I recently posted a list of Chinese character variants and the Taiwanvore blogger posted an additional pair of variants to the list in the comments section – one in very common usage in Taiwan, specifically 裡 (for Cangjie fans that is 中田土) and 裏 (卜田土女). This variant pair is quite a rare example in modern Chinese as both are in regular usage, although according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, 裡 is the standard character (正體) and 裏 is the variant (異體).
I decided to scour my bookshelf for examples of each, to see if one was more popular with certain publishers than the other.
聯經(2011):
聯經(2007):
三民書局 (2007):
卬刻文學 (2012):
麥田出版 (2011):
麥田出版 (2005):
麥田城邦文化出版 (2007):
寶瓶文化 (2011):
社會研究雜誌出版 (2012):
無限出版 (2012):
教育測驗出版社 (2001):
爾雅 (1960):
遠流 (2003):
Which one do you prefer? Can you find any examples of different usages? What about public signs and government notices?
My Chinese teacher simply pointed out that 裏 was an older variant of 裡, so I never sought to understand beyond that, but you’re sure digging into the subject, haha.
According to Wenlin, “裡 is treated as the “full” form, and 裏 as a “variant”, in accordance with the Big5 standard”, whatever this Big5 standard implies…
When writing, I prefer 裏 but it often ends up looking like a big blob, so I usually end up going with 裡, that is when I can remember if the radical should be 衤or 礻. Fun stuff 😉
Actually, to phrase it more correctly, Wenlin is merely following the Big5 standard, which was instituted by the Taiwense government in the mid-1980s. I guess one would have to go knock on the door of the Taiwan’s Ministry of Education to know how/why they decided to make one the variant of the other.
Ah – thanks for that – I didn’t know the history of the decision to adopt Big5. Interesting stuff!