There are more sameness than differences among phonetic loan characters, borrowed graphs and phonetic incorrect graphs. The major sameness is all of these three terms referring to the phenomenon that uses same or close pronunciation characters to stand for the orthograph in written language. The minor differences are occasional phonetic incorrect graphs are generally not included in phonetic loan graphs, and many borrowed graphs suit the habit of using characters at that time and could be judged as misuses, while phonetic incorrect graphs contain the criticism on the correctness of using characters, but actually many of them are popular usage at that time and should not be judged by the contemporary norm. Phonetic loan characters are relatively neutral and suitable to refer to the phenomenon of characters using by the underclass people as they are compatible with borrowed graph, phonetic incorrect graph and occasional phonetic incorrect graphs. The handed-down original edition of the Novel of Jin Ping Mei (《金瓶梅词话》) was not transcribed by well-educated copiers, and the phenomenon of phonetic loan could be found everywhere, so this paper uses the term phonetic loan characters to refer to this phenomenon. The identification of phonetic loan characters is no order of difficulty as some are as plain as the contextual meaning, while some need textual examination to confirm. This paper has selected 21 phonetic loan characters to discuss the latter case.
