Chinese characters, the carriers of historical inheritance, have not only played an important role in connecting Modern Chinese Civilization with the political aspirations of successive monarchs over the course of more than two thousand years, but have also deeply influenced the cultural accumulation of neighboring countries, especially the Korean Peninsula, which has a record of the use of Chinese characters for more than a thousand years.
The spread and development of Chinese characters in the North and South Korea dynasties
Through the archaeological discovery of cultural relics excavated on the Korean Peninsula, as early as the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago, the northern countries of the mainland had cultural and economic exchanges with the Korean Peninsula.
At the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, when there were frequent wars, the central plains people who took refuge on the Korean Peninsula further spread Chinese characters to the past. According to historical records, during the Han Dynasty, Korea began to use Chinese characters for education.
With the introduction of Buddhist scriptures, during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, Chinese characters gradually became the most important way of communication in Korea.
During the Tang Dynasty, during the Silla era of Joseon, Chinese characters were listed as official characters. At this point, the development of Chinese characters in North Korea is relatively mature and perfect.
The reason why Chinese characters are widely used
A culture that was passed down in ancient times is inextricably linked to the ruler. As we all know, the Korean Peninsula has been a vassal state of the Central Plains Empire for generations.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the rule of the Han Dynasty not only had many vassal states in the western region, such as Guizi, Loulan, Southern Xiongnu and other places, but also through the Eastern Expedition to the Korean Peninsula, after the destruction of the Wei manchu regime established on the Korean Peninsula at that time, the establishment of the Four Counties of Han, at this point, China's mature Development of Chinese characters by the official book order and other ways from top to bottom spread, which is a small peak in the circulation of Chinese characters.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Buddhist scriptures were widely introduced and translated in China, and even after hundreds of years of frequent wars and disputes, buddhist scriptures shone brightly in the destroyed socio-economic system as a tool for ideological liberation.
With the large-scale eastward migration of the central plains people, buddhist scriptures have widely entered the Korean Peninsula, and a richer Chinese character culture has been able to flourish on the Korean Peninsula.
The Formation and Development of the Korean Script
In summary, Chinese characters have been used on the Korean Peninsula for thousands of years, and the formation of Chinese characters on the political and cultural history of the Korean Peninsula is as deeply imprinted in the corridor of time.
So the question is, in the process of Chinese character export, how does the Korean Peninsula communicate?
Korean, an indigenous language of the Korean Peninsula that has only a linguistic heritage and no written records. During the Ming Dynasty, the fourth generation of the Lee Dynasty in the same period of the Korean Peninsula, in order to enhance their sense of self-belonging and cultural self-confidence, ordered a group of outstanding scholars at that time to identify the Korean language and create a Korean language system.
In the early days of the korean language, out of consideration for the sake of writing and the study of musical rhythm, these scholars also traveled to China to learn the language system of the time, and in China, which has many accents, it was influenced by the southern dialect, so today's Korean pronunciation sometimes sounds like Shanghainese Zhejiang dialect and so on.
The use of Kanji is reduced until it is abolished
It can be seen that two sets of writing systems have been formed on the Korean Peninsula, one is a Chinese language system that has been used for thousands of years, and the other is a newly embryonic Korean language system.
Under the rule of the Joseon Dynasty, the use of Korean officially surpassed that of Chinese characters, but the Chinese national culture has a long history and is endless, and if chinese characters are abandoned, they are equivalent to losing contact with the advanced Chinese nation, so even if the use of Chinese characters has decreased, it has not officially withdrawn from the Korean stage.
It wasn't until the 1970s that a massive cultural backlash officially broke the Two-Part Korean Peninsula from Chinese characters.
South Korean President Park Jae-hee, who was in power at the time, announced the official abolition of Chinese characters, starting with the education system as the fastest way, school-age children learning only Korean, and only retaining three universities with Chinese departments...
Until the 1980s, when Chinese characters were officially withdrawn from the Korean stage, all news media except for Chinese place names were printed in Korean, and the Korean people after the 1990s, who were culturally faulted, no longer knew Chinese characters, let alone the weight of Chinese characters that once existed in their history.
Over the millennia, Chinese characters have played an important role in the history of Korea, and many historical documents and legal texts have existed in the form of Chinese characters.
Today, cultural faults make today's Koreans discouraged by the heavy historical inheritance, they do not know the Chinese characters in ancient books, let alone present the treasures in ancient books to the world.
The wheels roll away, the dust will eventually settle, and the deep ruts left behind cannot be easily erased. Today, more and more South Koreans are aware of the many changes brought about by the abolition of Chinese characters, and they are eager to let their children not forget history and read history.
In 2009, after receiving a joint petition from South Korea's first 20 prime ministers, the Blue House government finally added a Phonetic Alphabet logo from primary school education in 2015, 45 years after the abolition of Chinese characters.
Compared with the current state of Japanese culture, South Korea can only hope to reach the dust
Compared with South Korea, the Japanese government's approach is very rational and long-term. For thousands of years, Japan, which also belongs to the Han cultural circle, has also been influenced by Chinese culture in many fields such as economic, political and cultural circles, and if the abolition of Chinese characters causes cultural faults, the gap in history will inevitably cause irreparable losses to the development of Japan in the future.
Impulsive people will definitely pay for impulsive behavior, but such a rash act of interrupting culture and history really makes Koreans lift stones and drop themselves on their feet, and the new entertainment culture has become a trend in Korea, and gradually become their new cultural heritage, and they are increasingly nostalgic for the era of using Chinese characters.
Many newspapers and magazines are occupied by monotonous Korean, but the most conspicuous title is written in Chinese characters, and the text on formal occasions is inseparable from the display of Chinese characters.
The loss of Chinese characters has become the biggest regret of the South Korean government and people, but 72 years is enough to turn a baby into an old man with green silk and white hair, they see the influence of Chinese characters, know that the loss of Chinese characters is to abandon history, everything seems to be too late, everything is too late.