Research on Polysemic Characters in Explanation and Study of Principles of Composition of Characters

The entries interpreted in Explanation and study of Principles of Composition of Characters(by Xu Shen) are monosemic characters with their original meanings. However, 657 exceptions are found as polysemic characters in that of Da Xu edition, some with five, some with four, three or two meanings. After detailed textual research in various classes in this paper, the author has proved that multi explanations generally resulted from similar meanings coexisting, extending meaning or semantic loan addition. The major causes of this abnormal variety can be summed up as the following: first, extra meanings more than the original one have been added or corrected by the successive scholars, or the second, interpreted with different opinions for uncertain assurance by the origional author.