Ambiguities in Chinese character simplification explained
A number of Chinese characters are simplified-traditional multipairings, which do not have a one-to-one mapping between their simplified and traditional forms.
This is usually because the simplification process merged two or more distinct characters into one. In most cases, these traditional characters are homonyms, having the same pronunciation but different meanings. As a result, converting text from simplified to traditional characters is difficult to automate, especially in the case of common characters such as ⇄ (behind, empress), ⇄ (table, clock), ⇄ (traitor, rape) and more.
In a smaller number of cases, a single traditional character is mapped to multiple simplified characters as the character is only simplified in one of its usages.
The following is an exhaustive list of all characters whose simplified and traditional forms do not map in a one-to-one manner. Simplified characters are marked with a background, and traditional characters with .
Special cases
- , :
- , : níng (limonene) is simplified to which is the traditional character for zhù (boehmeria) that in turn is simplified to .
- , : shèn (extremely, exceed) and shí (ten, various) are the same in both simplified and traditional, while shén (what) is written in traditional and in simplified (and also as a variant in traditional).
- , : zhǐ (a musical note) and zhēng (journey, campaign) are the same in both simplified and traditional. However, another zhēng (punish, seek, characteristic, levy) is written in traditional and in simplified.
- , : A similar, but not entirely comparable situation is and, both pronounced huǒ. The literary meaning "many, much" is written in both sets, and the meaning "meals" is written in both sets, but the meaning "partner, group, combine" generally prefers for traditional and for simplified, although as there is some overlap with the other meanings, the character choice is less strict.
- , :
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