Graphic abbreviation of Chinese characters in Vietnam: A case study of “dot and bend” in Sino-Nom texts

Abstract

This article describes research on “dot and bend” () as a graphic abbreviation of Chinese characters in Sino-Nom books and stele inscriptions. Documentary survey results show that the sign “dot and bend” may be an abbreviation of a whole character (錢, 饒) or a radical (食, 金, 君, 镸, 雚) on the left of a character. This abbreviation appeared in Vietnam from the 12th to the early 20th century, which had some specific characteristics in comparison with Chinese characters in China, Japan and Korea.

Keywords

Chinese characters Graphic abbreviation Nom script Sino-Nom texts Vietnam

Introduction

Located in the Chinese cultural sphere (Sinosphere), Vietnam used to receive, use, and modify (more or less) the Chinese writing system. The graphic abbreviation of Chinese characters is one of the expressions of Chinese modification in Vietnam.

In this article, I want to conduct an in-depth study on the graphic abbreviation of Chinese characters to “

” (“dot and bend”) through Sino-Nom documents, including Sino-Nom books and stele inscriptions in Vietnam. Documentary survey results show that the sign “

” may be the abbreviation of a character or a part of a character. Before going into specific analysis, it is advisable to consider the basic summary outlined in Table 1.

Table 1.

Summary of characters abbreviated to “” (“dot and bend”).

Classification		Original characters
Substituting for a character	Chinese characters	錢 tiền/qián ‘money’
Substituting for a character	Nom characters	饒 nhiều ‘many’, nhiêu ‘how much’, nhau ‘each other’
Substituting for a part of character	Radical 金 kim/jin	Chinese characters: 錢 tiền/qián ‘money’, 鉄 thiết/tiě ‘iron’, 錦 cẩm/jǐn ‘brocade’, 錫 tứ /xī ‘bestow’, 鎮 trấn/zhèn ‘protect’, 銀 ngân/yín ‘silver’, 鏗 khanh/kēng ‘jingle’, 錄 lục/lù ‘record’
	Radical 金 kim/jin	Nom characters: 錫 tích ‘pot’, 鉢 bát ‘bowl’, 鍾 chung ‘together’, 銅 đồng ‘a unit of money’, 鑪 lô/‘scimitar’, 鏌 mác ‘spear’, 鐄 vàng ‘gold’, 鑅 vành ‘rim’, 鈌 khuyết ‘crescent’
	Radical 食 thực/shi	Chinese characters: 餅 bính/bǐng ‘cake’, 飪 nhẫm/rèn ‘cooked’, mễ/mǐ ‘round sticky’
	Radical 食 thực/shi	Nom characters: 饒 nhiêu ‘how much’, nhiều ‘many’, nhau ‘each other’; 餅 bánh ‘cake’, 𩚵 cơm ‘rice’, ngọt ‘sweet’
	Radical 君 quân/jun	Chinese character: 群 quần/qún ‘group’
	Radical 君 quân/jun	Nom characters: 群 còn ‘and, still, remain’
	Component 镸 trường/chang	肆 tứ /sì ‘four’
	Component 雚 quan/guan	觀 quān/guan ‘observe’

Substitution for a Chinese character: 錢 tiền/qián “money”

The abbreviation “” substituted for a Chinese or Nom character is quite a special phenomenon in many kinds of Sino-Nom texts. Wang Li (1948) showed the abbreviation of strokes among Vietnamese Nom characters, in which some characters have the same stroke abbreviations as Chinese characters, but most of them belong to a different phenomenon. He also indicated that in stroke-abbreviated Nom characters, 錢was abbreviated to “” (Wang, 1948: 95). Regarding the abbreviation “” substituted for a Chinese or Nom character in Sino-Nom documents, I would like to introduce each specific case as follows:

錢 refers to the currency unit

The abbreviation of 錢 to “” is commonly used on Sinitic stele inscriptions in Vietnam. For example:

“阮氏遭使二貫” (Nguyễn Thị Tao sử money two quan)¹ (Công đức Long Bì tự bi kí 功德龍皮寺碑記 in 1699 in Hải Phòng city, stele inscriptions No. 9744, archived at the Institute of Sino-Nom Studies, Hanoi, Vietnam. All stele inscriptions mentioned below are from the same archives).

