicode code points were used to match the same characters across the Korean and Vietnamese data. Sino-Korean readings were decomposed into onsets, nuclei, and codas by using the structure of precomposed Hangul syllables. Sino-Vietnamese readings were decomposed into onsets, nuclei, codas, and tones through NFD normalization, tone extraction, NFC recomposition, and rule-based parsing. The correspondence analysis was conducted on 6,219 records with valid readings in both languages. The analysis was designed to establish an initial quantitative baseline for the major correspondence patterns across the full dataset. The results showed that coda correspondences were generally more regular than onset and nucleus correspondences. Sino-Korean ㄴ, ㅁ, ㄹ, and ㅂ corresponded mainly to Sino-Vietnamese -n, -m, -t, and -p, respectively. Sino-Korean ㅇ corresponded mainly to -ng and -nh, while ㄱ corresponded mainly to -c and -ch. Onset and nucleus correspondences showed greater variation. The results provide a quantitative basis for comparing the two reading systems and may support further research on historical phonology and Sino-Korean vocabulary education for Vietnamese learners.

(1) This article examines complex function words in Truyen ki man luc, a Vietnamese literary work written in Classical Chinese in the sixteenth century, consists of four volumes comprising a total of twenty stories and was authored by Nguyen Du (阮嶼 Nguyễn Dữ). The concept of complex function words refers to function words formed through the combination of two individual function words. The system of complex function words identified in Truyen ki man luc comprises 93 lexical items with a total frequency of 277 occurrences, with frequencies ranging from 1 to 22 occurrences. These items are classified into five grammatical categories: pronouns, conjunctions, adverbs, modal particles, and exclamatory particles. Among them, adverbs account for the largest proportion, with 63 items (67.7%) and 169 occurrences (61%). Exclamatory particles appear least frequently in terms of lexical items, with only one item (1.1%), yet display a relatively high frequency of use, occurring 22 times (7.9%). In comparison with complex function words in Classical Chinese, the complex function words in Truyen ki man luc are relatively rich in terms of quantity, frequency, and word classes. (2) All complex function words identified in the Classical Chinese text of Truyen ki man luc (93 items) are semantically and functionally consistent with those used in Classical Chinese texts of China. This correspondence constitutes an important basis for recognizing the close similarity between Vietnamese Classical Chinese texts and Chinese Classical Chinese texts in both lexical and grammatical aspects. (3) Complex function words play a significant role in literary works. In Truyen ki man luc, these complex function words perform important grammatical functions, particularly in textual cohesion and the expression of modal meanings. They also contribute substantially to the construction of artistic imagery through rhetorical devices such as repetition and phonetic parallelism. Moreover, complex function words in Truyen ki man luc possess strong expressive potential, especially exclamatory particles, which are used with notable frequency and are closely associated with evaluative comments on events within individual narratives. The system of complex function words thus contributes to the overall artistic success of Vietnamese prose works written in Classical Chinese during the sixteenth century. (4) The Classical Chinese text was phonemically transcribed into Nom script by Nguyen The Nghi (阮世宜 Nguyễn Thế Nghi), also in the sixteenth century. In the Nom text, complex function words are rendered with a Nom-to-Chinese ratio of 102/93 (i.e., the number of Nom equivalents relative to the number of Chinese items, a ratio greater than 1). This ratio reflects the richness and expressive flexibility of Vietnamese lexical and phrasal resources in translating complex function words from the Classical Chinese text. In comparison, the translation of monosyllabic function words exhibits a Nom-to-Chinese ratio of 271/287 (a ratio less than 1). The contrast between these ratios demonstrates the diversity of translation strategies applied to different categories of function words. (5) The translation of complex function words in Truyen ki man luc from the Classical Chinese text into the Nom text employs a variety of methods, including four principal patterns: one Chinese form to one Nom form, one Chinese form to multiple Nom forms, multiple Chinese forms to one Nom form, and combined translation methods. Among these, the one-Chinese-to-one-Nom method predominates, accounting for 61 lexical items (53.5%) and 161 occurrences (58.1%). This method contributes to the stability and consistency of the translation, while the other methods introduce flexibility and subtlety into the rendering of complex function words. (6) The translated system of complex function words also reflects a strong tendency toward nativization. Purely Vietnamese lexical items account for 87.2% (89/102) of the translated forms and 87% (241/277) of their total frequency. This tendency is further reinforced by the fact that 34 out of the 93 complex function words have been lexicalized in Vietnamese in their Sino-Vietnamese readings, representing 36.5%. These findings reflect both the characteristics of Nguyen The Nghi’s predominantly literal translation approach and the adaptability and richness of the Vietnamese language in the process of assimilating foreign linguistic elements. This trend toward Vietnamization also reflects the maturity of the development of the Nôm script, as well as the growing awareness among Vietnamese intellectuals of the need to preserve the Vietnamese language and writing system. (7) The translated system of complex function words in the Nom text also provides valuable evidence of the historical development of the Vietnamese language. The transcription contributes to reconstructing the linguistic landscape of sixteenth-century Vietnamese by preserving archaic Vietnamese vocabulary and word-forming elements that continue to exist in modern Vietnamese. Words formed from such elements number 13 items (14%) with a total frequency of 56 occurrences (20%). Furthermore, the sixteenth-century transcription preserves several lexical items used to translate Classical Chinese complex function words, many of which (28 items) remain in use in contemporary Vietnamese. The vocabulary of Truyen ki man luc contributes to revealing the relationship among the lexicon of Classical Chinese texts, sixteenth-century Vietnamese, and modern Vietnamese. (8) Lexical studies of literary works from Classical Chinese texts to Nom texts represent a highly promising area of research. This line of inquiry can be further be extended to explore the relationship between language and writing, the development of literary language in Vietnamese Classical Chinese and Nom literature, and the similarities and differences in the lexical and syntactic features of Classical Chinese literary works across different Sinitic literary traditions from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives.

