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.

文学是以文字表现出来的，文字就是文学的最重要工具。不过在韩国无论是一般人，或是学术界，对文字并没有明确的概念。韩国本来用汉字， 后来创制韩文，加以混用，由此韩国的文字就是汉字与韩文两种文字结合而成，一直用到现在了。不过混用两种文字，往往造成混乱，有些人主张废除汉字，专用韩文，很像是过去中国的鲁迅所说“汉字不灭，中国必亡。”的主张。尤其韩文学者的这种主张是很激烈的。汉字是韩国的国文，还是外文，国家及学术界都没有明确的答复。研究文学的学术界竟然对自己的文字也没有统一的标准，可以说是搞文学最基本的条件也没有具备。 在此主要探讨有关汉字的这种问题，想找一个标准，来建立国文的范围。汉字不能说是外文，韩国用汉字的历史已经超过两千年，过去韩国的文献，绝大部分都是使用汉字记载的。到了现在计较汉字的产地，排斥汉字，并否定用汉字的历史，这不能说是合理的态度。 世宗大王创制训民正音，并不是要代替汉字的，而是要补充汉字的缺点。汉字原来并不是很完善的文字。‘字形’到了秦始皇才开始用统一的形态。‘字音’呢，到了现代造出汉语拼音方案以后才有了全国性的标准音，这才有了半世纪左右的历史，又是借用罗马字母的。训民正音就是汉语拼音方案一样，给每个汉字注音，更进一步用韩国话解释字义，这是因为训民正音不只是表音符号，而是一个完整的表音文字，用来把汉字及汉文的意义都可以翻成韩文。 训民正音如此解决了当时文字的两大问题；其一确立汉字的注音方法，以确定汉字的标准音，其二可以记录当时的口语，一般平民也很容易掌握文字，可享有文字生活。 训民正音既是伟大，正如郑麟趾说；“因声而音叶七调，三极之义，二气之妙，莫不该括，以二十八字而转换无穷，简而要，精而通。……虽风声鹤唳鸡鸣狗吠，皆可得而书矣。”，不过训民正音还是表音文字，只能表音，不表义。因此与汉字结合，才能尽其功用，这就是世宗大王创制训民正音的目的了。 现在我们用汉字是极为自然的，单独用韩文是不合世宗大王的意图，是很明确的。再说我们用的汉字就是我们的文字。