“丁氏仁二貫” (Đinh Thị Nhân money two quan [old currency unit] (Bản tổng tạo quán lập bi hội chủ công đức san bi 本總造館立碑會主功德刊碑 in 1702 in Hải Dương province, No. 11707–08).

“笵登科功德一陌” (Phạm Đăng Khoa donating one mạch [old currency unit] (Bảo Quang Phật tự thiên đại nhất trụ 寶光佛寺天臺壹柱, in 1703 in Hải Phòng city, No. 11192).

The abbreviation sign “” substituted for 錢 began to make its presence visible on stele inscriptions from the 17th century and extended uninterruptedly to stele inscriptions of the early 20th century toward an increasingly common trend.

錢 refers to a measurement unit of tradional Vietnamese medicine

In the prescription section of Sino-Nom books on medicine and pharmacy, 錢 was written as and equal to 1/10 tael. Later, after the modern Vietnamese script was used to write out prescriptions, tiền was replaced by đồng cân (another old unit of measurement) (Đào, 1950: 267; Nguyễn, 1999: 1631). Some examples of the abbreviation in Sino-Nom medical texts are provided below:

“黃柏七附子五” (Phellodendron amurense: 7 tiền and Aconitum fortunei Hemsl: 5 tiền Hải thượng Lãn Ông y tông tâm lĩnh toàn trật, quyển 6 海上懶翁醫宗心領全秩-卷之六, No. VHv.1803/4, printed in 1885, volume  6: p. 67a).

“熟地八皮丹二山朱二茯苓一半山藥二四分澤瀉一牛膝二麥門三” (Rehmannia glutinosa: 8 tiền, Cortex Moutan: 2 tiền, Fructus corni: 2 tiền, Poria cocos Wolf: 1,5 tiền, Rhizoma Dioscoreae: 2,4 tiền, Alisma plantago-aquatica L.: 1,5 tiền, Radix cyathulae: 2 tiền and Ophiopogon japonicus: 3 tiền … (No. 1803/4: p. 72a).

“金銀花五兩木通防風荊界連翹牛旁各三” (Lonicera japonica Thunb: 5 taels, Akebia trifoliata, Radix Sileris, Elsholtzia cristata, Forsythia suspensa Vahl and Fructus Arctii Lappae: 3 tiền each. (Y chứng 醫症, No. VHv.2323, manuscript, year of publication unavailable).

“當参三白朮二米𩚵炒茯苓一半奚甘一加乾姜一 ” (Angelica Sinensis: 3 tiền, Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz: 2 tiền, Poria cocos Wolf: 1 tiền and dried ginger: 1 tiền Dược phương dược tính tạp biên 药方药性雜編 VHv.1023, manuscript, year of publication unavailable: p. 28a).

Linh đan 靈丹, printed book, year of publication unavailable.² In this text, the 錢 in every traditional recipe was abbreviated to such as the two pages about Đậu khoa痘科 (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Pages from Linh đan 靈丹.

The replacement of 錢 with the abbreviated character “” in Sino-Nom books and on Sino-Nom stele inscriptions about medicine and pharmacy was repeatedly used on one page or the whole text. In these situations, this abbreviation functions as a sign of repetition/replacement. Due to its widespread and consistent use in Sino-Nom books and on Sino-Nom stele inscriptions of descending ages, the abbreviation “” has become a phenomenon with its own rules. For a character that is repeated many times in a document, the abbreviation not only saves time and effort but also satisfies the requirements of text arrangement induced by practical circumstances such as the area of physical surface, ensuring the layout harmony and balance in a certain context of using characters, especially on engraved texts such as stele inscriptions and pharmacy books.

