What's the difference between generic characters, ancient and modern characters and variant characters?

The analysis of ancient and modern Chinese characters, interchangeable Chinese characters and variant Chinese characters is an indispensable link in our study of Chinese characters, which are often confused and difficult to distinguish. In fact, there are differences and connections between the two and they cannot be confused. Let's talk about the differences between them with examples from ancient books.

I. The meanings of ancient and modern characters, interchangeable characters and variant characters

(A) ancient and modern figures

Ancient and modern Chinese characters mean that the same word is expressed in different languages in different times. The former is called ancient Chinese characters and the latter is called modern Chinese characters. Generally written as "*" in ancient books, and later written as "*", such as:

Zuozhuan? In Duan Yanyu by Zheng Boke, it was left that "food is the sky for the people and meat is the food for the family", and later he wrote "?" "(Zhuang Gong rewarded him with food, and Uncle Ying put the meat aside when he ate it).

(2) Common words

Gao Yan said on page 26 1 of Introduction to Literal Semantics: "To be honest, it is very common to regard this word as another word; Generally speaking, this word is called borrowing word, and the other word is called this word; Borrowing words must sound similar. " Therefore, loanwords refer to loanwords with their own characters, that is, words with similar sounds but different meanings are universal and are loanwords. Generally written as "*" and "*" are as follows:

Liezi? In Tang Wen, "the emperor felt his sincerity and ordered Guo's two sons to carry two mountains, one in the east of Shuozhou and the other in the south of Yongzhou" (God was moved by his sincerity and ordered Guo's two sons to carry these two mountains, one in the east of Shuozhou and the other in the south of Yongzhou).

(3) Variant characters

(1) Variant characters in a narrow sense refer to words with the same sound and meaning but different forms. (2) Variants in a broad sense include not only variants in a narrow sense, but also loanwords and ancient and modern characters commonly used in literature. (This article discusses the variant characters in a narrow sense) Generally written as "*" and "*", such as Zuo Zhuan? "Gong to remonstrate false way," although tired, he is sad, but sex? Fool, sink into state affairs and offend Yu Xiansheng? I am exhausted by trifles and upset by troubles. In addition, I am weak and incompetent, and I have neglected you because I am buried in state affairs all day.