<p>The character form 羣 was common in Taiwan a generation ago. I certainly wouldn't call it &quot;archaic&quot;, but sometime between the 70s and early 2000s, 群 became the standard version.</p>
<p>In the popular series of supplementary readers for foreign Chinese students mentioned <a href="https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/44336-graded-readers-by-the-numbers-characterswords-page-count/#comment-331256" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>, I saw 羣 used throughout all of the earlier published versions. The books used a word frequency list titled, 「世界中文報業協會三千個基本常
用宇彙表」, which I believe was compiled in the 70s and it listed 羣 as primary and 群 as a variant. It also listed 裏 as standard vs 裡 as a variant as well as a few other discrepancies vs today's character lists that I noticed.</p>
<p>The Taiwanese MOE makes changes to official language standards regularly. For things like tones and pronunciations of various words, this is yearly. For things like changing which form of a character is considered standard, it's much more rare but does happen.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-13T06:27:53.690Z
2024-07-13T06:27:53.690Z
Mark Wilbur
<p>Both the same.  群 is more pleasing in shape and 羣 is more difficult to write to fit into the square space.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-09T20:39:47.537Z
2015-06-09T20:39:47.537Z
Jeff Loh
<p><a href="http://www.zdic.net/z/21/js/7FA3.htm">羣</a> is an archaic variant of <a href="http://www.zdic.net/z/21/js/7FA4.htm">群</a>. That is, although they mean the same thing, you would use 群 nowadays.</p>

<p>Interestingly, 羣 appears to have been the "correct" version in the past, and at some point 群 took that place:</p>

<ul>
<li>There is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms">Three Kingdoms</a> politician by the name of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Qun">陳羣</a>, whereas the identically named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China_(1912%E2%80%9349)">Republican</a> politician <a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E9%99%88%E7%BE%A4_(%E6%B0%91%E5%9B%BD)">陳群</a>, use different characters in the last name.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.zdic.net/z/21/kx/7FA4.htm">The Kangxi dictionary entry for 群</a> states that it is a "vulgar variant" (《五經文字》羣，俗作群。), so the transition was at least between Qing and Republic of China.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-07-13T06:33:00.403Z
羣 was listed as standard and 群 as the variant in 「世界中文報業協會三千個基本常 用宇彙表」, which I believe was published in the 70s. It appears in books I bought in Taiwan that were published in the 90s, so I wouldn't call it "archaic".
Mark Wilbur
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-10T03:44:53.523Z
2015-04-10T03:44:53.523Z
congusbongus
<p>As titled. They seem to be made up of the same two components: 羊 and 君. As such, are they interchangeable? Or do they have different usage regardless?</p>

<word-choice><difference>
What is the difference between 群 and 羣?
# What is the difference between 群 and 羣?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-04-10)

As titled. They seem to be made up of the same two components: 羊 and 君. As such, are they interchangeable? Or do they have different usage regardless?

**Tags:** word-choice, difference


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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2015-04-10. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

[羣](http://www.zdic.net/z/21/js/7FA3.htm) is an archaic variant of [群](http://www.zdic.net/z/21/js/7FA4.htm). That is, although they mean the same thing, you would use 群 nowadays.

Interestingly, 羣 appears to have been the "correct" version in the past, and at some point 群 took that place:

* There is a [Three Kingdoms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms) politician by the name of [陳羣](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Qun), whereas the identically named [Republican](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China_(1912%E2%80%9349)) politician [陳群](https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E9%99%88%E7%BE%A4_(%E6%B0%91%E5%9B%BD)), use different characters in the last name.
* [The Kangxi dictionary entry for 群](http://www.zdic.net/z/21/kx/7FA4.htm) states that it is a "vulgar variant" (《五經文字》羣，俗作群。), so the transition was at least between Qing and Republic of China.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: 羣 was listed as standard and 群 as the variant in 「世界中文報業協會三千個基本常 用宇彙表」, which I believe was published in the 70s. It appears in books I bought in Taiwan that were published in the 90s, so I wouldn't call it "archaic".  

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### Answer by username_1 on 2024-07-13. Score: 1

The character form 羣 was common in Taiwan a generation ago. I certainly wouldn't call it "archaic", but sometime between the 70s and early 2000s, 群 became the standard version.

In the popular series of supplementary readers for foreign Chinese students mentioned [here](https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/44336-graded-readers-by-the-numbers-characterswords-page-count/#comment-331256), I saw 羣 used throughout all of the earlier published versions. The books used a word frequency list titled, 「世界中文報業協會三千個基本常
用宇彙表」, which I believe was compiled in the 70s and it listed 羣 as primary and 群 as a variant. It also listed 裏 as standard vs 裡 as a variant as well as a few other discrepancies vs today's character lists that I noticed.

The Taiwanese MOE makes changes to official language standards regularly. For things like tones and pronunciations of various words, this is yearly. For things like changing which form of a character is considered standard, it's much more rare but does happen.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2015-06-09. Score: 1

Both the same. 群 is more pleasing in shape and 羣 is more difficult to write to fit into the square space.


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