Substitution for a Nom character: 饒 nhiều ‘many’, nhiêu ‘how much’, nhau ‘each other’

Character 饒 nhiêu/rao ‘plentiful’ is a Chinese character which is borrowed in Nom scripts. This character is abbreviated to “” as a Nom character to record Vietnamese sounds nhiều ‘many’, nhiêu ‘how much’ and nhau ‘each other’. This character appears in some bilingual texts written very early in Chinese and Nom scripts. For instance:

Phật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh 佛說大報父母恩重經 (referred to as Phật thuyết 佛說) developed in the 15th century or at the beginning of the 16th century (the latest) (Hoàng, 1999: 42). However, when classifying periods of Nom script, some researchers judged that this could be the early Nom translation under the Ly dynasty (12th century) (Nguyễn, 2005: 144; Trần, 2019).

Chỉ Nam ấu học bị phẩm 指南幼學備品, the reprint in 1729–1731, is a kind of bilingual book, presented in the form of a Sino-Nom dictionary.³ I would like to introduce each specific case as follows:

Character 饒 is abbreviated to to record the sound of nhiêu in the word “包 ” bao nhiêu/how much (佛說: p. 22b).

Character 饒 - records the sound of nhiều in the sentence “乙庄礙” ít nhiều chẳng ngại/quantity does not matter (佛說: p. 46b).

Character 饒 - records the sound of nhau in the sentence “共盃明” cùng nhau vui mừng/rejoice with each other” (佛說: 37a); or in the word “邑” ấp nhau/hugging each other; “昏” hôn nhau/kissing each other (指南幼學備品: p. 8a).

It can be concluded that the character 饒 is abbreviated to “” to record three Vietnamese sounds with different meanings: nhiều ‘many’, nhiêu ‘how much’ and nhau ‘each other’. According to my survey, the earliest abbreviation as such found in Sino-Nom texts dates from the 12th century and the latest from the early 18th century.

Abbreviation substituted for some radicals

Previously, a number of researchers studying the situation of Chinese and Nom characters in Vietnam such as Wang (1948: 96) and Nguyễn (2019: 195) have mentioned the phenomenon of replacing some radicals on the left of the character with the sign “”. Through the documentary survey, I find that the abbreviation “” substituted for some radicals or parts of character are witnessed in some Chinese and Nom characters that have the following radicals: 金 jīn, 食 shí, 君 jūn, 镸 cháng and 雚 guàn. Details are as follows:

Abbreviation of the radical 金 kim/jīn in Chinese characters

Character 錢 tiền/qián ‘money’ is abbreviated to :

Like the abbreviation “_” substituted for the character 錢 tiền on stele inscriptions, the abbreviation “” replacing the radical 金 kim in the character 錢 tiền which I am now surveying appeared on stele inscriptions dated from the 17th century onwards. For example:

“出古買取鉄林重修構作” (Use the ancient money to buy ironwood for construction) (Tu tạo Tiên Sơn tự 修造仙山寺 in 1683 in Nam Định province, No. 2798).

“高氏楊壹貫” (Cao Thị Dương money one quan [old currency unit] (Trùng tu Thiên Phúc kiều bi kí 重修天福橋碑記, in 1687 in Hải Phòng city, No. 9559–60).

In Yiti zi zidian 異體字字典 (Ministry of Education, 2017) of Taiwan, the character 錢 has 13 kinds, yet nothing like .

Character 鉄 thiết/tiě ‘iron’ – in the sentence “林二連每連一間” (Two blocks of ironwood, each block for two rooms) (Vũ Tể tưởng Quốc lão sự nghiệp thực lục 武宰相國老事業實籙 in 1727 in Hải Dương province, No. 4335–38).

Character 錦 cẩm/jǐn ‘brocade’ – in the sentence “簇旋車馬雲生” (Horses and chariots run as fast as brocading clouds fly) (stele inscription No. 4335–38).

Character 錫 tứ/xī ‘bestow’ – in the sentence “天眷英賢錫壽康” (God loves the talented and bestows them longevity) (stele inscription No. 4335–38).

Character 鎮 trấn/zhèn ‘protect’ – in the sentence“留京城” (Stay put to protect the imperial city) (stele inscription No. 4335–38).