The Joseon envoy Yi Min-seong (李民宬), who traveled to Ming China in the third year of the Tianqi reign (1623), authored the Gyehae Jocheollok (癸亥朝天錄, Record of a Journey to the Imperial Court in the Gyehae Year). This work presents an intriguing phenomenon: the first three volumes, along with his earlier Imin Jocheollok (壬寅朝天錄), are written entirely in orthodox Literary Chinese, whereas Volume 4, which contains confidential reports to the Joseon court, is densely interspersed with Idu writing (吏讀). Why does the same author employ two radically different modes of writing within a single work? Adopting the perspective of register stratification, this article examines Yi Min-seong’s language choice strategies when addressing different audiences. The study finds that in the open register intended for Ming readers, he achieves procedural compliance and emotional communication through the strategic adaptation of Sinitic words; in the confidential register directed at the Joseon court, he relies on the grammatical marking system of Idu to realize the precise transmission of intelligence and secure communication. These two strategies together constitute Yi’s “dual writing,” which reflects the envoy’s identity adjustment under the dual missions of “serving the great” (sadae, 事大) and “loyalty to the monarch” (忠君). This case study offers a new entry point for understanding the writing mechanisms of Yeonhaengnok (燕行錄) literature.

The Heian edition of the Sound and Meaning of the Four-Part Vinaya, preserved in the Shoryōbu (Imperial Household Agency), is currently the oldest known manuscript. By comparing this edition and the Daiji edition—both representing the manuscript tradition—with the Pilu Canon, Qisha Canon, the Zhuangxin edition (Southern style), the Goryeo Canon, and the Jin Canon (Northern style), we find numerous differences among them in terms of character selection, arrangement, classification, phonetic glosses, and semantic interpretations. These variants reveal that the Southern version, as a sound-meaning commentary, contains more detailed content than the Northern version. The basic textual affiliations of the Heian and Daiji editions should be traced to the Northern lineage. Moreover, compared with the Northern version, the Heian text exhibits a more prominent phenomenon of variant forms of function words, pronouns, and exegetical terms.

