Abstract
The study of the variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty (1428 CE–1789 CE) is not only a study of the dynastic history of the inheritance and variation of Sino-annamite characters, but also an essential part of the study of their spreading and history. Chinese characters in the stele inscriptions were very rich in figure. They contained many variant characters inherited from Chinese literature and those modified with Vietnamese regional characteristics. This article systematically sorts out these variant characters from a diachronic perspective to investigate their structure categories and time distribution. It also reveals the historical track of the inheritance and variation of Chinese characters at that time. Summarizing the characteristics of these variant characters is conducive to comprehensively sorting out the historical context of inheritance and variation of Chinese characters in Vietnam, showing the far-reaching influence of ancient Chinese culture on Vietnam, and systematically build all the information of the stele inscriptions in Vietnam into a searchable database for easy query and research the stele inscriptions in Vietnam.
Introduction
Chinese stele inscriptions profoundly influenced the character of Sino-annamite stele inscriptions. As an essential part of Sino-annamite characters’ literature, they were genuine reflections of political, economic, cultural and social situations in Vietnamese history. There have been two large-scale collections of rubbings in Vietnam. The first was conducted from 1910 CE to 1945 CE, when 20,980 rubbings were collected by the École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO). The second was conducted since 1990; the Institute of Sino-Nom Studies gathered 46,902 more rubbings. With the 20,980 rubbings accepted from the EFEO, the Institute of Sino-Nom Studies has collected nearly 68,000 pieces of informative rubbings, more than twice the amount of paper documents (Nguyễn, 2017). One is the most significant number of stele inscriptions discovered in the Later Lê Dynasty, accounting for more than half of the total. Those stele inscriptions reflected Chinese characters’ spreading, development and evolution in Vietnam; most of them were written in Chinese characters, occasionally mixed with some Nom characters.
The Chinese culture has deeply influenced Vietnam since ancient times, where Chinese characters has been used for more than 2000 years. As early as 214 BCE, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty set up the prefectures of Guilin 桂林, Nanhai 南海 and Xiangjun 象郡 in Lingnan 岭南, when Chinese characters began to be introduced into areas that later became Vietnam. Chinese characters were the official characters both in the prefecture period and in the independent feudal period. Chinese characters were dominant and quite popular among civilians, even after Ancient Vietnamese scholars created the Nom characters. The history of Chinese characters spreading abroad is often the history of developing the variant characters’ inheritance and variation. The inherited variant characters refer to those traced in Chinese classics, stele inscriptions and other literature, namely ‘international variant characters’. A large number of Chinese variant characters were preserved in the stele inscriptions, manuscripts and woodblock printings out of China, which is sufficient to observe the prevalence of those international variant characters in the Chinese character sphere in history. The modified variant characters refer to ‘regional variant characters’ mainly popular outside China or those ‘national variant characters’ popular in a few regions in the Chinese character sphere. Most variants are partly modified, while a small number are re-created as ‘national new characters’. Chinese characters in the stele inscriptions were very rich in figure. They contained many variant characters inherited from Chinese literature and those modified with Vietnamese regional characteristics.
Definition of variants
Scholars have different understandings of variant characters, and each has its emphasis owing to different perspectives. Wang YL (2001) believes that the meaning of two or more characters can be completely replaced under any circumstances, and calls such characters ‘variant characters’. Qiu Xigui (1988) defined variant characters as characters with identical sounds and meanings but different shapes; moreover, distinguishing between narrow variant characters and broad variant characters. The variant characters selected in this article are mainly based on common characters. The difference in glyphs is the most direct manifestation of variant characters. The reference standard for the selection of variant characters is mainly based on the General Standard List of Chinese Character (2013).
The inherited variant characters can be found in Chinese literature such as classics or steles. For the investigation of the inherited variant characters, this article mainly refers to Han Wei and Six Dynasties Inscription Variant Chinese Character Dictionary, Dunhuang Folk Characters Dictionary, Folk Characters Dictionary Since Song and Yuan Dynasties, Folk Characters in the Novels of The Ming and Qing Dynasties Dictionary, etc.
