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The simplification of 報(⿰幸) to 报(⿰扌) is slightly peculiar. The particularly intriguing area is in the simplification of the left-hand side, with 幸 being simplified into 扌.

There is another similar instance with 執 being simplified to 执. Another 幸 to 扌simplification.

There must be a method to this madness but it isn't immediately evident in the characters themselves.

Ideas?

Mou某
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    I'm struggling to find if this was actually a simplification (cursive abbreviation) rather than a variant choice. Anyway, the full story is 㚔 (handcuffs) corrupted into 幸, rather than starting from 幸. – dROOOze Apr 19 '20 at 11:34

2 Answers2

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As with many simplified characters, cursive scripts (Caoshu) can be informative.

In "Chuyue tie" by the famous calligrapher Wang Xizhi, 報 is written as follows:

enter image description here

As @dROOOze mentioned in the comment, the radical 幸 came from the character for handcuffs, which could indicate that the use of 扌(手) might related; but I can't find any source for this so far.

xngtng
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  • Nice one! I'm surprised they didn't just simplify it to: 扖 or (⿰扌人). – Mou某 Apr 20 '20 at 13:38
  • @user3306356 I wouldn't be surprised if they tried that for 二简字. – xngtng Apr 20 '20 at 14:15
  • The real tricky part is to find whether or not the Simplification Committee chose it because of the cursive form. (I think 草書 is what it’s based on too, as 執 looks like the same idea in cursive) – dROOOze Apr 20 '20 at 22:19
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Simplified Chinese is created with simplicity in mind, and one side effect is that words lose meaning. That's a mass generalization on overall language structures between Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

To put in simple, there isn't a particular reason why 幸 goes into 扌, as 幸(ㄒㄧㄥˋ/Xìng) means luckily (likely referring to 報 as "report, I see it as reporting good/幸 news); and 扌 isn't a word in itself, but an extension of other prefixes.

SG pro
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