Hanzi

Variants

The 214 radicals of the KangXi Dictionary provided a convenient indexing system for looking up meanings and usage of the characters from old texts. It is said that the vast majority of characters found the KangXi dictionary are variants.

The characters on this page are found encoded in Unicode 2.1. They are drawn from the Chinese hanzi, Japanese kanji and Korean hanja character set standards for computer information interchange.

There is a total of one hundred pairs of characters, which may or may not be commonly used in handwriting. Their inclusion in the character standards show variants have a fair degree of frequency of use to have been chosen. The list is not intended to be comprehensive, but they help to demonstrate the various forms that existed before language reform in writing and printed materials and prior to the reform of the written language in 1950's China.

Examples

並竝 亘亙 個箇 傑杰 兌兑

冊册 凳櫈 台臺 刴剁 劍劒

劫刧 却卻 吊弔 同仝 唇脣

囘回 囻國 坤堃 圩墟 姉姊

壹弌 够夠 娘孃 學斈 寔實

峯峰 并幷 強强 担擔 晒曬

朞期 杯盃 槍鎗 沈沉 沙砂

溪谿 澀澁 灶竈 炮砲 烟煙

燈灯 牀床 狸貍 留畱 疎疏

皓暠 眞真 研硏 礦鑛 窗窻

笋筍 籖籤 綫線 総總 罵駡

羣群 脚腳 臥卧 舉擧 菓果

萬万 藥葯 蝦鰕 衮袞 覊羈

証證 艷豔 豬猪 赶趕 軟輭

迫廹 鄰隣 錘鎚 閑閒 陽氜

隷隸 雁鴈 靑青 面靣 韭韮

韵韻 飃飄 騒騷 骵體 鬦鬪

鬧閙 鰐鱷 鴉鵶 鵝鵞 鶯鸎

鹻鹼 麐麟 麤粗 麪麵 麼麽

黴霉 齩咬 齶腭 龡吹 龢和

The post war era also brought change in Japan. It produced simplifications independently from China, and whilst some new standardised simplifications coincide, others are very different indeed. We remain with China and its its simplified hanzi for now, and discuss the strategies used for the simplification of characters.


Next : Hanzi Index

© (c) Copyright Dylan W.H. Sung 2001

This page was created on Saturday 17th February 2001
and last updated on Thursday 22nd February 2001.