On December 30, 1955, Chinese character writing changed from vertical to horizontal

The earliest horizontal row of books in China is a series of pinyin character historical materials compiled by Lu Shu (zhuàng) Zhang in the Qing Dynasty, "A Glance at the First Order". In the eighteenth year of Guangxu (1892), it was personally funded and handed over to Xiamen Wuqi Dingbei Wenzhai for printing, of which the fifty-five selected Chinese characters and pinyin characters were all horizontally engraved, which was the first horizontal book in China, the first pinyin work edited by Chinese, and also the beginning of China's advocacy of Chinese character reform, the proposition of pinyinization, the development of pinyin schemes, and the publication of pinyin readings. The author of this book, Lu Shuzhang, a native of Tong'an, Fujian Province, has been engaged in pinyin writing work for 40 years all his life, and is a pioneer of Chinese character reform.

The earliest horizontal journal in China was the journal Science founded by Chinese students in Cornell in the United States in 1915. Because the journal was founded overseas, there is no traditional shackles, and the content is all in the natural sciences, so the journal has used horizontal and new punctuation since its inception.

The Peking University Journal, which was founded in January 1919, also follows the principle of Western-style typography, and also publishes a "Cai Yuanpei Revelation" in its inaugural issue, from which we can get a glimpse of the ideological contradictions at the beginning of the vertical arrangement and horizontal arrangement:

The monthly format has been voted on by the Meeting of Directors of the Institute, all of which are used in a rampant manner, with the addition of sentence reading, questioning, and order registration numbers. However, among the gentlemen, there are also those who have changed their interests and lost all their interests in the old style of our country, and the contemptible people also think so. In the only volume, half-used horizontal, left-to-right, half straight, right-to-left, is very inconvenient for readers. Now, with mr. Zhu, all texts of a scientific nature shall be sent to the institutes for compilation in ordinary monthly periodicals, and those of a literary nature, if they cannot be used without a straight line, please send them to the principal's office, and the contemptible editor will be edited as a temporary supplement.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were many controversies on this issue, and Guo Moruo, Hu Yuzhi, Ye Shengtao, and other people in the cultural and educational circles all published articles advocating horizontal and horizontal writing of Chinese characters.

On New Year's Day 1955, Guangming Daily published the country's first newspaper in a horizontal row from left.

In October 1955, the National Conference on Character Reform clearly stated: "It is recommended that the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China and relevant departments further promote the horizontal arrangement of newspapers, books and magazines." It is recommended that state organs, troops, schools, and people's organizations promote the horizontal and horizontal writing of official documents. ”

On December 30, 1955, the Ministry of Culture issued the "Provisions on the Principles and Regulations on the Horizontal Arrangement of Chinese Books and Magazines".

The principle of horizontal arrangement of Chinese books and magazines

(Promulgated by the Ministry of Culture on December 30, 1955)

The horizontal arrangement of Chinese books and magazines has played a positive role in the development of China's character reform movement. Since the promotion of the horizontal row of Chinese books and magazines, the number of books and periodicals in the horizontal row has been increasing day by day. According to the statistics of the national new book sample received in August and September this year, of the 1562 general books, 80% are horizontally arranged; among the 135 textbooks, 98% are horizontally arranged. In September 1955, there were 214 central first-class magazines, of which 187 were horizontal, accounting for 86%. The magazines that are now in an inline row will also be changed to horizontal rows until next year. The above situation shows that the trend of books and magazines developing in a horizontal row has been affirmed, and the horizontal rows of books and periodicals have gradually become accustomed to many publishing houses and the vast number of readers.

Promoting horizontal arrangement and cultivating readers' habit of reading horizontal books and periodicals can create conditions for China's character reform. In terms of formatting, horizontal rowing can avoid the shortcomings and convenient reading of the format is not uniform and the layout is not beautiful.

In order to actively promote the horizontal arrangement of Chinese books and magazines in a planned way, our department has specially made the following principles, which are implemented by reference by various publishing houses and magazines:

1. Newly issued Chinese books since 1956 should be horizontally arranged, except for photocopied ancient Chinese books and a small number of those who have special reasons (such as most of the readers of the book are not accustomed to horizontal rowing) and are unable or unsuitable for horizontal rowing. For the layout design of horizontal books, each publishing house should combine the characteristics of the publications of the unit to study, not only to prevent the bias of low paper utilization, but also to take care of the requirements of practical and beautiful.

2. Where the published volumes of multi-volume books have been arranged in a straight line, the volumes may remain in a straight row in the future, and then be changed to horizontal rows when they are revised and rearranged in the future. Books published in the past and in the past will be published and distributed as usual, and will be changed to horizontal as far as possible when rearrangements are required in the future.

Third, in the future, the newly established Chinese magazines should all be horizontally arranged, except for those who are special. The horizontal layout of the magazine should also be further studied and improved according to the nature of the magazine.

On New Year's Day 1956, the People's Daily was changed to horizontal row, as the most important party newspaper mouthpiece, its demonstration effect was extended, and more and more books, magazines, newspapers and periodicals across the country were also changed to horizontal row.