Warring States characters are the collective name for Chinese characters used in different regions during the bet365 offers，Refers to the late Spring and Autumn Period to the unification of Qin and the former Qi、Yan、Korea、Zhao、Wei、Chu、Words used by Qin and other countries。Warring States characters inherit the Spring and Autumn Period bronze inscriptions，Xia Qin and Han Dynasty seal script，Is at an important transitional link in the history of the development of Chinese characters。

Due to the coexistence of the "Seven Heroes" during the bet365 offers，Not under the king，Therefore, "character alienation" has always been regarded as a major feature of the bet365 offers writing。Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty has already put forward this point of view in "Shuowen Jiezi·Xu"，It still has a profound influence to this day。Research on the division of writing in the bet365 offers based on the "two systems theory" of the East and the West，To Qin、Chu、Jin、Yan、Qi’s “Five Series Theory” was formed on the basis of Xu Shen’s statement。Research on the division of Warring States characters basically emphasizes the "alien" aspect of each family of characters，Most of them ignore its "isomorphic" side，So it is easy to create the illusion that the bet365 offers characters have more "different shapes" than "same shapes"。

Some scholars have also questioned the theory of "alien" writing in the bet365 offers，I think there is not much difference in the writings of the bet365 offers，Generally still unified。For example，Mr. Li Yunfu pointed out in "Questioning the "Regional Characteristics" of Warring States Characters": "The differences between countries in Warring States characters belong to local writing styles or differences in individual characters，In terms of essential characteristics and overall，Warring States writing is still an indivisible and complete system。”“If writing variations are not counted，Most of the languages ​​​​in various countries are ‘the same or similar’。Compared with the different characters on stele in the Han Dynasty and the heterogeneous characters in the hand-written scrolls of the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties，The heterogeneous writing and heterogeneity between the various ‘lines’ of writing in the bet365 offers is really nothing.。”However, such opinions did not attract enough attention。With the increase of written materials during the bet365 offers，In-depth research on domain division，Academic circles gradually discovered，The abnormality of the Warring States characters is not particularly serious，“Books with the same text” are still the mainstream。

Examples of comparison of similarities and differences between the five series of glyphs in the bet365 offers

Issues with statistical standards for abnormal characters in the bet365 offers

To objectively explain the degree of abnormality of bet365 offers writings，First of all, we must clarify the definition and statistical standards of "alien"，Otherwise it would be easy for others to say different things。We think，The following three aspects need to be clarified。

On the premise that each region has this word, we can compare the similarities and differences。Although the writings of the bet365 offers are divided into Qin、Chu、Jin、Yan、Qi Wu Series，But the five series of text materials are not equal，Not every character can find the corresponding glyph in the five-series text data。If a certain series of characters does not have a corresponding glyph，It is impossible to complete the comparison of similarities and differences。For example, the word "emperor" is only found in Qin、Chu、Jinsan Series，The writing method is basically the same，Dan Qi、This character is not found in the Yan and Yan systems，It is impossible to judge the similarities and differences of "Emperor" in the five series of characters；The word "chen" is found in the five series，The writing method is roughly the same，It can be directly determined that the five series glyphs are the same。Therefore，To examine the similarities and differences of Warring States characters, we should first start with the premise that the character is present in the five series of writing materials，Use this as the basis to count the isomeric forms，Then we can calculate the abnormality of the entire Warring States characters based on the ratio。

Varied writing should not be included in the scope of different writing styles in different dialects。Different writing is mainly reflected in the stroke level，Such as the difference in the straightness and connection position of strokes，As well as the presence or absence of decorative pens, etc.。The variant spelling does not involve changes in the configurational basis，Should not be used as a criterion for determining differences in writing flora。Whether it is the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty or the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty，Even the common characters in later manuscripts，These kinds of different writings are everywhere，We cannot use this to classify Oracle、Golden Inscriptions、Vulgar characters are divided into different regions。The same is true for the variant writing in Warring States characters，For example，"Shang" and "Xia" in the five series of writings of the bet365 offers all have the same shape as today's writing，Erchu、Jin、Qi San series can also be seen decorated by the author such as ""(Shangbo 7·Wang Jianze (zuò) 2),"" ("bet365 offers Seal Collection" 3679), "” (Tsinghua University 2nd Department Year 97) and “”("Preserving the Qin Zhai Seal (bet365 offers Chapter)" 12)；Other variations include those with different strokes, such as "" (Cu bet365 offers Wen Ya Tuo) and "” (Zhongshan Wang Fanghu); strokes with bet365 offers connection positions are like “” (Sleeping Tiger Land bet365 offers Bamboo Slips Rishu B Zhong 248) and “”(Tsinghua 1·Qi Ye 12)。Such different writing may be different from the calligraphy、Differences in writing materials，With greater subjectivity and arbitrariness，The difference in glyphs is not enough to constitute a cognitive barrier to writing，Therefore, it should not be included in the statistics of abnormal characters in the bet365 offers。

