“贰”“忒”同形及其影响考论

The effects of er (贰) and te (忒) as homographic characters

通过比对梳理出土与传世材料,可知"贰""忒"同形现象至迟在春秋战国之际已经存在;此现象的出现,盖因晋、楚等国分域造字、用字所致。值得注意的是,分域出现的同形字在后世使用,尤其是两汉人在转写先秦典籍的过程中发生混淆,产生了长久的系统性影响,具体表现为文字异读、典籍文本异貌以及儒者解经、释经意见的歧出等多种后果。

According to extant and unearthed documents,it is found that,during the Spring and Autumn Period and the time of the Warring States,the Jin (晋) and Chu (楚),though having different writing systems,used the same character to refer to the words er (贰) and te (忒).This homograph appeared in the late Spring and Autumn Period at the latest,and has caused long-lasting effects on the writing system and the interpretation of classic literature.This paper investigates the writing forms,pronunciations and meanings of er and te in early Archaic Chinese,and proposes that the existence of them being homographic characters in early times has influenced the use of these two characters in later texts and affected their interpretation in the classics.