秦漢墨跡文字的演進考察—以「步」、「徙」等字為例

Research of metamorphoses of Chinese characters in written form during Qin and Han Dynasties-- Citing Bu, Xi, etc. as examples

本文是文字在非政治力的影響，演進亦是緩慢有其規律的理論下，以簡牘墨跡文字作為研究討論的主軸。從關於文字的演進、步（ ）字的考察、「徙」字的考察、迹（跡）字的考察、「高（髙）、京（亰）、景、亭」字的考察、小結等六個段落分析秦漢文字演進的考察研究。
提出墨跡文字書寫時，起筆的瞬間筆順的差異，可能就會造成文字形體的改變。並且由「高」等字解釋這類下壓後迴轉上挑的U 形書寫路徑，是有利於快速書寫。像這類因筆順筆勢所造成的文字改變的狀態，在非墨跡文字中是不容易體會出來的。
文字改變的原因有很多種，比如「訛變」或「政治力」的影響等。其中「訛變」是屬於經年累積的些微差異（漸變），短時間也無法查覺的改變。此外，還有少數比例的文字是偏向於文字美感的設計表現，或受限於材質製作或短時間的改變（驟變）。筆者以為，如果要精確的探究文字改變的主要原因，應該是鎖定在「訛變」的範圍內。
「金石」這類的非墨跡文字，不一定能完全符合演進的基本規律，原因就在於不是「即時書寫」性質的文字。因為，文字演進的基本核心因素，是文字被快速的書寫下，長期累積所產生的變化。這也可以解釋，為何即使文字產生的時期接近，但金石與墨跡文字兩者的外形會顯得格格不入的原因。筆者認為以最狹義的定義下，只要不是在「即時書寫」下產生的文字，都不應該歸類在「文字演進（演變）」當中。只是，那些文字在短時間內因製造者或載體器具的影響下改變，長期也累積了一定數量，這樣的歷史發展過程應該被稱作什麼？可能得另外深入討論。

This research is conducted based on an assumption that the forms of Chinese characters has been evolved gradually with a certain principles with no regard to the influence of political powers. The research was conducted based on the calligraphy written with Chinese brushes with ink on flat bamboo slips or paper. The research studies the evolutions of the written forms of the characters including ""步""，""徙""，""迹（跡）""，""高（髙）""，""京（亰）""，""景""，and ""亭""，and analyzes the evolution of Chinese characters in Qin and Han dynasties.
When writing with a Chinese brush and ink, the starting stroke and the different sequences of the following strokes tend to lead the changed forms of characters. Based on the writing of the character ""高"", the author explains the writing sequence of the character that requires pressing down the writing brush and turning the brush with the U-shaped path, a style which makes the writing faster. The changed character form resulted from the changed order of writing strokes is not easily comprehensible in non-Chinese characters whose form do not change significantly with the application of ink.
There are many causes that may lead to the changing of the forms of the characters.For example, ""discrepant change"" and ""political interference"" may lead to the change of the character forms. ""Discrepant change"" was caused by gradual minuscule changes which were not discernible in a short period of time. A very small percentage of character form change was due to aesthetic consideration, limitation of writing materials, or ""sudden change"". The author thinks that the precise study of character form change should be focused on ""discrepant change"".
Basic Chinese characters evolution principles may not be applicable to the ""metal and stone characters"" -- those Chinese characters carved on stone or formed on metal materials partly because those characters were not written impromptu. One of the core factors for form evolution is the changed forms caused by fast handwriting over a long period of time. That is why the forms of characters written with ink were different from those ""metal and stone characters"" even they were rendered at the same time. In the authors opinion, the characters which were not written impromptu should not be dealt with in the study of ""character evolution"". Those characters whose forms were changed due to the influences of their producers or carriers achieved a substantial quantity over a long period of time. How should this process be characterized deserves further study.