The modified variant characters are relative to the inherited variant characters that are mainly popular outside the region. These variant characters are usually popular in individual regions of the Chinese character sphere, often with national characteristics. The vast majority are partial variations; a small number are the new national characters created for all.
The inherited variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty
The variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty were mostly inherited variant characters. It is found through investigation that these inherited variant characters were diverse in structure and followed the evolution rules of Chinese characters.
Structure categories
Adding semantic symbol, such as 梁—
, 果—
.
Changing semantic character, such as 館—
, 鼓—
.
Changing phonetic character, such as 遷—
, 佛—
.
Generalization, such as 顛—
.
Simplification. Since the principle of language economy means that characters are used to record language conveniently and efficiently, the focus of simplification has been the mainstream of characters evolving all the time. The common ways to simplify were: (a) replace complex components with simplified ones, such as 惡—
, 會—
, 僧—
, 豐—
;
(b) omit some unimportant components, such as 能—
, 職—
; (c) make use of symbol substitution. Symbol substitution is an effective way to simplify the strokes of Chinese characters, which was widely used in characters. In the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty, there were also simplified variant characters marked or symbolized; some of them were very common in Chinese literature, such as: 學—
, 舉—
, 茲—
, 肆—
, 樂—
.
Cursive script to regular. The handwriting of cursive script resulted in the corruption of many Chinese characters, which was one of the primary sources of simplified characters, such as: 畫—
, 貫—
, 聖—
, 風—
, 稱—
.
Adding parts. For the sake of more precise pronunciation and meaning or easier identification, some extra parts were added into Chinese characters, such as: 宛—
, 私—
.
Transforming structure, such as: 桃—
, 概—
, 峨—
, 鐫—
.
Modifying handwriting, such as: 北—
, 帶—
, 發—
, 灰—
, 恢—
, 嬪—
, 微—
, 昂—
.
Re-creating, such as: 蘇—
.
The time distribution of the inherited variant characters
The inherited variant characters in the stele inscription of the Later Lê Dynasty were various in structure. They inherited handwriting methods and rules from Chinese characters, which witnessed the spreading and inheritance of Chinese characters in Vietnam and provided massive overseas data for studying of Chinese characters. There were inherited variant characters from Chinese variant characters not only in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties (206 CE–589 CE), Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties (581 CE–960 CE), but also in the Song and Yuan Dynasties (960 CE–1368 CE).
The inherited variant characters before the Song and Yuan Dynasties (excluding Song and Yuan)
There were many inherited variant characters from before the Song and Yuan Dynasties. They were accurate representations of the spreading and use of Chinese characters in Vietnam, as shown in Table 1.
The inherited variant characters from before the Song and Yuan dynasties (excluding Song and Yuan).
The inherited variant characters in Table 1 were found in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty and were inherited from before the Song and Yuan Dynasties in China. There were a large number of these variant characters and they were frequently used, which reflected the spreading and inheritance of the variant characters produced in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties and Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties. These inherited variant characters were various in structure, such as adding a semantic symbol, changing a semantic symbol, generalization, simplification, transforming the structure and modifying handwriting. They were widespread in the stele inscriptions and manuscripts before the Song and Yuan Dynasties in China, and reflected the variant characters of Chinese characters inheriting in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty, and were also the overseas spreading and application of Chinese characters.
The Han, Wei and Six Dynasties and Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties in China were far earlier than the Later Lê Dynasty. During this period, Chinese characters were introduced to Vietnam in various ways such as political, economic, people-to-people and book exchanges, and then accepted by the Vietnamese people and found in the Vietnamese ancient literature such as stele inscriptions, manuscripts and woodblock printings.