The Second Edition of Hanyu Da Zidian is a large-scale Chinese dictionary that aims to comprehensively and accurately represent the diachronic development of the form, pronunciation, and meaning of Chinese characters. Its compilation not only emphasizes the extensive collection of pronunciations and definitions recorded in historical documents, but also stresses the close integration of form, pronunciation, and meaning, consistently adhering to the core principle of aligning pronunciation with meaning. However, due to the vast number of characters included and the complexity of their sources, certain character entries inevitably exhibit improper matching between phonetic notation and definition. Building on the collation and research of previous scholars, this study systematically consults major historical character and rhyme dictionaries such as Shuo Wen Jie Zi, Guang Yun, and Ji Yun, and examines typical cases of characters with variant readings and polyphonic characters. Through illustrative analysis, this paper identifies specific instances of mismatched pronunciation and meaning in Hanyu Da Zidian and summarizes three main types of causes. First, uncritically following earlier sources without careful examination, directly adopting erroneous pronunciations or definitions from previous character and rhyme dictionaries without re-examining the original texts; Second, conflating distinct senses without careful differentiation, erroneously matching a pronunciation originally belonging to sense A with sense B, thereby disrupting the correspondence between pronunciation and meaning; Third, extensively collecting pronunciations and meanings from texts without verification, relying on secondhand citations of documentary evidence without reviewing the original correspondence between pronunciation and meaning in the primary sources, resulting in unfounded matches. Clarifying these errors and their causes may provide useful reference for the future revision of this dictionary.

The exegesis of the chapter on Wen mo wu you ren ye (文莫吾猶人也) (Analects 7.33) has been perennially contentious in classical scholarship. Building upon a thorough review of traditional commentaries, this paper undertakes a further critical re-examination of the interpretations of this chapter from two complementary perspectives—philological glossing and philosophical elucidation. It argues that the view that Mo (莫) is a scribal error for Qi (其) is the most cogent and the corruption most likely arose from miscopying during the transcription of the ancient-script text. The sentence Wen qi wu you ren ye (文其吾猶人也), when subjected to syntactic restructuring, reveals its original form as Wen, wu you ren ye (文，吾猶人也)—a topic-prominent construction. However, since its semantic import in this chapter is not self-sufficient and requires logical cohesion with the following clause to achieve full meaning, the sentence undergoes syntactic restructuring under the constraints of the chapter's overall expression. The restructured syntax forms a concessive-conditional relation with the subsequent clause, thereby highlighting the significance of Gong Xing (躬行).Through Confucius’ self-assessment, this chapter ultimately conveys the idea that mere acquisition of Wen (文) is insufficient without their performative actualization.

The study and teaching of ancient scripts require a systematic approach that accounts for both graphic structure and semantic motivation, and the theory of “formational thinking” proposed by Mr. Huang Dekuan effectively addresses this issue by uncovering the shared cognitive schemas that govern character composition. This paper takes as examples ancient scripts such as cong (从), bi (比), yu (㼌), jing (競), qian (僉), jie (皆), and li (丽), which contain the core meaning of “pairs” or “duality.” These characters not only share a dualistic semantic core but also exhibit analogous positional arrangements, which facilitate comparative analysis across different graphic forms. The paper illustrates that the interpretation of ancient scripts should emphasize not merely surface forms but the underlying logic of their construction—that is, the same “formational thinking”—so as to distinguish closely related or easily confused graphs and to resolve interpretive disputes. Beyond exegesis, this framework also provides a novel approach and methodology for future teaching, particularly for organizing curricula around structural families and for training students to recognize recurrent compositional principles, thus making the learning process more coherent and principle-driven.

The two folk characters of shèng (聖) — namely “垩” and “圣” — both derive from the regularization of the cursive script of shèng (聖). The process of cursive regularization for shèng (聖) followed a reductive sequence of “component simplification → dot-and-stroke substitution → extended horizontal ligature.” Regularization applied to the cursive form after “dot-and-stroke substitution” yields the graph “垩”, whereas regularization applied after “extended horizontal ligature” yields the graph “圣”. In certain variants, the lower component “壬” of shèng (聖) was corrupted into “土”, and these two shapes—“壬” and “土” —are preserved respectively in the graphs “垩” and “圣”. The graphic convergence of the folk characters of shèng (聖) and jīng (巠) stems from the fact that the vulgar form “ ” of jīng (巠) closely resembles “圣” and was assimilated to it through graphic corruption. The acceptance of this convergence by script users was further conditioned by the phonetic proximity and complementary distribution in usage between shèng (聖) and jīng (巠). Since the vulgar script forms of shèng (聖), jīng (巠), and guài (𡉄) are all written as “圣”, instances of erroneous substitution between shèng (聖) and guài (𡉄), as well as confusion between shèng (聖) and jīng (巠), can be observed in transmitted texts. Although such occurrences are relatively infrequent, they merit particular attention from researchers engaged in the collation and scholarly utilization of Ming and Qing documents involving these three characters.

