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| Exploring Standard Forms and Vulgar (Common Vulgar) Forms of Wang Renxu’s Kanmiu Buque Qieyun |
| Zhen Dacheng |
| Center for Studies of History of Chinese Language, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China |
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Abstract Wang Renxu’s Kanmiu Buque Qieyun provides detailed records of variant character forms. Under numerous character entries, it specifies annotations such as “standard form is...”, “vulgar form is...” and “common vulgar form is...”, marking a new trend in the compilation system of rhyme dictionaries. This paper uses the Dunhuang manuscript P.2011, which contains Wang Renxu’s Kanmiu Buque Qieyun, and conducts an exhaustive collection and collation of all the annotations in the manuscript. The study identifies 66 standard forms, 28 vulgar forms and 89 common vulgar forms. By comparing the standard forms with the standard seal script forms recorded in Shuowen Jiezi, the result shows a high degree of correspondence, indicating that Shuowen Jiezi served as the primary criterion for Wang Renxu in defining standard forms. On the basis of comparing the vulgar (common vulgar) forms with character pattern books in Tang dynasty, the paper illustrates the social attributes of these forms. Such annotations don’t merely reflect the personal opinion of the author, but rather represent a contemporary consensus and collective practice. These vulgar (common vulgar) forms were widely accepted within specific temporal and spatial contexts, exhibiting both distinctiveness and sociality. Through an exploration of the historical evolution of the vulgar (common vulgar) characters and their distribution across texts, it is obvious that the key characteristic of these forms is their weak or absent motivation in structure. In terms of distribution across usage context, they had the broadest coverage and strongest universality. Essentially, vulgar (common vulgar) characters constituted the common script of the time, occupying a primary and dominant position within the contemporary writing system. Based on their function in recording words, vulgar (common vulgar) characters can be categorized into two types: vulgar graphic forms and vulgar usage forms. Vulgar graphic forms derived from the evolution of the standard forms. They represent the same word, differing only in their written forms. Vulgar usage forms, on the other hand, retain the same written forms but undergo a shift in their word-recording function: recording their original word is considered as standard usage, while recording another word is deemed vulgar usage. Such classification helps to figure out the historical and social dimensions of vulgar (common vulgar) characters within their original context. Furthermore, the paper explores the origins and purposes of rhyme dictionaries’ practice of “extensively collecting variant and vulgar forms”, pointing out that during the process of augmentation and revision in the Tang dynasty, the functions of rhyme dictionaries expanded and gradually acquired the role of character standardization, thus clarifying the concrete manifestations of the new trend.
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Received: 14 July 2025
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2026, Vol. 56 
