A Study On The Variant Characters On The Buddhist Epitaphs In Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty Buddhist epitaphs are kind of excavated manuscripts and contemporary materials, the characters on which are realiable materialsin studying the Variant Characters in Tang Dynasty. The subject of this article is confined to the Variant Characters on the Tang Dynasty Buddhist epitaphs collected in the period of reading and collating the Tang Dynasty Buddhist epitaphs because the number of the Tang Dynasty Buddhist epitaphs is too large to study thoroughly.The collected variant characters are calculated after they have been analysed and classified. Based on the data and theory of writing system and writing behaviour,the variant characters are divided into the one of writing system and the one of writing behaviour. Then a system of variant characters on the Tang Dynasty Buddhist epitaphs is gained, which contains about six hundred groups of variant characters.Every group has at least two variant forms and the proportion of them also show the actual application frequency of variant characters.The article makes a study from three aspects according to the about six hundred groups of the graphic variants.First, the collected variant characters are classified into stroke variant forms,radical variant forms and grapheme variant forms.Second, the article tries to find the reasons of the producing of variant characters on the Tang Dynasty Buddhist epitaphs from six respects. The research is carried on from the writing, the creation of the characters, clerical change as well as homophonic substitution. Then it refers to some social reasons like taboo, the new characters created in Wuzhou dynasty and analogy.The other reasons which lies in the graphic symbol and the nature of the Chinese characters are also discussed.Third, the article compares the variant characters on the Tang Dynasty Buddhist epitaphs to the three different character styles "normal forms,popular forms and folk forms" descibered in the book Ganlu Zishu, according to which the actual using circumstances and application frequency of the three different character styles in Ganlu Zishu are discovered. That the study of the variant characters is based on the thoery of writing system and writing behaviour is a breakthrough to the traditional reseach method of exemplification.