This paper investigates the vestiges of bear worship in ancient Chinese characters. It analyzes the emergence and significance of characters symbolizing bears, such as “能” (néng) and “熊” (xióng), to elucidate their connection with the tradition of bear worship. “能” is identified as a pictogram representing the bear’s body, and it is argued that the character “羽 /能” (yī) used in the bamboo texts of the Chu state is related to bear birth mythology. Additionally, the study reveals that the ancestral surname “嬴” (Yíng) of the Qin dynasty encapsulates meanings related to the bear. The research explores the potential links between the bear worship totem of the Hongshan culture and the ethnic groups of the Qin and Chu states, supporting the polygenetic theory of the formation of the Chinese nation. It particularly emphasizes the significance of the Northeast Asian civilizations beyond the monocentric theory centered around the Yellow River or the dualistic theory of the Yangshao-Liangzhu cultures. The study also contributes to understanding the cultural connections between Gojoseon’s Dangun mythology, the formation of the Korean ethnic group, and further cultural linkages with Japan. This study comprehensively illuminates the impact of bear worship on the formation of Chinese and Northeast Asian cultures and is expected to lay a crucial theoretical foundation for constructing the methodology of “Chinese character archaeology” that integrates studies of ancient characters with ethnology, archaeology, and philology. Through this, it aims to provide deep insights into how various ethnicities and cultures have interacted to shape Chinese civilization.

한어(漢語)를 기록하는 언어부호로서 한자는 점진적으로 발전을 거듭하여 성숙한 문자체계를 갖추었다. 서사(書寫)의 측면에서 한자는 고문자 단계에서 서사원소(書寫 元素)의 계통(系統)적인 발전 과정을 거쳐, 예서에서 한자의 기본 ‘필획‘이 완성되었 다. 고문자 서사원소의 체계적인 발전은 크게 두 가지 방향으로 이루어졌다. 하나는 고문자 서사원소의 본질적인 변화이다. 이는 서사원소가 사물을 묘사하는 선에서 글 자를 구성하는 선으로 변화하는 과정이다. 다른 하나는 고문자의 서사원소가 유형화 되는 과정이다. 서사원소의 유형화를 통하여 소전에서는 자형에 사용된 모든 ‘선‘이 9가지 기본 대유형으로 귀납되었다. 이러한 고문자 서사원소의 계통적 발전 과정은 한자발전사에서 매우 중요한 과정으로, 이를 통하여 한자는 예변(隸變)의 단계를 진 행할 수 있는 기반을 마련하였다.

The definition of ‘wen’ in the preface of Shuowen Jiezi by Xushen is “creating characters is according to shape image, so the shape image is wen”. Wenshi of Zhang Taiyan studies 510 single-element characters as ‘chuwen’ in Shuowen Jiezi. He is the first scholar who proposes the concept of ‘chuwen’. Subsequently, experts in ancient writing apply the theory of ‘chuwen’ to explain the shape of ancient writing massively, representing great achievements. Based on this, the paper divides ‘chuwen’ into ‘phonetic one’ and ‘semantic one’ to study the reading method and applicative value, respectively. This paper lists 10 examples of 潮, 瓜, 訊, 要, , 範, 瓒, 金, 臨, 沐 to illustrate that ‘chuwen’ must be paid attention to in the interpretation of difficult ancient writing.

Big data and AI are the two major technical means of development in the current era. Thus, whether Chinese grammatology can use new technologies to achieve new developments following the trend as such is precisely the new problem and new field of the development of philology. The scientific research work on computer recognition of ancient Chinese characters has been carried out for more than 20 years, and it has achieved good results in methodology. However, it is only in the past three years or so that the real application has been made. In this regard, this paper summarizes the research status of ancient Chinese character computer recognition, attempts to analyze several factors that restrict the ancient Chinese character computer recognition from experiment to application, and puts forward the future development of this work.

As Alex Schuessler (2009, 34–39) has articulated, it is difficult to know the real reason for the choice of a particular graphic element within a composite graph. This is often due to “mental or cultural associations” that tend to interfere with the choice. Even with a simple graph it is not easy to discern what we call “graphic design” that must have guided the original scribes to create the graphs to express words. These are important issues in Chinese paleography. We will use terms like “pure phonetic”, “quasi-phonetic”, “quasi-phonosignific”, “etymonic”, “quasi-etymonic” that are not commonly used in the literature (we will define them in the paper). The Old Chinese (OC) rimes comprised of a relatively few words such as *-əp, *-en, and *-ui suffer a shortage of graphs to write the words with such rimes. This implies the existence of graphs with only a segment or segments of an OC syllable that suggest its entire phonological form with a meaning or function. For example, the top portion of (=羊 *jaŋ~*laŋ, i.e., ) seems to serve as quasi-phonosignific in (=羌 *khaŋ~*khiaŋ—cf. 西戎, 牧羊人也, 羊亦聲—SW). That is, 羌 were “sheep herders”, and the grapheme can be taken as partial phonetic, not really “亦聲” it would seem, because only the rime of 羊 agrees (“quasi-phonetic”). When we pay attention not only to the rimes but also to the initials, we may, if cogent analysis can be made, come to understand why a word was written in a certain specific way. This interfaces between paleography and historical phonology, further involving historical lexicology. We shall also assess some traditional paleographical interpretations of nǚ 女= ‘woman’ and mín 民= ‘people’ and try to descry “graphic designs” by the original scribes. Here, however, we first need to figure out the underlying meanings of the words nǚ and mín in their early history. Their semantic fields could range from synonymy, near/quasi-synonymy, antonyms, and near/quasi-antonyms to members of some large word-family. In this paper, we limit our analysis to some “graphic minimal pairs” and the words represented by them. For example, “ (女 ‘woman’) and (卩 ‘joint’)”; “ (如 ‘follow, go’) and (訊 ‘interrogate’)”; “ (目 ‘eye’) and (臣 ‘servant’)”; “ (民 ‘people’) and (見 ‘see’)”; and a few related graphs.