The differences in characters within each region should not be added to the unusual shapes of characters in different regions。There are varying degrees of glyph differences and word usage differences within each area of ​​Warring States writing，But these differences are not differences in the entire Warring States text level，It is not appropriate to add them all together and then include them in the scope of the Warring States text aberrations。For example，The words "tu" in the bet365 offers include "tu" and "”（tú）two variants，Among them, “disciple” is found in the five bet365 offers，“”For the Chu family，Only found bet365 offers Shangbo Slip "Yong Yue"；Another example of "qi" is "qi" and ""(qì) two variants, "qi" is found in the five bet365 offers, "”For the Chu family，Only seen in Caojiagang Slips。It can be known through analysis，The main glyphs of the characters “Tu” and “Qi” in the bet365 offers are “TU” and “Qi”，The five series are written in the same way，Although the two have different bodies"”“”，But only found in Chu family，The difference between the main glyphs and the main glyphs can only be regarded as the wording bet365 offers within the Chu family，Should not be regarded as aliens between fauna。Also，As far as the current unearthed documents and materials are concerned，“”“” appears only once，Such less frequently used variant characters are more common in Warring States texts，Possibly the source of the transcript、Handwriting habits、Depends on different usage occasions。China today、Japan、All Chinese characters used in Korea have a large number of variants，But these variant characters may not belong to the same time level in their respective Chinese character systems，It is within the normal redundancy range even if it belongs to the same level，Does not affect actual text use。Therefore，Such variations should not be counted as variations of Chinese characters between countries，The abnormal shapes of characters in various regions during the bet365 offers are similar to this。

Re-understanding of the alien characters of the bet365 offers

After clarifying the statistical standards for "alien" characters in the bet365 offers，We can then re-statisticate the "alien" characters of the five series of scripts of the bet365 offers。We think，“Heterogeneous characters” and “differences in word usage” should be the main objects of investigation for the abnormal characters of the bet365 offers。

Heterogeneous characters are the main manifestation of the abnormal characters of the bet365 offers。Editor-in-Chief Mr. Huang Dekuan、"Warring States Character Glyph Table" compiled by Xu Zaiguo and others，This is the latest special book on the glyphs of the bet365 offers。The book lists Qin under each prefix、Chu、Jin、Qi、Yan five series glyphs，Provides convenience for statistics of similarities and differences of glyphs。A total of 255 examples of prefixes with corresponding glyphs in the five series in the "Warring States Character Glyph Table"，A total of 170 cases of five series of characters with the same glyphs，Accounting for about 66.7%。This part of the glyphs can be divided into two situations: one is that the five series glyphs are exactly the same，No variant，For example: "King", "Shang", "Niu", "Kou", "Ji", "Shi", etc.，121 cases in total；Second, the five series of characters all have the same font，But at the same time, there are other variants in certain systems，49 cases in total，For example, under the prefix "一" there are "一", "弌" (yī) and "”（yī）three variants，All five bet365 offers have the shape of "一"，And "弌" is only found in Qin、Chu two families，“”Only found in Chu and Jin dynasties，Another example is under the prefix "煶"，All five bet365 offers can see the shape of "Fou"，But there are more Chu families than other families(fǒu) three variants。It can be seen from this，Most bet365 offers prefixes with the same font in these five series have only one shape，The differences between the series are very small，Even if there are other variants，Most of them are only found in certain departments，and appears less frequently。

Except for the prefixes bet365 offers above five series with the same font，There are 85 other examples, most of which have four series under the prefix、Three series have the same shape，But there is no case where the five series of glyphs are all different，That is, there are 39 cases with four series bet365 offers same glyphs under the prefix，For example, under "shù" there are variants of "vertical" and "" (shù), where "vertical" is found in bet365 offers Dynasty, "”See in Chu、Jin、Qi、Yan Si Series；36 examples have three series bet365 offers same glyphs under the prefix，For example, under "qí" there are variants of "qi" and "”（qí），Among them, "riding" is found in Qin、Qi、Yan three bet365 offers，“”See in Chu、Jin and Shan Dynasties；There are two series bet365 offers same glyphs under the remaining 10 glyphs，For example, the three variants of "信" under the word "信""（xìn）和"”(xìn) are all found in two lines。Although the above does not belong to the situation where the five series of glyphs are the same，However, the use of the same glyphs between different regions also reflects the "same" aspect of the bet365 offers。

