Chinese character variants in Vietnam’s Buddhist texts: A case study of the book Chư phẩm kinh (諸品經)

Abstract

This article is focused on the statistical data and analyses of 187 Chinese character variants found in the book Chư phẩm kinh (諸品經, Various Essential Segments of the Scripture), which was collected and compiled by Zen Master Pháp Loa (1284–1330) and revised then by Zen Master Huyền Quang (1254–1334) to be handed down for posterity. Of those Chinese character variants, we have analysed 96 that are found only in Vietnam, proving that the number of character variants created intra-nationally in Vietnam is greater than that of the international variants introduced from China.