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Abstract
Although frequently cited as a typical hui yi, the graph míng 明 has attracted many different, in some cases somewhat conflicting interpretations regarding its formation and categorization. In this paper, I conduct a diachronic study of how the graph míng 明 and related graphs have been used from around the thirteenth century BCE when the earliest Chinese script, the oracle bone inscriptions, was in use, up to the turn of the twentieth century, when the traditional script was in use. I argue that today the graph 明 used for ‘bright’ is the result of simplification from míng 朙. This mostly occurred during the late Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period when the scripts of the six states were used. Xu Shen mistook míng 明 as the archaic form of the graph míng 朙. In the orthography reforms conducted during the Tang dynasty, míng 明 was chosen as the standard form against míng 朙 and míng 眀.
Acknowledgments
This paper is rewritten based on a chapter of my doctoral thesis Compound Ideograph: a contested category in the studies of the Chinese writing system. I’d like to thank my two supervisors, Emeritus Professor Keith Allan and Professor Gloria Davies, for their guidance and support during the completion of the thesis and after. I’d also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Boltz (Citation2003) defines the ‘internal’ history of a writing system, namely the evolution of a script in terms of its relation to language, and the ‘external’ history, that is the evolution of a script due to material factors, such as writing implements, considerations of aesthetic qualities, etc. I use Boltz’s term here, and put orthographic reform, which Boltz doesn’t mention, into the category ‘external factors’.
2 See Yinxu shuqi qianbian (Luo 1913/Citation2006: 281) for the original inscription. This inscription was also collected in Yao and Xiao (1988: 440), numbered 11708Z.
3 See Yinxu shuqi qianbian (Luo 1913/Citation2006: 667) for the original inscription. This inscription was also collected in Yao and Xiao (1988: 2), numbered 15475.
4 Jiaguwen bian 甲骨文编 is the work of a group at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The explanation of the graph can be found on p. 295.
5 Graphic corruption occurred quite often in the formative stage of the Chinese writing system, sometimes caused by individual writing errors, but there are examples of such corruptions becoming established, especially when a corruption is mistakenly included in a dictionary as an accepted written form. A typical example of such corruption is the graph 
, which will be discussed in Section 3.5 of this paper.
6 In giving examples of the use of 明 in the OBI, the original graphic form of 明 is provided while the other characters will be rendered in standard script for convenience.
7 In the OBI, 大食 means breakfast and is estimated to be around ‘nine to ten o’clock in the morning’. In contrast, 小食 refers to supper, taken at about four to five o’clock in the afternoon. See Chen Mengjia (1956/Citation1988) for a detailed discussion on this topic.
8 See Yao and Xiao (Citation1989: 431) for the inscriptions, numbered 20190.
9 Some may argue that it also makes sense to say 明 represents ‘bright’ in 日明, such that 日明 represents ‘daybreak’ by indicating ‘the sun is bright (at that time)’. However, considering the formation of other compound words indicating a certain time of the day in the OBI, such an explanation is far-fetched, unlike the words 日中 and 昃日 which are created through indicating a typical happening or typical position of the sun at that particular time of the day, as ‘the sun is bright’ is not so typical of daybreak as of midday.
10 See Yu Shengwu 于省吾 (Citation1996: 1111) for a detailed discussion of the interchangability of yuè 月 and xī夕 in the OBI.
11 An introduction to bronze inscriptions will be given in Section 3.1.
12 See Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo (Citation2007: 2306), for the use of zhāo 朝in Li gui.
13 An example of a long text inscribed on a bronze vessel can be found in Maogong ding, with the text containing 479 characters. See Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo (Citation2007: 1542).
14 In a modern Chinese dictionary, the characters 朙 and 明 are listed under the same entry, with the head word being 明. In some cases, 朙 is not even mentioned. See Li Gefei (Citation1996: 695). Zhang Yachu (Citation2001: 1550, 1557) listed 明 and 朙 separately in the character index, but put them in the same entry in the main body of the dictionary numbered 4343 on p.1297. Such an arrangement suggests explicitly that to the compilers of these dictionaries, 明 and 朙 are considered as allographs, that is, they are two characters representing one word.
15 The vessels are numbered for the convenience of discussion for the paper only. In some cases, there is more than one vessel under the same name. Usually they are of a set, especially with the case 锺 zhong (bell). They will be pointed out when the particular set of vessels is discussed. The numbers in square brackets are the pages in Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo (Citation2007).
16 Zhou Baohong (Citation2005: 4).
17 Zhou Baohong (Citation2005: 5).
18 See http://www.gwz.fudan.edu.cn/SrcShow.asp?Src_ID=1180 accessed 2 November 2015.
19 The meaning of the phrase 兼明 has yet to be worked out. It might be interpreted as simplified from 兼听则明 ‘listen to both sides of the story, you will be enlightened’. If such is the case, it is perhaps the first time that the phrase was used in written records.
20 See Shanxi wenwu gongzuo weiyuanhui (Citation1976: 2).
21 In modern Chinese, 姓 is most frequently used to mean ‘surname’.
22 See Qiu Xigui (Citation2000) for detailed discussion of this topic.
23 See http://www.9610.com/qinhan/xiping.gif for the original work, accessed 2 June 2015.
24 See http://www.artx.cn/artx/shufa/22618.html for Wang’s original work, accessed 2 June 2015.
25 See http://www.yac8.com/news/8930.html for the original works, accessed 2 June 2015.
26 See http://gz.fjedu.gov.cn/meishu/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=9812 for Ouyang’s original work, accessed 2 June 2015.
27 See http://www.3zitie.cn/html4/zitie_17_1.html for Yan’s original work, accessed 2 June 2015.
28 See http://www.qyx888.com/thread-45741-1-1.html for the original work, accessed 1 June 2015.
29 See http://159.226.2.2:82/gate/big5/www.kepu.net.cn/gb/civilization/printing/evolve/evl52301b_pic.html for the original paper money and http://www.chinavalue.net/General/Blog/2012-8-30/926926.aspx for the household certificate, accessed 1 June 2015.
30 See Yu (Citation1997: 423) for Wei’s original works.
31 See http://cjx123433.bokee.com/6872077.html for more examples of the use of 
instead of 明, accessed 2 June 2015.