The inherited variant characters from the Song and Yuan Dynasties
The Later Lê Dynasty (1428 CE–1789 CE) of Vietnam was roughly synchronous with China’s Ming and Qing Dynasties. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, China and Vietnam’s economic and cultural exchanges have become more frequent. In the meantime, Chinese characters were spread to Vietnam in various ways. The spreading took time, resulting in its lagging behind a little, and there were fewer inherited variant characters in the stele inscriptions in this period. The inherited variant characters before the Song and Yuan Dynasties were widely used in Vietnamese steles. This article mainly investigates and summarizes the inherited variant characters from the Han Wei and Six Dynasties Inscription Variant Chinese Character Dictionary, the Dunhuang Folk Characters Dictionary, Yan Zhen Qing Shu Gan Lu Zi Shu, etc. The number of inherited variant characters since the Song and Yuan Dynasties is tiny. The article is based on folk dictionaries and books such as Folk Characters Dictionary Since Song and Yuan Dynasties, Folk Characters in the Novels of The Ming and Qing Dynasties Dictionary, Zhengzi Tong and Zi Hui, etc. The article considers the inherited variant characters not found in the literature before the Song and Yuan Dynasties, such as Han Wei and Six Dynasties Inscription Variant Chinese Character Dictionary and Dunhuang Folk Characters Dictionary. It summarizes the inherited variant characters in the Vietnamese steles since the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The inherited variant characters from the Song and Yuan Dynasties are shown in Table 2.
The inherited variant characters from the Song and Yuan dynasties.
The characters in Table 2 were inherited from the Song and Yuan Dynasties in China; they were various in structure. There are symbol substitution, such as 茲—
, 難—
; cursive script to regular, such as 貫—
, 聖—
; and a simplifying component, such as 職—
, 能—
. The use of variant characters inherited from Song and Yuan in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty reflected the continuous spreading of Chinese characters, especially Chinese characters to Vietnam, and their inheritance and development in Vietnamese ancient literature.
The modified variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty
The modified variant characters, compared with the inherited variant characters, referred to as ‘regional variant characters’ mainly popular outside China, were also called ‘national variant characters’, which were popular in a few regions of the Chinese character sphere. Most variants were modified a little, while a small number were re-created as ‘national new characters’ (He, 2013). The variant characters were widely used in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty. Not only variant characters have been inherited, but also a large number of modified variant characters with Vietnamese regional characteristics, which reflect a different trajectory of evolution from Chinese characters. They were further adjusted based on Chinese characters or the characters re-created.
Structure categories
The stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty were plentiful for an extended period, and many modified variant characters were found there. These modified variant characters were rich and diverse structures, including modification of symbol, picto-phonetic, syssemantographic, simplification and some influenced by cursive script: Modification of symbol. Some symbols were ubiquitous in Chinese characters, such as 又, 卜, リ, while some others appeared less frequently, such as 爻, 㐅,
Picto-phonetic modification, such as 勢—
Syssemantographic modification, such as 佛—
Modification influenced by cursive script, such as 德—
Modification of simplification, such as 懷—
.
, 護—
, 餅—
, 華—
.
, 聖—
.
, 飛—
, 傳—
.
, 壞—
, 違—
, 藝—
.
The time distribution of the modified variant characters
The Later Lê Dynasty lasted for more than 300 years, from the 15th to the 18th century. Since there are few paper documents before the 18th century, the study of the use of Chinese characters in Vietnam during this period has to be conducted based on the stele inscriptions. The stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty were plentiful, whereas Chinese characters were rich in structure. Many modified variant characters were of great value in exploring the emergence and development of modified variant characters. The modified variant characters in the Later Lê Dynasty can reflect the historical context of Chinese characters developing and evolving during almost 300 years, when Chinese characters continuously adapted to the natural and social environment in Vietnam, which witnessed the historical development and modification of Chinese characters in Vietnam.
In the early period of the Later Lê Dynasty (1428CE–1527CE)
The stele inscriptions in the early period of the Later Lê Dynasty were relatively more miniature, roughly about 90 of them. The modified variant characters were produced in a small number, which were still in their embryonic stage. Through investigation, a few examples are displayed in Table 3.
The modified variant characters in the early period of the Lê Dynasty.
