Chinese character variants in Vietnam:A case study of characters inThe Complete Secrets for Buddhist Monks in Practice of Precious Rites

Abstract

Based on the approaches of graphology and positivism, the paper enumerates and analyses the Chinese character variants in the book titled The Complete Secrets for Buddhist Monks in Practice of Precious Rites 釋氏寶鼎行持秘旨全章, compiled by Zen Master Huyền Quang (1254–1334). Thus, the paper focuses on analysing 56 Chinese character variants found in the book and comes to the conclusion that the number of Chinese character variants created in Vietnam is double the number of those imported from China.