The term jièbǐzì 借筆字 (also jièbǐwén 借筆文), or ‘stroke-borrowing characters’, usually designates Chinese characters in which some strokes are shared by different components, or, more often, it refers to aggregated characters (héwén 合文) that share single strokes or even entire components.

Although this kind of graphical simplification was already noticed by Qīng dynasty scholars (like Ruǎn Yuán 阮元 and Sūn Yìràng 孫詒讓), the first specialized articles dedicated to this topic were only published at the beginning of the 21st century (Wú 2000:308–337; Liú 2001:397–410).

The table below …