上古漢語否定詞“無”“毋”及其相關字的演變補說 --以戰國秦漢出土文獻為主--

Abstract

This article discusses the diachronic changes of the negator Wú 無, Wú 毋 in Old Chinese, primarily using characters that stand for the negator Wú 無 and Wú 毋 in excavated documents from the Warring States period to the Han 漢 dynasty. In Chu 楚 during the Warring States period, 亡 and 無 stood for Wú 無, but 無 became a major character at the end of 4th century B.C.; 毋 stood for Wú 毋 and never for Wú 無. By contrast, in Qin 秦, before the end of the 3rd century B.C., 毋 stood for Wú 無 and not only Wú 毋, which more accurately reflects a sound change in Wú 無 at that time. This character usage became common during the Qin 秦 and Han 漢 dynasty because of the unification of China and the standardization of the writing system by Qin 秦, particularly in the colloquial writing style. Under the literary writing style, 無 and 无 stood for Wú 無. However, 毋 which stood for Wú 無 increasingly appeared even in the literary style during the Han 漢 dynasty. Then, people started to view 無 as the traditional or correct character, and 毋 replaced with 無. This may have happened before the end of Eastern Han 東漢 dynasty, when the Gǔ wén jīng xué 古文經學 became prosperous. This phenomenon represents the dynamic and complex change in writing systems in Old Chinese, which was motivated or influenced by phonetic change in spoken language, dialectical variation, and the historical and cultural background.