There are symbol substitution, such as 數—
, 義—
; corruption of simplification, such as 衛—
, 遠—
; and simplification after cursive-regular, such as 德—
. It must be mentioned that
found in a person’s name could not be interpreted according to the meaning. Only one case appeared in the early period of the Later Lê Dynasty, so it could be inferred that the character was still in its infancy and not widely used.
In a word, the modified variant characters in the early period of the Lê Dynasty were rarely used, with few examples. They were still in the early process of modification and not widespread. Compared with the variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Lý and Trần Dynasties, 衛—
was found in the Trần Dynasty as shown in a stele inscription named Inscription of Yutingshe 玉亭社【19582】 in the year 1375 CE. In addition, the other modified variant characters in the early period of the Later Lê Dynasty were those that initially appeared in the stele inscriptions.
In the Mạc Dynasty (1527 CE–1592 CE)
In 1527 CE, Mạc Đăng Dung, a powerful minister, usurped the throne of the Later Lê Dynasty and established the Mạc Dynasty. The Mạc Dynasty was a short-lived dynasty in Vietnamese history, which lasted from 1527 CE to 1592 CE and was called the ‘pseudo dynasty’ by historians. From 1533 CE to 1592 CE, the Lê Dynasty resurged and coexisted with the Mạc Dynasty, confronting each other from north to south. But the vast majority of stele inscriptions published were entitled with the Mạc Dynasty in this period. The Mạc Dynasty was an extraordinary historical period between the early period of the Later Lê Dynasty and the resurgence of Lê Dynasty. The usage of variant characters in this period is also worthy of note and research.
In the stele inscriptions in the Mạc Dynasty, there were modified variant characters inherited from the early period of the Lê Dynasty and those produced in this period. They both impacted the use of variant characters in the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty after the Mạc Dynasty. The various types of modified variant characters were used more frequently during the Mạc Dynasty, such as 德—
，飛—
，巍—
，錢—
and
.
The modified variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Mạc Dynasty were used frequently with more than one example for most of them. Only one or two were taken as representatives in Table 4. It can be seen that many modified variant characters were produced in the Mạc Dynasty and were used in a specific frequency, which shows that the modification of Chinese characters in the Mạc Dynasty was prominent. The modified variant characters gradually took shape and spread widely. In terms of the use of modified variant characters in the inscriptions in the Mạc Dynasty, some of them were inherited from the early period of the Lê Dynasty. The evolution could be found in the stele inscription. And there were also those not found in the stele inscriptions before the Mạc Dynasty and those initially used in this period.
The modified variant characters in the Mạc Dynasty.
Among the modified variant characters in the Mạc Dynasty, some could be found in the stele inscriptions in the early period of the Lê Dynasty, such as 數—
, 義—
and 儀—
, 懷—
. There were also those whose evolution was presented in the stele inscriptions in the early period of the Lê Dynasty, such as 德—
; several examples with identical handwriting were found in the stele inscriptions in the Mạc Dynasty, which indicates that this modified variant of 德 has been fixed and used frequently.
, found in name of a person, should be derived from the simplification of
.
might have been produced in the early period of the Lê Dynasty, but seldom used.
It is essential that many modified variant characters not seen in stele inscriptions in the early period of the Lê Dynasty or earlier but were used in stele inscriptions in the Mạc Dynasty. There are modifications of symbol, for instance; the upper part was replaced by 㐅: for example, 嘉—
; 齒 and 委 were replaced by 爻: for example, 齡—
, 巍—
; 釒 is replaced by リ or
: for example, 錢—
, and リ could be directly used to represent 錢; 雚 was replaced by リ: for example, 觀—
; it could be inferred that 敬 was replaced by 又 with the modified handwriting of 驚 in the resurgence of the Later Lê Dynasty in spite of an only blurred rubbing; for example, 驚—
, which might be the early variation of 驚 but not been widely used. There are picto-phonetic modifications – such as 勢—
, with many examples. It could be inferred that the variation of 勢 has been fixed and widely used since the Mạc Dynasty. In addition, 勢 was also written as
and 世—
was found in the same stele inscription; thus, there could be 勢—
—
. There are also some modifications influenced by cursive script, such as 飛—
.