Character 銀 ngân/yín ‘silver’ – in the sentence “金五百” (500 silver coins) (Kí kị bi kí 寄忌碑記 in 1902 in Hà Nội city, No. 555).

Character 鏗 khanh/kēng ‘jingle’ – in a person’s name “字法 (the courtesy name is Pháp Khanh) (Viên Minh tháp 圓明塔, in 1776 in Hà Nội, No. 1015).

Character 錄 lục/lù ‘record’ – (stele inscription No. 4335–38).

Abbreviation of radical 金 kim/jīn in Nom characters

Among these Nom characters, besides some self-created ones, there also exist ones that borrowed the graphs and sounds but not the meanings from Chinese characters to record the sounds of Vietnamese words.

Character 錫 tích ‘pot’, abbreviated as in the phrase “酒一” (a pot (jar) of liquor) (Hậu kị bi ký 後佛碑記 in 1796 in Bắc Giang province, No. 10980).

Character 鉢 bát ‘bowl’ – in the phrase: “四鉢” (four bowls of cake) (stele inscription No. 10980).

Character 鍾 chung ‘together’ – , recording the sound of “chung” (together) (Truyện Kiều: p. 61a).

Character 銅 đồng ‘a unit of money’, abbreviated as in the word “đồng bạc” to refer to an old currency unit (Phật thuyết佛說: p. 27a); “” in the word “a unit of money” (Chỉ Nam ấu học bị phẩm: p. 8a).

Character 鑪 lô/‘scimitar’ – in the word “丐cái lô” to refer to a big scimitar (an ancient weapon).

Character 鏌 mác ‘spear’ v– in the word “丐cái mác” to refer to a spear (Chỉ Nam ấu học bị phẩm: p. 8a).

Character 鐄 vàng ‘gold’ – in (Truyện Kiều: p. 15b).

and 9. Character 鑅 vành ‘rim’ – , character 鈌 khuyết ‘crescent’ – in (Truyện Kiều: p. 42b).

Abbreviation of the radical 食 thực/shí in Chinese characters

On Sinitic stele inscriptions, the abbreviation of the radical 食thực can be recognized in some following characters:

Character 餅 bính/bǐng ‘cake’, abbreviated as in the sentence “花密四” (four bowls of honey sticky cakes) (Kí nhất bi truyền 記一碑傳, in 1775 in Hải Phòng city, No. 11092). In this sentence, “” is abbreviated for both radicals 食 thực and 金 kim.

Character 飪 nhẫm/rèn ‘cooked’ – in the sentence “員二件肉二磁” (two round sticky rice cakes, one plate of cooked meat) (Hậu phật nhị vị 后佛二位, in 1727 in Hải Phòng city, No. 11141–42).

Character mễ/mǐ ‘round sticky’ – in the word “孺” (round sticky rice cake) (Hậu phật 後佛, in 1762 in Bắc Ninh province, No. 5440).

Abbreviation of the radical 食 thực/shí in Nom characters

In borrowed Nom characters: borrowing Chinese characters with phonetic corruptions.

Character 饒 nhiêu ‘how much’, abbreviated as in the sentence “召包苦 chịu bao nhiêu khổ/suffering from so many hardships” (Phật thuyết佛說: p. 17b).

Character 饒 nhiều ‘many’ – in the following sentences: “甚侼” (thậm nhiều Bụt/so many Buddhas);  “甚法” (thậm nhiều pháp/so many Dharmas); “甚僧” (thậm nhiều tăng/so many Sanghas) (Phật thuyết 佛說: p. 4a), or in: “唐” (nhiều đường/many roads) (Chỉ Nam ngọc âm giải nghĩa: p. 8a).⁴

Character 饒 nhau ‘each other’ – in the sentence “𡞕重酉_” (vợ chồng dấu nhau/the couple love each other) (Phật thuyết 佛說: p. 37b); in the words “掩” (ôm nhau/hugging each other), “昏” (hôn nhau/kissing each other) (Chỉ Nam ngọc âm giải nghĩa: p. 17b).

