The present shapes of both the characters"卞"and"弁"are lately emerging forms.Some scholars have associated the form of the character"卞"with the ancient forms of the character"鞭"that occurred in the Chu writing system during the Warring States period,speculating that"卞"was derived from the simplification of these types of characters.Other scholars believe that"卞"is a vulgar form or abbreviation of"弁".This article reviews related character shapes and concludes that the shape of"卞"appeared around the Eastern Han Dynasty.The"(弁)"character shapes in the Chu bamboo slips have no connection to the more recent"卞"character shape and they just resemble each other in some parts by chance.The appearance of the"弁"shape was as late as the late Zhao period,and was the result of the regularization of the clerical script.The"卞"and"弁"characters in clerical and regular scripts should both have evolved from the early"(收)"shape in the clerical script.
Chinese character structureHan bamboo slipsinscriptions"bian(卞)""bian(弁)"
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