On the Change of the Meaning of "Wen" and the Difference between "Wen" and "Xiu"

In ancient Chinese the verb wen denotes the meanings of hearing and smelling,with the former as the main one.From Wei and Jin Dynasties,the meaning of hearing began to develop,and wen replaced xiu as the chief verb denoting the meaning of smelling.With the increase of the frequency of tingde,the meaning of hearing of wen began to weaken.In modern Chinese,wen means smelling chiefly,but it also means hearing.When denoting smelling,there are some syntactic differences between wen and xiu.Syntactically,the frequency of wen is much higher than that of xiu,and there exist some differences when they are used together with dynamic auxiliaries,objects,or when they are reduplicated.Semantically,the agent of wen is usually humans,but the agent of xiu can be humans or animals;Wen denotes an action or a sense,but xiu denotes prominently an action.Their metaphorical development is unbalanced.