Drawing primarily on unearthed texts, this paper systematically investigates, from the perspective of the history of Chinese writing, the diachronic evolution of character usage for {誅1} and {殺} and the factors underlying their development. In the Shang period, {誅1} was mainly represented by the early forms of the character “殊”. During the Warring States period, the Chu writing system developed special graphs specifically for this word, while from the Qin and Han periods onward, “誅” gradually became its conventional written form. The character usage of {殺}, by contrast, underwent a different course of development: variant forms coexisted in the Shang period, graphic forms were further adjusted in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, regional differentiation emerged between the Qin and Chu writing systems during the Warring States period, and in the Qin and Han periods “殺” became the predominant form while variant, abbreviated, and vulgar forms continued to coexist. Although the two words followed different evolutionary paths, their development was shaped by several common factors, including the coordination between semantic motivation in character formation and writing economy, the interaction between regional differentiation in character usage and political standardization, and functional competition and adjustment within the Chinese writing system. A further examination of synonymous words denoting killing shows that their written forms did not converge on a single semantic classifier. Instead, different words highlighted different semantic aspects of the event of killing, such as the resulting state of death, the use of weapons or force, and the object affected, thereby giving rise to a relatively stable division of functions among semantic classifiers. This indicates that convergence toward a shared semantic classifier is not an inevitable outcome in the evolution of character usage among synonyms. Cognitive prominence assigned to different aspects of the same semantic event may likewise contribute to the functional differentiation of semantic classifiers.

Jiashuo was used as a disyllabic compound as early as the Pre-Qin period. The phrase “Zhong ni jia shuo” in Yang Xiong’s Fayan was traditionally interpreted as “spreading words”, while Wang Rongbao reinterpreted it as “unharnessing the carriage” (a metaphor for “death”) by refuting the phonetic loan theory, though this view has not been widely accepted. In fact, Wang’s interpretation is verifiable through the general usage of “jia” in the Han Dynasty, Yang Xiong’ s personal lexical habits, and the compilation style of Fayan, which conforms better to the linguistic reality of the Han Dynasty. Later, the meaning of “unharnessing the carriage” and its extensions originally carried by jiashuo were taken over by shuijia, mainly due to the psychology of revering antiquity and form-meaning contradictions from graphic borrowing. Meanwhile, jiashuo, misinterpreted semantically, evolved mainly from “disseminating theories” and derived meanings such as “fabrication”. The variant form jiashuo (written with “jia” meaning “frame”) in the Ming and Qing dynasties reconnected two evolutionary branches of the core lexeme “jia” and reverted to its original meaning, revealing a special path of Chinese lexical evolution. Suggestions for relevant dictionary entries are also proposed.

Although Tang Dynasty regulated verse mainly relies on real words, the role of auxiliary words cannot be ignored. Auxiliary words mainly include particles, conjunctions, prepositions, adverbs, and interjections, which can effectively mediate the sentence structure and enhance the artistic expression of the poem. As the key point of the sentence, they have a highlighting function and can revitalize a single line of poetry or even the entire poem. They are the objects that poets focus on refining. They can connect the sentence flow and act as a sentence structure hub, forming sequential, transitional, and progressive relationships between the upper and lower sentences, thereby enhancing the logical rigor of the poem. Auxiliary words can also adjust the rhythm, making the poem full of ups and downs and avoiding plain narration, presenting the charm of twists and turns. Most importantly, auxiliary words can ingeniously create emotional disparities and exert the function of conveying emotions, thereby evoking readers' resonance. Of course, although auxiliary words have many functions, if used excessively, they may make the sentence meaning too clear, lacking tension and jumpiness, resulting in weak and powerless poetry. It is necessary for poets to properly grasp the boundaries of the use of auxiliary words.