明清以來西南民族地區民間文書內容豐富，涉及土地、林木買賣租賃等交易活動，紅白喜事賬簿、嫁娶休聘等社會活動，廟宇信徒證明、生辰八字文單等方方面面。在時間軸線上繼敦煌文獻、黑水城文書之後，稍晚於徽州文書；在地域分布上囊括黔東南、桂西北、滇東南及西部等地區。涉及的民族有苗族、侗族、仫佬族、白族等。西南民族地區民間文書是漢字在西南民族地區傳播應用的文本記錄，是漢字傳播史、漢字發展史等研究不可或缺的重要方面，同時也是近代漢字、跨文化漢字、漢字規範等研究的重要材料。全文共分為以下幾個部分：

緒論部分主要對現階段民族地區漢字資源的收集整理及研究在整個漢字研究中所處的地位進行說明，對西南民族地區民間文書的收集整理、刊布以及研究情況進行全面回顧，對本文所使用的研究材料及采用的研究方法進行介紹，同時也對幾組易於混淆的概念進行辨析。

第一章為文本校勘。主要對現已刊布的西南民族地區民間文書注解不規範及錄文錯誤進行勘正。其中録文錯誤主要分為三個方面：誤釋、當釋而漏釋、不當釋而釋。這些錄文錯誤的原因主要有兩個方面：一為不能準確識別文書字形；一為不能準確把握文書中特有的標識符號。

第二章為文書形制與符號。在對西南民族地區民間文書形制介紹的基礎上，主要對西南民族地區民間文書中的標識符號進行系統的梳理，將其分為重文符號、刪除符號、換位符號、添字符號、結束符號、強調符號、留空與畫押符號八類。並以清水江文書“數目”類詞語為例，對民間文書中利用各類標識符號的特殊標記法進行全面的歸納，揭示這類特殊標識法出現的深層歷史原因。

第三章為文書疑難字詞考釋。對民間文書中的29例疑難字進行考辨，同時對西南民族地區民間文書中出現的特殊稱謂類詞語、社會生活類詞語、房屋建築類詞語以及量詞等進行闡釋。

第四章為文書俗字研究。首先從性質上，將文書中的俗字分為傳承性俗字與變異性俗字。其中傳承性俗字分為見於石刻文獻,見於《宋元以來俗字譜》以及其他字典辭書。變異性俗字從成因上分為六類：筆畫的簡省、增繁與變異，構件的省略、增添與訛變，草書楷化與符號替代等特殊省略，易位，合文與合寫，類化。同時變異也具有層級性，包括單一性與單層級、多重性與單層級、多重性與多層級。

第五章為文書的語言文字特色。根據西南民族地區民間文書的用字遣詞等內容，將西南民族地區民間文書的語言文字特色歸納為民族特色、民間特色、地域特色、時代特色四個方面。其中民族特色主要體現在文書中存在成批量的由漢字記錄的苗、侗語地名；民間特色由書寫風格、訛混字、用字、俗字等多種因素作用而成，其中訛混字又分為音近訛混與形近訛混，而方音影響是訛混字產生的主要原因；地域特色與時代特色主要體現在文書中的特殊詞彙上。

結語部分對前文的內容進行提煉和概括，對本課題未來的研究計劃與前景進行展望。

Since Ming and Qing dynasties Folk Documents in Southwest ethnic minority area are Rich in detail. Trading activities about land, forest, house ; account books about wedding and funeral;  certificate of horoscope and so on are all included in the Folk Documents. On the timeline, Folk Documents in Southwest ethnic minority area are later than Dunhuang manuscripts, Heishui City literature and at almost the same time with Huizhou documents. On the geographical distribution, Folk Documents pass through southeast of Guizhou Province, northwest of Guangxi, northeast and west of Yunnan Province, Hmong, Dong, Mulao, Bai are all living in. Folk Documents in Southwest ethnic minority area are the textual records of the broadcasting of Chinese character. It’s the most important part of the study of the history of propagation, characters’ evolution and other subjects. What’s more it can also provide rich materials for the study of modern Chinese, folk character and so on . The full test includes the following parts:

Introduction: A objective analysis of the collection of Chinese character resources in minority and the status of the Chinese character’s research. A brief revision of the collection , publishing research about Folk Documents in Southwest ethnic minority area. A detail introduction about the Folk Documents and methods we put into use in the test. In this part several groups of confusing words are distinguished.

Chapter one : Textual criticism. Check and correct the errors in the publication of Folk Documents in Southwest ethnic minority area. Classify the errors into three kinds, misinterpretation, omission，unnecessary interpretation. The lack of cognition about special Chinese characters and symbols are the causes of the failure.

Chapter two : The forms and symbols. On the basis of the introduction of forms in the Folk Documents in Southwest ethnic minority area. this paper mainly systematically combs the symbols in the folk documents in the southwest ethnic areas, and divides them into eight categories: heavy text symbols, deletion symbols, transposition symbols, addition symbols, end symbols, emphasis symbols, blank space and Monogram symbols. Taking the words of "number" as an example, this test sums up the special marking methods of various kinds of signs in folk documents, and reveals the deep historical reasons for the emergence of such special marking methods.

Chapter three: Textual research of difficult words. This part makes textual research on 29 difficult words in folk documents, and explains the special appellation words, social life words, housing construction words and quantifiers in folk documents in southwest ethnic areas.

Chapter four: The study of folk characters . First of all, the folk characters in the documents are divided into inherited folk characters and variant folk characters, among which the inherited folk characters are divided into stone inscriptions, folk characters manual since Song and Yuan Dynasty and other dictionaries. The causes of variation of folk characters can be divided into six categories: simplification, complexity and variation of strokes, addition and error of omission of components, special omission of cursive script and substitution of symbols, translocation, combination and classification. At the same time, variation also has three levels: single level and single level, multiple level and single level, multiple level and multiple level.

Chapter five: Language and character characteristics. According to the words and expressions of folk documents in southwest ethnic areas, the characteristics of folk documents in southwest ethnic areas are summed up into four aspects: national characteristics, folk characteristics, regional characteristics and era characteristics. Among them, the national characteristics are mainly reflected in the existence of a large number of Miao and Dong places recorded by Chinese characters; the folk characteristics are formed by many factors, such as writing style, mistakenly mixed characters, words used, vulgar characters, etc., among which the mistakenly mixed characters are divided into sound near mistakenly mixed and shape near mistakenly mixed, and the influence of square sound is one of the main reasons for the occurrence of mistakenly mixed characters; the regional characteristics and era characteristics are mainly reflected in the documents in special words.

In the conclusion part, the content of the previous article is abstracted and summarized, and the future research plan and Prospect of this topic are prospected.