文章在對出土文獻進行系統考察的基礎上，發現甲骨文中已出現「草」 字，但是皆假借為「早」。出土秦系簡牘文獻開始出現「早」字，但是「早」並 不表示「早晚」義，而是用來記錄與「皂」相關的詞義。西北屯戍漢簡中， 「早」字加撇分化出「皁」字，「皁」出現後開始分擔「早」字的「黑色」義， 草」 「早」「皁」最終實現了專字專用。

This paper is based on the systematic investigation of unearthed documents. The character Cao(草) has appeared in the oracle bone script,but all of them were used as Zao(早). Zao(早) appeared in the Qin Series Slips Documents, all of them were not used as Zao(早), but were used as Zao(皂). In the Han Dynasty Wooden slips of Northest Forntier, Zao (皂) was Created by adding a leftfalling stroke on the character Zao(早). The character Zao(早) was used to record the meaning of black. By then, Cao(草), Zao(早) and Zao(皂) played respective roles to record Chinese vocabularies.

草;早;皂;更替;分工

Cao(草);Zao(早); Zao (皂);Transfer; Usage Division