Digital research in ancient Chinese characters reflects the adjustment and development of the traditional research model under the new condition of information transmission. Through this new research model, more innovative research areas can be opened up. Moreover, the operating criterion of empirical study will be elevated. Currently there are several problems in this research model: overburdened work in the technical area; weak support of existing research and the absence of necessary Chinese information technology. The further realms we can expect are: digital means and platforms will bring a new vision of paleographic research; the development of the digital platform on the basis of resource sharing and cooperation; the development of the function of supervision on digital platform over criterion of the paleographic research.

本文研究目的是想弄清楚记录史、事、使、吏等词的文字形体是否有一定规范，这些词在形体上的分化开始于什么时代及其分化的时代层次如何。方法：1）古文字资料按照分期方法，对殷商甲骨文至战国简牍文字进行历时分析；2）二重证据法，在考察古文字资料的基础上，考察几部重要古书中这几个词的使用情况。结论：学界分歧严重处在于对“吏”字产生的时代不清楚。我们认为“吏”字是在中央集权国家逐渐形成的过程中出现的，时代在战国晚期。“使”的分化完成于秦文字，今天的“使”字当是演变自秦文字从“事”之使。说明：本文曾提交第三届汉字与汉字教育国际研讨会，但当时只提交了1/3 的内容，本次提交的是完整稿（六万余字）。

The unearthed ancient writing literature corpus's foundation, is helpful to the impetus unearthed ancient writing literature search adaptation digitization time request, impels the unearthed classical Chinese literature to offer this precious China cultural heritage to enter the digitization to disseminate the platform, promotes Chinese informationization the progress. According to the language materials characteristic, this kind of corpus construction besides must offer the material to the unearthed classical Chinese literature to carry on aspect and so on glossary, grammar attribute labelling, but should also carry on the textual research and explication research information, the writing attribute and literature content matter's class labelling. Unearthed ancient writing literature corpus construction, when insisted that the academic first technical second principle, introduces the digitization operating mode comprehensively, implements the sustainable development the research and development pattern, and take by typeface support as character repertoire foundation.

초나라 문자를 접하면서 진대(秦代) 예서와 비슷한 자형을 발견하고 예서의 시작은 진대(秦代)에서부터가 아니라 그 이전 전국시대 동방문자에서도 나타났던 현상임을 알게 되었고, 그 예를 초국문자 중에서 발견할 수 있다. 그 결과 초간(楚簡)이나, 초박서(楚帛書), 초금문(楚金文)의 자형에서 적지 않은 예변 현상들이 일어났고, 그 현상들은 예변현상(隸變現象)의 초기적 형태임을 알 수 있다. 그리고 이 예변현상은 계속 일어나서 진대(秦代)와서는 예변의 형태가 완정(完整)적인 형태가 되었다. 그래서 이전 학자들은 예서가 진대에서 발생했다고 하지만, 그 발생시기는 진대가 아님이 확연해졌다. 예변현상은 전국시대 당시 동방 각국의 보편적인 현상이었으며, 이것을 “고예(古隸)”라고도 부른다.

중국문자는 은주 갑골문 에서부터 오늘에 이르기까지 몇차례의 자형변화가 이루어졌다. 그 중 자형의 변화 과정에 가장 중추적 역활을 한 시기가 춘추 전국시대가 아닐까 하는 생각을 해본다. 중국문자는 처음 산생되었을때， 사물의 형태를 본떠서 만든 문자이므로, 자형이 무척 복잡했다. 그래서 쓰기에도 무척 불편한 구조를 가지고 있었다. 그래서 사람들이 문자를 이용하기 시작하면서 자의의 핵심되는 부분만 골라서 쓰기 시작하여 점점 자형의 간화현상이 깊어만 가는 것이 고대문자의 변천 흐름이다. 그러나 간화 현상이 활발히 진행되는 과정에서도 그 반대되는 현상이 만만치 않게 일어났는데, 그 이유는 여러 가지가 있겠지만, 필자는 크게 두 가지로 그 현상들을 분류하였다. 첫째, 외형적인 장식을 위하여 자의와는 무관한 기호와 편방들을 첨가하여 자의를 더 강조하였고, 혹은 원래 있던 글자의 성부가 제 역할을 하지 못해서 다시 음가가 비슷한 편방을 첨가하여 소리를 인지시키는 역활을 했다. 이로 인하여 자형의 번화 현상이 일어났다. 오월문자의 번화현상을 분류해보면 외형적인 장식의 첨가현상은 다른 춘추 전국 시대에도 같은 현상이 있지만, 글자아래에 세로 두획을 길게 늘어 뜨려 장식 하는 현상과 「厘」 자에 의미없는 편방 “子”를 첨가 시키는 현상은 다른 지역에서는 드믄 현상이다. 자형의 구조적인 번화 현상 중에서 성부“美”를 첨가 시키는 것도 특이한 현상이라 하겠다.