Fw: H-ASIA: Chinese characters for leiwen (interchangeable characters)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan Dunch" <Ryan.Dunch@UALBERTA.CA>
To: <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 10:33 PM
Subject: H-ASIA: Chinese characters for leiwen (interchangeable characters)

> H-ASIA
> May 24, 2011
>
> Chinese characters for leiwen (interchangeable characters)
> ************************************************************************
> From: Songchuan Chen <chensongchuan@gmail.com>
>
> From what I remember of my classical Chinese education, this phenomenon is
> called "*hutong* 互通" meaning two characters with the same main body that
> are used interchangeably. The important thing is not about the tag
> *hutong* but rather that this kind of interchange is not uncommon in
> classical Chinese. If one reads the original publications and writings
> from early ages, as previous responses have pointed out, one will find
> other examples of these. I have been reading the Qing's court memorials,
> and letters exchanged between officials. I can say this phenomenon is
> still there.
>
> The whole thing should be the other way round, from the historical point
> of view, rather than from what we know of about Chinese characters today.
> I am saying: the official standardisation came rather later, through
> dictionaries like the Kangxi zidian 康熙字典, and the Republic's national
> dictionary Guoyu zidian 國語字典 and the like. I was educated in Taiwan where
> the standardisation of spoken and written Chinese was in the hand of the
> state and was implemented forcefully by the 'army' of school teachers. I
> feel still there is a strong language police inside me to impulsively
> correct myself and others' "mistakes".
>
> Songchuan Chen
> Bristol University
>
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