Understanding Corruption in Kanji (Part 1) by Ash Henson

Understanding Corruption in Kanji (part 1) by

Looking at the Etymologies for 面 and 友

By Ash Henson

Note: In this article I use onyomi ( 音 オン 読 ヨ み) exclusively to indicate the pronunciation of kanji. This is simply a convention we use for the sake of consistency, and because as the Chinese-derived pronunciations, the onyomi are the only ones relevant when discussing kanji formation.

In our kanji dictionary (you can reserve your copy on Kickstarter until 22 June!) we use the term “empty component” to refer to components which don't indicate meaning or sound in a particular kanji (click here to learn about the other types of components). One of the primary reasons for the existence of empty components is kanji corruption, so we thought it would be interesting to talk about that a bit.

This is the first of two posts on the topic of kanji corruption. If you really want to understand how kanji work, you cannot over look corruption and the role it plays. We're not saying learners need to know this stuff to learn Japanese, but that we as researchers do in order to explain how kanji work, and we thought you might think it's interesting!

So what does it mean for a kanji to become corrupt? Basically, it means that the kanji changes form in such a way that the original form intended by the inventor of that kanji is altered.

Take 面 メン “face” for example:

The oracle bone form (a) is a picture of an eye inside of a larger frame – a face. According to Li Xiaoding (李孝定), of the face’s sensory organs, the most representative of a face is the eyes, hence form (a). Form (b) is from a Qín dynasty excavated text, where the eye 目 モク has been replaced with head (an earlier form of 首 シュ ). Forms (d) - (g) are from Hàn dynasty 漢 カン 朝 チョウ steles (stone tablets) (杜忠誥2002:138-143). In (d), you can see that the top line has really been exaggerated and this is the origin of the top stroke on the modern form of 面. Since this stroke was not intended by the inventor(s) of this kanji, it is a form of corruption. An uncorrupted form of 面 may have looked like this: .





Sometimes these changes that occur via corruption are neutral; in other words, they don’t affect the kanji’s functional components (sound components or meaning components), but oftentimes corruption actually causes damage to a kanji’s ability to express sound and/or meaning.

Why is this important?

Why is kanji corruption important? One reason is that if you’re trying to understand a kanji form, and part of that kanji is corrupted, then any explanation you give to it (other than that it’s the result of corruption) is going to be inaccurate. Another major reason has to do with being able to spot spurious etymologies (there will be a future post dedicated solely to explaining how to spot spurious etymologies). If any given author or book never mentions kanji corruption in their etymological explanations, chances are very good that you are reading or hearing spurious etymologies. That’s not to say that all kanji are corrupted, but a significant amount are. Let’s take look at the etymologies of some common kanji to better understand the different ways that kanji can become corrupted.

I’m going to be following along Tu Chung-kao’s (杜忠誥) book Examples of Corrupted Forms in the Shuōwén’s Small Seal Script [《說文篆文訛形釋例》] since he does an excellent job of outlining the different types of corruption. According to Prof. Tu, one of the main reasons for kanji corruption is the actual process of writing kanji.

When manuscripts are being copied by hand, it is easy for mistakes to happen either because the manuscript being copied isn’t clear to begin with or if the scribe isn’t being particularly careful .

Corruption by way of writing (i.e., copying manuscripts)

Prof. Tu gives an example related to 友 ユウ “friend(s)”:

友 (oracle bone script: ) was originally a picture of two right hands together (two 又), indicating friendship. 又 yòu also acts as a sound component.

The Setsumon Kaiji ( 説 セツ 文 モン 解 カイ 字 ジ ) lists as one of 友’s ancient forms ( 古 コ 文 ブン ) . Though it looks very similar to 習 シュウ “to review”, the two are not related. actually evolved from this Bronze Inscription 金 キン 文 ブン form , which was also used in the Chu 楚 ソ script of the Warring States period, as can be seen in these examples:

(I love the Chu script!)

According to Chi Hsiu-sheng (季旭昇), the bottom half of is 一 and 白 (but pronounced like 自 ジ , not 白 ハク ), which is a corruption of an earlier 甘 カン . Had it survived into modern times, it may have looked like this , the 甘 “sweet” component presumably emphasizing the pleasurable feeling of having a good friend. Prof. Tu shows a possible path of the corruption from “two hand” to “wings” in the ancient (古文) form of 友:

Each step in this diagram shows a step towards corruption. (a) and (b) are still easily recognizable as a pair of hands, but then the roundness of the outer fingers becomes more and more square in (c) and (d), such that (d) is already completely square and looks like something in between the “two hands” form and the form for “wings” 羽 ウ . Later scribes then interpret it to be something similar to “wings” and help it along by making it look more like “wings”, until finally in (e) and (f), all resemblance to “two hands” is lost. This is one of the ways that kanji corruption happens (see 杜忠誥2002:33-34).

Summary

By looking at parts of the etymologies for 面 and 友, we learned a little about one of the most common reasons for kanji corruption: the process of writing itself. Stay tuned for our next post which will explore the various types of kanji corruption by way of explaining the etymologies of 黒, 無, 舞, and 粦!