What needs to be explained is，"Warring States Character Glyph Table" except for classifying glyphs，Most of the variants will be listed in columns under each series，And indicate the variant prefix。Our classification statistics of glyphs are also roughly based on the classification of this glyph，But more stringent，For example，“Wei”, “Zhe”, “Ma” and other different glyphs resulting from simplification or distortion，The subtitles are not distinguished，But we still tried to classify them with a higher degree of similarity，Not directly classified into the category of five series characters。Also，Addition and deletion of components that do not involve configuration reasons，We also perform different processing，For example, there are glyphs with "口" next to the prefixes such as "hou", "and" and "C" added，All in another category。So，Our classification statistics of the five series of characters in the bet365 offers are relatively conservative，Even so，The statistical results still show that most of the prefixes of the five series have the same font。So it can be said，The five series of writings of the bet365 offers are much more similar than different。

The difference in word usage is also an important manifestation of the abnormality of the characters in the bet365 offers。So-called "using words"，That is, which word in Chinese a certain glyph is used for，Sometimes the same glyph represents different words in different regions of the bet365 offers，Sometimes multiple different glyphs can often represent the same word。Since the 1980s，Academic circles have gradually realized that the differences in the wording of various scripts in the bet365 offers should also be part of the content of text irregularities，The increasingly abundant unearthed literature materials also provide the possibility to examine the differences in word usage among various departments during the bet365 offers。The book "Research on the Phenomenon of Differences in Word Use among Various Texts in the bet365 offers" written by Mr. Zhou Bo，is a representative work in this research field。The book is based on words，381 prefixes for Kyoritsu，Because there is a word under the prefix that represents multiple words，So there are more than 400 groups of words that are different among various departments in the bet365 offers，More comprehensive、Systematically studied the wording differences among the five series of the bet365 offers。Finally，The book summarizes this，Believe that the word usage during the bet365 offers was subject to obvious regional restrictions，The differences in word usage between various families of texts are quite obvious。In addition，Mr. Zhou Bo also separately counted the words used in ancient Chinese texts in "Shuowen"、The ratio of the characters used in the ancient texts of the Three-Body Stone Classic to those of the Qin characters is 19.8% and 18.6%，Based on this, it is pointed out that the difference in word usage among different families in the bet365 offers is important to the abnormal shape of the Warring States characters。

The difference in word usage deserves attention，However, the fact that the five series of the bet365 offers use the same words cannot be ignored。Mr. Zhou Bo also pointed out in his work: "If you ignore the differences in variant characters，The same aspect of word usage in various countries is still dominant。"According to the "List of Differences in Words Used in Different Regional Scripts" attached to his book，It can be clearly seen that the words used in different departments also have the same aspect。For example, the five systems all use "stomach" to express the word "predicate"，They all use "厶" to express "private" and "private" between public and private affairs。Although most of the prefixes do not have corresponding words for the five series，But there are also cases where the same words are used between departments。Like the auspicious "xiang"，The Chinese characters used in Qin are "xiang" and "sheep"，The Chinese characters for Chu are "sheep", "畕" (yàng) and "chao"，Qi uses the word "xiang"，The characters used in Jin Dynasty are "sheep" and "畕"，Yan Wei Jian use case，You can see that the wording between departments is not completely consistent，But more than one series uses "sheep", "畕" and "xiang"。Also，The word usage among departments is also quite unbalanced，For example，The "suì" (suì) of ghosts and gods，The only word used in Qin is "祟"，Chu Ze can see "敚" (duó)、“祱”（shuì）、“"(suì) and "祟" four types，ERQI、Jin、There is no corresponding word for Yan three bet365 offers。Qin、Chu You use the same word，Although the Chu family has many different wordings，But it only exists within this department，Not reflected between departments，So when examining the differences in wording between departments, we need to be careful not to directly include the differences in wording within departments。

bet365 offers Qin、Chu、Jin、Yan、Although there are certain differences between the Qi and Wu series of characters，But because they come from the same source，All from the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou dynasties、Developed from bronze inscriptions, etc.，So the subjects are still the same。Also，Judging from various unearthed Warring States written materials，The same glyphs still account for the vast majority of characters in each family，Heterogeneous words and different word usage habits only account for a small number，“Shu Tongwen” is still the mainstream of the development of Chinese characters during the bet365 offers。In addition，From the practical point of view of word usage，During the bet365 offers, there were frequent exchanges between countries，Diplomatic documents are widely used，But there are no examples that require interpretation or translation to be recognized，This is enough to show that the "character alienation" during this period did not shake the status of universal Chinese characters，There are still common Chinese character reading and writing habits among various regions。

(The author is the chief expert of the National Social Science Fund’s major project “Construction of Big Data Cloud Platform for Research on bet365 offers Characters”、Professor of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Sun Yat-sen University；Ph.D., Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Sun Yat-sen University)