This book investigates the nature of regional variation in the early Chinese writing system. Based on palaeographical and phonological examinations, it proposes that all the late pre-imperial regional scripts (5th - 3rd centuries BCE) derived from a kind of orthographic meta-system reflecting one spoken standard. The conclusions of this book have further implications on reading and understanding manuscript texts in general.
This book investigates the nature of regional variation in the early Chinese writing system. Based on palaeographical and phonological examinations...