An explanation on forms of the character yōng [雝] and how lìbiàn [隸變] causing yōng [雝] to yōng [雍]

Abstract

As known that there are several different variants related to the character yōng[雝] in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. One of them was written as one rectangle above the other, referring to two words yōng 雝 and lǚ 呂, which reflects the phenomenon of ‘一形多用’ (graphs having multiple uses) in early days of Chinese characters. In addition, two distinct forms of the writings yōng 雝 and yōng 雍 often appeared in Chinese ancient books. Most scholars are confused by the appearance of yōng 雝 and yōng 雍 and think that the two characters can be used interchangeably. By combing the clues of them, however, we found that the character yōng 雝 was mainly used in the Pre-Han dynasty. The mixed-use of characters was caused by the change from yōng 雝 to yōng 雍 in Han dynasty. In this context, we intend to correct some errors in the use of the two characters in ancient books.