Abstract：During the Six Dynasties Period, multiple factors including frequent changes in political power and innovations in writing materials had a direct impact on the Chinese character system. These factors not only internally affected the inherent character formation principles and ideographic system but also externally sparked diversification in character forms and styles. This led to the emergence of many popular characters characterized by their “simplicity and accessibility”, bringing in the first peak of the popularity of ancient popular characters. Meanwhile, given the practical needs and diverse choices of writing subjects and writing media, the richness of character forms was significantly magnified, resulting in the increasing prosperity of written transcripts in the medieval period and further diversifying Chinese character forms. These circumstances provided linguistic and textual conditions for the implementation of the taboo character system by the Tang Dynasty regime.
When implementing the taboo character system, the Tang Dynasty initially intended to emulate the Two Han Dynasties to utilize “systematic substitution patterns” for a neat effect. Due to practical considerations, however, it adopted the Six Dynasties’ popular characters and employed changes in form as its method of execution and presentation. The implementation of this system was in line with the evolution of Chinese characters: the writing styles during the Six Dynasties Period for some taboo characters, along with their standard writing styles, were included in the scope of the taboo character system. This inclusion not only increased the number of taboo characters subject to avoidance but also indirectly determined the existing style of taboo characters. As for other taboo characters whose writing styles during the Six Dynasties Period were significantly different from their standard writing styles, the Six Dynasties’ writing styles might have been used directly to express the taboo effects since the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.
In addition to offering readily available sources of character forms, the characteristics of the Six Dynasties’ popular characters in terms of their generation and configuration provided valuable insights for the transformation of taboo characters in the Tang Dynasty. While ensuring the distinctiveness of Chinese characters, it was common during the Six Dynasties Period to create popular characters by omitting strokes to reduce the stroke count. This simplification occurred both among groups and within characters themselves. Based on this mature experience that conformed to the trends in Chinese character development, the Tang Dynasty intentionally designated Chinese characters with simplified strokes as taboo character replacements, and fixed the number of simplified strokes, thus giving rise to the method of “avoiding taboo by missing strokes”. As for the method of altering the character form to avoid taboo, it clearly leveraged the common “component substitution” method found in the Six Dynasties’ popular characters. These two methods persisted throughout the three centuries of the Tang Dynasty and had the most enduring influence. Furthermore, through the similarity in form between taboo characters and popular characters, they indirectly expanded the coverage of Tang taboo character system.
In summary, the Six Dynasties’ popular characters not only offered a linguistic backdrop for the enforcement of the taboo character system in the Tang Dynasty, but also inspired the self-transformation of taboo characters in the Tang Dynasty. The group distinctiveness of taboo characters in the Tang Dynasty, while undoubtedly a result of the system’s execution, is also a product of the interplay between the popular characters of the Six Dynasties and the political system, bearing evident imprints of the era.
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