During the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty (1533 CE–1789 CE)
The resurgence of the Lê Dynasty was the most extended period of the Later Lê Dynasty, lasting more than 250 years. During this period, the variant characters in the stele inscriptions were used more, and there were diverse type fonts of Chinese characters. The variant characters from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties of China were continuously introduced to Vietnam. While Chinese variant characters were accepted in Vietnam, Chinese characters were gradually adapting to the natural, social and cultural environment, resulting in the birth of many modified variant characters. It can be concluded that most of Vietnamese modified variant characters were produced during this period.
In the stele inscription during the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty, there were not only the modified variant characters found in the early period of the Lê Dynasty and the Mạc Dynasty, but also some not found in the previous time while used during this period.
The modified variant characters inherited in the early period of the Lê Dynasty
In the early period of the Lê Dynasty, very few modified variant characters were produced, except for 調—
. Many examples of other modified variant characters were found during the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty. There were many examples of the modified variant characters inherited in the early period of the Lê Dynasty, as shown in Table 5.
The modified variant characters inherited in the early period of the Lê Dynasty.
The modified variant characters inherited in the Mạc Dynasty.
, a modified variant character found in the name of a person in the early period of the Lê Dynasty, was not semantically identified as ‘德’. But during the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty, there were many examples of
, the modified variant character of ‘德’, which could be determined semantically. Only one example of 巍—
was found in the stele inscriptions in the early period of the Lê Dynasty, while more examples of 巍—
were found in the stele inscriptions in the Mạc Dynasty. From the evolving perspective of variant character,
must be produced based on
by substituting the symbol.
The modified variant characters inherited in the Mạc Dynasty
The modified variant characters increased gradually in the Mạc Dynasty. Investigations revealed that those used in the Mạc Dynasty were inherited during the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty and were used more frequently with more examples.
Thus, it can be seen that the modified variant characters produced in the Mạc Dynasty were passed down during the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty, and were used more widely and frequently. They gradually became the familiar modified variant characters in Vietnamese literature and were used widely’.
The modified variant characters produced during the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty
Many modified variant characters were used in the stele inscriptions during the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty, most of which were not found in the stele inscriptions in the early period of the Lê Dynasty, Mạc Dynasty and before. These variant characters that have not been seen in previous inscriptions, must changed during this period. They exerted an important influence on literature, such as the stele inscriptions, manuscripts and woodblock printings in Vietnam’s Nguyen Dynasty (1802 CE–1945 CE).
There were many modified variant characters during the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty, and most of them repeatedly appeared in the stele inscription. They were commonly used in Vietnamese literature with fixed handwriting, as shown in Table 7.
The modified variant characters in the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty.
A large number of modified variant characters in the stele inscriptions during the resurgence of the Later Lê Dynasty were plentiful in number and diverse in structure, including modification of symbol, picto-phonetic, syssemantographic, simplification and also some influenced by cursive script, which showed the historical track of the variation of Chinese characters during this period. From these large numbers of modified variant characters, it can also be found that many variant characters of Chinese characters changed during the Lê Dynasty’s resurgence. The modified variant characters with Vietnamese characteristics were created while Chinese characters were inherited.
All in all, these modified variant characters produced in the Later Lê Dynasty were the evolved variants of Chinese characters, which conformed to Vietnam’s natural and social environment. They were characterized by Vietnamese features and these variant characters produced in the Later Le Dynasty show uniqueness different from China. The modified variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty resulted from the modification of Chinese characters in Vietnam. It is of great significance to study the history of Chinese characters in Vietnam by exploring the time distribution of the modified variant characters and systematically displaying those produced in the early period of the Lê Dynasty, Mạc Dynasty and the resurgence of the Lê Dynasty.
Conclusion
The characteristics of variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty
There were various types of variant characters.
The variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty were diverse in structure, such as adding semantic symbol, omitting semantic symbol, changing semantic symbol, changing phonetic symbol, generalization, simplification, adding parts, transforming the structure, modifying handwriting and re-creation. The modified variant characters with Vietnamese regional characteristics inherited the evolution types from Chinese characters, such as, but also from a variety of Chinese characters, such as symbol substitution, changing phonetic symbol or pictographic symbol, simplification, and the modification influenced by cursive script.
Symbolization was widespread.
In the stele inscriptions of the Later Lê Dynasty, many variant characters were produced by replacing some components with symbols. Symbolization was widespread. Symbol substitution is a crucial way to simplify Chinese characters, widely used in Simplified Chinese. Most of the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty were inscriptions from folk villages or Buddhist inscriptions, which were written arbitrarily and symbolized. There were variant characters modified by symbol substitution, inherited from ancient Chinese literature, and a large number of those not found there. The symbols of 文, 卜 and リ were used to replace the components in the inherited variant characters, such as 學—
,
覺—
, 茲—
and 肆—
. It is much more prominent that there were a large number of modified variant characters whose components were replaced by symbols. Some symbols such as 又, 卜 and リ, common in Chinese characters, have spread in Vietnam and could replace more components of Chinese characters. For instance, the symbol of 又 for 我: for example, 義—
; the symbol of 卜 for 鬼: for example, 巍—
; the symbol of リ for 雚, 釒, 飠, 缶: for example, 觀—
,
錢—
, 餅—
, 缺—
; the symbol of
for 尚, 雨, 罒: for example, 嘗—
, 儒—
, 釋—
. Among the modified variant characters, some symbols were rare in Chinese characters. For instance, the symbol of 爻 for 婁, 委, 类, 齒: for example, 數—
, 類—
, 巍—
, 齡—
; the symbol of 㐅 for 亩, 吉: for example, 畝—
, 嘉—
; the symbol of 廾 for 羽, 敢,
: for example, 翁—
, 嚴—
, 廢—
; the symbol of ソ for 門, 囗: for example, 聞—
, 圓—
.
The inheritance was in sequence.
From the perspective of time distribution, the inherited variant characters in the stele inscriptions of the Later Lê Dynasty included not only those from the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties and Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, but also those from the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Evidently, the inheritance of Chinese characters in Vietnam has continuously developed in sequence. The variant characters found in Chinese literature were produced in various periods, which have always been spread to Vietnam in multiple ways, such as political, economic, people-to-people and book exchanges. They then were accepted by the Vietnamese and are found in ancient Vietnamese literature, such as stele inscriptions, manuscripts and woodblock printings.
The feature of modification was prominent.
It was not only variant characters that were inherited, but also many modified variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty, which reflected the inheritance and the feature of modification at that time. The stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty were plentiful and covered an extended period, including many modified variant characters. A most important characteristic of the variant characters in the Later Lê Dynasty was that the feature of modification was prominent. The modified variant characters were rich and diverse in structure, most of which were influenced by the evolution rule of Chinese characters.
The trend of simplification was obvious.
In Chinese literature, Chinese characters had constantly been developing from complex to simple. The trend of simpliication was still followed after Chinese characters were introduced to Vietnam. The stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty was also showed the same trend. Among the inherited variant characters, those modified by symbol substitution, simplifying parts, changing cursive script to regular and modifying handwriting were all simplified improve writing efficiency. This went especially for modified variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty. The vast majority of modifications have simplified the form and eased the handwriting. In particular, the variant characters modified by symbol substitution, which accounted for the majority, directly replaced the complex parts of Chinese characters with simple symbols. Simplifying the form was the primary evolution trend for the handwriting of the variant characters in the stele inscriptions in the Later Lê Dynasty.
Footnotes
Authors’ contributions
Huazhen He: data collection, idea, methodology, supervision, finalization; Yu Li: Data analysis, first draft, review and editing; Linwei Lu, data processing and collection, first draft.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Major Projects of the National Social Science Foundation of China (grant number 17ZDA308).