The Chinese character 饒 nhiêu/rao is borrowed into Nom script to record the sounds nhiêu, nhiều and nhau which share the same kind of character () but are read by three different sounds of different meanings. This is the same phenomenon as the above case of 饒 nhiêu/rao abbreviated to “”.

Character 餅 bánh ‘cake’ – a kind of food, in the word: “唐 bánh đường/sugar cake”; “蜜 bánh mật/honey cake”; “卷 bánh cuốn/rolled sticky rice batters” (Chỉ Nam ngọc âm giải nghĩa: p. 20b); or bánh/cake (Chỉ Nam ấu học bị phẩm: p. 8a).

Character bánh also used to refer to parts of a human body, as in the word “茶 bánh chè/kneecap” (Chỉ Nam ấu học bị phẩm: p. 4b). This means two Nom characters bánh have the same abbreviation and sound but different meanings in a text Chỉ Nam ấu học bị phẩm.

In Nom characters which have the structure of sound + meaning: (radical 食 shi/eat + Chinese character recording sound), as follows:

Character 𩚵 cơm ‘rice’ (食+ 甘), abbreviated as in the words “買 cơm mới/new rice” and “寠 cơm cũ/old rice” (Chỉ Nam ngọc âm giải nghĩa: p. 18a).

Character ngọt ‘sweet’ (食+兀) – in the word “sweet weal” (Truyện Kiều: p. 42b).

The abbreviation of the radical 食 shi to “” in Nom characters appeared in different types of Sino-Nom texts dated from the 12th to the early 20th century.

Abbreviation of the radical 君 quân/jūn in Chinese characters

The abbreviation of the character 群 quần/qun ‘group’ to appears in the following case: “南朝宰相式僚” (the Prime Minister in the imperial court of Vietnam as a standard example for entourages to follow) (stele inscription No. 4335–38). This abbreviated character is very rare in Sinitic texts in Vietnam.

Abbreviation of the radical 君 quân/jun in the Nom character còn/remain

This Nom character is borrowed from the Chinese character 群 quần/qun, with a phonetic corruption and no semantic borrowing. For example, the Nom character 群 còn ‘and, still’ is abbreviated as (Phật thuyết 佛說: p. 25a). Or, the character is used throughout Truyện Kiều. For instance, the sentence “If the mountain remains, the water remains and she remains” (Truyện Kiều: p. 15a) has three characters “ còn ‘remain’”.

Unlike the abbreviation of the radical 君 in Chinese characters, the abbreviation in Nom characters appeared in earlier-dated texts and were also used for different types of Vietnamese Nom texts in a more prevalent manner.

Abbreviation of the component 镸 trường/cháng in the Chinese character 肆 tứ/si ‘four’

Through my survey, I have found the replacement of the character 镸 trường/chang with “” in the Chinese character 肆 tứ/si ‘four’ existing on Sinitic stele inscriptions as follows:

“土一區坐落午𨍦處一高尺” (A plot of land located in Ngõ Sau includes 1 sào 4 thước [about 380m]) (stele inscription No. 4335–38).

“情願捐錢拾貫” (Volunteer to donate 40 quan) (Hậu Thần bi kí 後神碑記, in 1871 in Hanoi, No. 571).

The Yiti zi zidian異體字字典 fathomed out ten variants of character 肆 si/four, in which one character was written as . Currently, I can thus find just one character , which is similar to the Chinese character variant, among Sinitc radicals abbreviated to and replaced by “”.

Abbreviation of the component 雚 quan/guàn in the character 觀 quan/guān ‘observe’

Formerly, when studying Vietnamese daily life characters, some researchers have touched upon the abbreviation of the part 雚 guan/guan in the character 觀 quan/guan ‘observe’ in Sino-Nom books (Chen, 1984: 1215; He, 2019: 354). According to my survey in Sino-Nom texts, this abbreviation appeared as follows:

“寓物靜佳自得” (Quietly observe things and feel self-satisfied) (Sứ hoa bút thủ trạch thi 使華筆手澤詩 No. A.2011, in 1599: p. 64).

