John, > This is the kind of mess that has discouraged anybody from doing a > systematic survey of simplifications for the Unihan database. > > > The other example (U+8721 kTraditionalVariant U+8721 U+881F) is a > > mistake--the TraditionalVariant should only be U+881F. > > > > Actually, no. Both KangXi and the Cihai list U+8721 (蜡) as a traditional > character in its own right, although I assume it's rare as I can't find it > in my other dictionaries.
Oh what tangled webs. First of all, we have "wax", Mandarin la4 Traditional form: U+881F Simplified form: U+8721 Then we have "maggot", Mandarin qu1, of which Cihai claims that Shuowen says: Vulgar form: U+86C6 Correct form: U+43E3 Archaic form: U+8721 My Taiwan and PRC dictionaries both claim U+86C6 for "maggot", so that would now be considered both the Traditional and Simplified form, with U+8721 being an obsolete, archaic variant for it. Then we have "yearend ceremony (of Zhou dynasty)", Mandarin zha4 Traditional form: U+8721 Not listed in my contemporary PRC dictionary. And yes, this is the kind of mess that has discouraged anybody from doing a systematic survey of simplifications for the Unihan database. --Ken
