小議量詞“匹”和“疋”

Abstract

“疋”在甲骨文中就已出現，“匹”最早發現在金文中，二者字形不同、《説文解字》的釋義也各不相同。但至少在漢代，“匹”和“疋”都出現了计量馬和布帛類的量詞用法。但這種用法是如何從其本义演變而來的？使用上有何特點？二者是否存在分佈差異與時代差異？是否反映了詞匯的變遷？都值得我們探討。我們以ccl古代漢語語料庫網絡版、漢籍電子資料庫、影印古籍資料網及《老乞大》系列為數據來源，對“疋”和“匹”進行了分析探討。發現“匹”和“疋”最初是源於隷變後的字形相近而造成混用，并且發現混用並不是單方向的，“疋”不是單向地用爲“匹”，而是“匹”也會被使用為“疋”。另外通過考據歷史文獻和采用甲骨文、金文資料，證實《説文》對“匹”的解釋有誤，並對“匹/疋”計量馬和布帛進行了探源。最後對《漢書》到《清史稿》的十二部反映時代特色的書籍和《老乞大》四版本進行調查，得出量詞“疋”和“匹”的歷時使用特點及分佈差異。

"疋" appeared in the shell and bone inscriptions; "匹" was first discovered in the bronze inscriptions; both are different in glyph，and in《説文解字》(Paraphrasing Texts and Words) their definitions are also different. But at least in the Han Dynasty, both "匹”and "疋" had been mix-used in measuring “horse” and “cloth” as quantifiers. It is worthwhile to probe into the following questions: how these usages were evolved from their original meanings? What are the characteristics of these usages? Do the differences between them in different times reflect their evolvement? Using CCL ancient Chinese Corpus online, Chinese books electronic database, photocopied ancient books data network and 《老乞大》(Laoqida) series as data sources, according to our studies and analyses, we found that in the process of changing into 隷calligraphy both became similar to each other in glyph, this is the original reason why both were compatible. And we also found that both could be interchanged, that is, "匹" could be used as "疋" , and vice versa. Thereby we infer that it is not accurate to say "匹" is the original while "疋" is a variant of it. In addition, through the examination of historical documents , the shell and bone inscriptions and the bronze inscriptions, it is confirmed that the interpretation of "匹" in 《説文解字》is wrong, and the source of“匹/疋”as quantifiers of “horse and cloth” is explored. Finally, we investigate thirteen books reflecting the characteristics of The Times from 《漢書》(Hanshu ) to 《清史稿》(Draft of Qing History ), and get the diachronic characteristics of “疋”as a quantifier.