“省山川” (Observe mountain and river); “朕此方” (I am observing this place) (Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư bản kỷ quyển nhị – Chính Hòa bản 大越史記全書本紀卷二 . 正和本, No. 2310, Library of the Asian Society, Paris, France: p. 7b).

In addition, in many documents archived in provinces, many abbreviations as such can be discovered. For example:

“蜀王以其意” (King Thục observes the intention) (Quang Húc xã thần tích 光旭社神跡).⁵

“出有何物” (Go and observe to see if anything is there).⁶

The abbreviation of the character 觀 appeared in texts dated early from the late 16th century and was then used continuously to the early 20th century. The component 雚 abbreviated to “” is located on the left above the character 見 kiến/jiàn. Through my survey, this abbreviation only takes place in the character 觀, while other characters in Sino-Nom texts having the 雚, such as the characters 勸 khuyến/quàn ‘advice’ and 歡 hoan/huān ‘happy’, are found with no abbreviations of this type.

In short, from cases of the abbreviation “” substituted for a Chinese or Nom character or some parts in Chinese and Nom characters in books and on stele inscriptions as analysed above, I come to a conclusion that only the character 肆 tứ/si ‘four’ abbreviated to has the same form with the character variant in Yiti zi zidian 異體字字典.

Conclusions

Through my initial surveys, I find that the abbreviation “” (“dot and bend”) substituted for a character (錢, 饒) in Sino-Nom texts dating from the 12th century has appeared to replace the Nom character 饒 nhiêu recording the sounds nhiều ‘many’, nhiêu ‘how much’ and nhau ‘each other’ in Vietnamese. This situation happened later with the Chinese character 錢 tiền/money in Sino-Nom books and on Sino-Nom stele inscriptions, of which the most common ones were on pharmacy. From the 17th century onwards, when the abbreviation “” substituted for the Chinese character 錢 tiền/qian ‘money’ has been used commonly, the “” recording the Nom sounds nhiêu, nhiều and nhau almost disappeared and changed into the abbreviation subtituted for a part on the left of character.

The replacement of a part in Chinese and Nom characters, such as the radicals 金 kim/jīn, 食 thực/shí, 君 quân/jūn, 镸 trường/cháng and 雚 quan/guàn, with the abbreviation “” took place commonly and consistently in Sino-Nom books and on Sino-Nom stele inscriptions from the 12th century and extended continuously to the early 20th century. This systematic and consistent abbreviation method has established a phenomenon with rules in identifying the script of Sino-Nom books and stele inscriptions. This also manifests a specific feature in receiving Chinese characters of Vietnamese people in comparison to other countries of the Sinosphere.

Pointing out the abbreviations of character or a part of character as introduced in the article not only adds to the treasure of Chinese characters in China, but also contributes more materials to the study of abbreviation, replacement or variation of Chinese characters in external areas, including Vietnam.

Footnotes

1.

Sử money (使錢): a kind of old currency in monarchial Vietnam. Quan (貫): unit of old money.

2.

The book is archived at the temple of the National Teacher Nguyễn Minh Không, Đình Ngũ village, Điệp Nông commune, Hưng Hà district, Thái Bình province.

3.

This classical text is privately shared by my colleague in the Institute of Sino-Nom Studies.

4.

Chỉ Nam ngọc âm giải nghĩa 指南玉音解 is a bilingual Sino-Nom dictionary, printed in the 18th century and currently archived in the Institute of Sino-Nom Studies, library call number AB.372.

5.

The story of the god of Quang Húc commune, Tam Nông district, Phú Thọ province, manuscript, archived in the province, dated 1735–1740 with five characters 觀 quan in the abbreviated form.

6.

The story of the god of Nghĩa Lộ village, Văn Lâm district, Hưng Yên province, No. TTTS.11772, archived in the Institute of Social Sciences Information.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Nguyễn Tuấn Cường (Institute of Sino-Nom Studies) for his suggestions on research ideas and the editing of this article.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

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