2018 Volume 14 Issue 2 Pages 101-117
There are a number of simplified forms of kanji containing the iteration marks 〻 or 〓 (the latter of derived from a duplication of the former: 〻〻) such as 枣 ‘jujube’ (< 棗) and 摂 ‘to take’ (< 攝). The purpose of this study is to clarify the development of such simplifications through an investigation of pre-17th century manuscripts including dictionaries, Buddhist texts and records by court nobles.
Through this investigation, the following point was clarified. At first, simplified forms containing iteration marks were limited to glyphs such as 〓 ‘to slander’ (< 䜛) and 〓 ‘slightly’ (< 〓), both of which were borrowed from China. Starting in the late 15th century (the mid Muromachi period), simplifications with the iteration mark 〓 began to be used in glyphs containing three or four of the same components (e.g. 疂 ‘to fold’ (< 疊 ), 〓 ‘to bind’ (< 綴 ), etc.) and the usage of such simplifications began to increase from the 16th century (the late Muromachi period) onward. Furthermore, from the end of the 16th and into the 17th century (the early Edo period), simplifications with the mark 〻 began to be used in glyphs containing two of the same components (e.g. 枣 ‘jujube’ (< 棗), etc.), similar to the simplifications of 〓 and 〓 borrowed from Chinese.
From the above, it can be concluded that a structural analysis of kanji components took place in the mid Muromachi period leading to 〻 and 〓 being comprehended as iteration marks, which in turn lead to an increased usage of iteration marks in simplified forms of kanji through the process of analogy. This tendency can be looked at as a kind of ‘analytic tendency’ (tendency towards analogy) in the history of kanji glyphs.
