Variant Hán characters (hereinafter referred to as variants) are a common phenomenon in various types of Hán-Nôm cultural materials, including Confucian documents. This article studies the variants in Confucian works through the case of the book Hồ thượng thư gia lễ/胡尚書家禮/Family rituals by Minister Hồ (printed in 1739). The author chooses this text because of the following factors: First, the content of this work, which might be described as Confucian in nature, is about Confucian rituals; Second, the text printed in 1739 is associated with clearly identified dates of production and chief commissioner, so variants found in this text have historical value; Third, this is a printed text, so its variants must have attained a degree of common usage. On that basis, the objectives of this article are: First, to provide statistics on variants, to classify their structures and to analyze some variation rules of this type of characters; Second, to provide preliminary comments (relying upon the above-mentioned data and analysis) on the flexible use of Hán characters by Vietnamese Confucian scholars in the 18th century.

The paper focuses on the using of causative markers “教 (jiao)” and “交 (jiao)” from the view of the using of word variants, which is to reveal the standardization of words in the Ming Dynasty. This paper uses Jinpingmei (two versions), Shuihuzhuan (three versions), Qingping Shan Tanghua Ben, Gujin Xiaoshuo, Zhongyi Zhiyan, Xunshi Pinghua as references. This paper finds that: Using as causative markers, the standardized writing form “教 (jiao)” and the variant writing form “交 (jiao)” are mixed more frequently in Jinpingmei Cihua Ben, Shuihuzhuan Rongyutang Ben and Tianqi Keben and Qingping Shan Tanghua Ben than in Jinpingmei Chongzhen Ben, Shuihuzhuan Guanhuatang Ben and Gujin Xiaoshuo. This reveals the standardization of words in the Ming Dynasty. Both the internal factors of language and the external factors influence the disappearing of “ 交 (jiao)”.“教 (jiao)” are completely dominant in both Zhongyi Zhiyan and Xunshi Pinghua, which is closely related to the characteristic of this two documents.

Shang Shu, the historical document in Chinese history, complied many aspects of academic problems which derived from history, geography, philology and phonology, etc. There are four main aspects: firstly, how to appraise pseudograph correctly; secondly, the contents of Jiwen and Guwen should be discriminated carefully; thirdly, explanations or interpretations of scholaships varied a lot; fourthly, textual critisim could be too complicated. Thus, from such a long academic tradition, scholars have viewed the second and third aspects as the key parts, while the philology study played the vital role. In short, as the explanations presented by scholars on 19 parts of Zhou Shu varied a lot, the paper held the case study based on 13 main parts of this book to research the variant characters.

The Dictionary of Chinese Variants Characters (《異體字字典》), compiled by Ministry of Education, has cited 62 philology books and 1242 practical literatures to collect 29892 standard characters and 76338 variant characters. There are 106230 characters in total in The Dictionary of Chinese Variants Characters (《異體字字典》). It is absolutely a large-scale work of Chinese characters. The Dictionary of Chinese Variants Characters (《異體字字典》) adopts the stratified method. All standard characters and variant characters are well-indexed by establishing links between every standard character and its variant(s). The same criteria of standard character is also adopted by The List of Commonly-used Characters ( 《常用字表》), The List of Less-commonly-used Characters (《不常用字表》) and The list of Rarely-used Characters (《疑难字表》). Meeting the criteria, 29528 characters are eligible. Furthermore, to satisfied the needs of practical use, additional 364 characters are also collected. Those “standard characters” and “variants”, in the dictionary, not created to be “standard” or “variant”. On the contrary, when a charater is defined as “the standard”, its remaining isomeric siblings would turn into “variants” spontaneously. Therefore, The definition of “variant” in the dictionary is : With the same nature and meanings, but different stracture and form to its standard counterpart. This article is about the criteria of standard character which adopted by The Dictionary of Chinese Variants Characters (《異體字字典》), and the association between a standard character and its variant(s).

Myo-inositol-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexakisphosphate (InsP6), also known as phytic acid, accumulates in large quantities in plant seeds, serving as a phosphorus reservoir, but is an animal antinutrient and an important source of water pollution. Here we report that Gle1 (GLFG lethal 1) in conjunction with InsP6 functions as an activator of the ATPase/RNA helicase LOS4 (Low expression of osmotically responsive genes 4), which is involved in mRNA export in plants, supporting the Gle1-InsP6-Dbp5 (LOS4 homolog) paradigm proposed in yeast. Interestingly, plant Gle1 proteins have modifications in several key residues of the InsP6-binding pocket, which reduce the basicity of the surface charge. Arabidopsis Gle1 variants containing mutations that increase the basic charge of the InsP6-binding surface show increased sensitivity to InsP6 concentrations for the stimulation of LOS4 ATPase activity in vitro. Expression of the Gle1 variants with enhanced InsP6 sensitivity rescues the mRNA export defect of the ipk1 (inositol 1,3,4,5,6-pentakisphosphate 2-kinase) InsP6-deficient mutant, and furthermore, significantly improves vegetative growth, seed yield, and seed performance of the mutant. These results suggest that Gle1 is an important factor responsible for mediating InsP6 functions in plant growth and reproduction, and that Gle1 variants with increased InsP6 sensitivity may be useful for engineering high-yielding low-phytate crops.

We examined the genetic variation within the species, the patterns of genetic diversty between populations, thermostability variations of enzymes and temperature tolerances of Corbicula japonica from the two main rivers in Korea. Starch gel electrophoresis was used to examine the genetic variation of 22 loci. Heating experiments of electrophoresis under the condition of 40±5° for 15±5 min disclosed thermostability differences, called heat-sensitive and heat-resistant types, within each electrophoretic allozyme. Genetic diversity at the natural species level was high (77.3%), whereas the extent of heat-treat groups was relatively low (52.6%). The genetic diversity trends to decrease from the source of two main rivers (the Sumjin River and the Nam River) to the mouths. Based on the data available such as considerable high genetic diversity compared with a mean value of C. japonica species, It is recommended that several populations of the species in Korea should be preserved.