The Chinese language and Chinese characters are one of the important supporting elements for the continuation of Chinese civilization and one of the important symbols of Chinese civilization.
Let's take a look at the world, throughout the ages, there has not been a single case of an ethnic group that has only language but no written language, and can endogenously create its own modern civilization. For example, the Bushmen, an indigenous ethnic group living in South Africa, Namibia, Angola, and other countries, have only a language, not a written language. The Amboun people, who live in the Külu region of Zaire, also have only language and no written language. They have not yet entered modern civilized society. For example, the Zhuang, Buyi, Dong, Li, Salar and other ethnic groups on the mainland only have their own language, but not their own script (of course, they are also creating their own script now). They have entered modern civilized society with the modernization of our country, and not endogenously. All these examples prove that language alone and writing cannot endogenously create and enter modern civilization.
Looking back at the Chinese character simplification movement during the Kuomintang government, its general experience is as follows:
In 1920, Qian Xuantong, a well-known linguist and master of Chinese culture (not a master of foreign studies), published an article in the magazine "New Youth", advocating the simplification of Chinese characters.
In 1922, Qian Xuantong, Li Jinxi and other well-known scholars proposed to the Fourth Conference of the Preparatory Committee for the Unification of the Chinese Language "The Case of Reducing the Strokes of Current Chinese Characters", expounding the reasons and methods for simplifying Chinese characters. Eight simplification strategies were proposed, which was the first time that a simplified method of Chinese characters was systematically proposed.
The suggestions and propositions of the experts aroused Chiang Kai-shek's attention.
In 1923, Hu Shi said in the "Headword" of the "Chinese Monthly Chinese Character Reform":
"The reform of the written and spoken language is by no means something that can be achieved overnight. ”
"The Chinese people have not only made a very amazing grammatical innovation, but they have also done an equally amazing innovation: that is, a great reform of the form of Chinese characters, that is, the creation and promotion of 'broken characters'. ”
He approached Wang Shijie, the minister of education, to ask about the feasibility of simplifying Chinese characters.
Wang Shijie said:
"Some experts and scholars engaged in language teaching and research are more active in simplifying Chinese characters, but there are also many people who oppose them. But this issue can only be done gradually. ”
Chiang Kai-shek agreed with Wang Shijie's opinion and immediately instructed that simplified Chinese characters should be gradually introduced. Wang Shijie then convened a meeting to arrange matters related to the simplification of Chinese characters, and entrusted Li Jinxi, a professor at Peking University and a well-known linguist, to preside over the work.
Li Jinxi organized a special team and proposed a plan to the Ministry of Education to simplify more than 1,000 words.
Wang Shijie thought that there was too much simplification, and instructed Li Jinxi to re-select three or four hundred characters that urgently needed to be simplified and submit them to the Ministry of Education for approval.
In 1928, Hu Huaishen's "Simplified Character Theory" was published, which was the earliest resource book for the simplification of Chinese characters.
In 1930, Liu Fu and Li Jiarui's "Vulgar Character Pedigree since the Song and Yuan Dynasties", Zhuo Dingmou's "Zhangcao Examination", and Chen Guangyao's "Collection of Simplified Characters" were published. It reflects the development of simplified Chinese characters over a thousand years.
In 1931, Xu Zemin's "Research on Commonly Used Simplified Characters" was published.
In 1932, the Preparatory Committee for the Unification of the Chinese Language compiled the "Vocabulary of Common Characters of Guoyin" was published, which included most of the simplified characters used since the Song and Yuan dynasties.
And noted:
"It's time to push it (in simplified Chinese) so that the writing is easy. ”
In January 1934, the 29th Standing Committee of the Preparatory Committee for the Unification of the Chinese Language passed Qian Xuantong's "Case for Searching for Simplified Chinese Characters Inherent and More Applicable" and submitted it to the Ministry of Education for implementation.
In August 1934, Lu Xun's "Chinese Characters and Latinization" was published.
The text reads:
"Yes, Chinese characters are treasures handed down from ancient times, but our ancestors are even more ancient than Chinese characters, so we are treasures handed down from ancient times. To sacrifice us for the sake of Chinese characters, or to sacrifice Chinese characters for us? This is the answer that anyone who has not yet lost his heart can answer immediately. ”
Subsequently, the China Library Service published Du Dingyou's "Standard List of Simplified Characters", which included 353 simplified characters. Xu Zemin published the "List of 550 Vulgar Characters" in the "Analects Semi-Monthly".
In December of the same year, Lu Xun further stated in the article "About New Words":
"Square words are really a weapon for fooling people...... Chinese characters are also a tuberculosis in the toiling masses of China, and the germs are lurking in it, and if you don't get rid of it first, you will only die by yourself. ”
In 1935, Qian Xuantong presided over the compilation of the draft of "Simplified Chinese Characters", which collected more than 2,400 simplified characters.
On February 24, Shanghai's "Declaration" first published a news report on "The Advocacy of the Words at Hand", and at the same time published "The Origin of the Implementation of the Words at Hand" and "The First Issue of the Words at Hand".
Other newspapers and periodicals in Shanghai have responded and successively reprinted "The Origin of the Implementation of the Words at Hand".
The handword movement was jointly initiated by 200 well-known figures in the cultural and educational circles at that time, including Cai Yuanpei, Shao Lizi, Tao Xingzhi, Guo Moruo, Hu Yuzhi, Chen Wangdao, Ye Shengtao, Ba Jin, Lao She, Zheng Zhenduo, Zhu Ziqing, Li Gongpu, Ai Siqi, Yu Dafu, Hu Feng, Lin Handa, Ye Laishi, and 15 magazines such as Taibai, Literature, Translation, Children, Middle School Students, New China, Reading Life, and World Knowledge.
On August 21, 1935 (the 24th year of the Republic of China), Wang Shijie passed the Ministry of Education of the National Government No. 11400 and promulgated the "First Batch of Simplified Chinese Character Lists", a total of 324. Most of the 300 words collected in the first issue of the "Words at Hand" were adopted.
At the same time, 9 articles of the "Measures for the Implementation of Simplified Chinese Characters" were promulgated.
The Measures stipulate that:
"All textbooks, children's and the public's textbooks for primary schools, short-term primary schools, and public schools should be in simplified Chinese characters issued by the ministry. ”
and notify the printing houses.
From January 1936 onwards, new textbooks and reading materials within the above scope were not approved without simplified characters.
Dai Jitao, a member of the Standing Committee of the Kuomintang Central Committee and president of the Examination Yuan, who did not attend the meeting to discuss the simplified text, was very angry when he learned of this.
So he ran to Chiang Kai-shek's office and made a big noise, saying that simplifying Chinese characters was ridiculous and destroying Chinese culture, and that the Ministry of Education was deliberately avoiding him by discussing such an important matter while he was not in Beijing.
Although Chiang Kai-shek gave some explanations, Dai Jitao still did not listen.
Dai Jitao was so unforgiving that he repeatedly threatened in public that if the Ministry of Education did not withdraw the "Simplified Chinese Character List", he would not attend any meetings convened by Chiang Kai-shek and the Central Committee of the Kuomintang.
For the next three months, Dai Jitao refused to attend Kuomintang meetings and rarely attended official business.
Although Chiang Kai-shek felt that Dai Jitao was too much, because Dai Jitao was a veteran of the Kuomintang, there was no way, so Chiang Kai-shek had to give in and ordered that the simplification of Chinese characters should not be implemented for the time being.
On February 5, 1936, Dai urged Chiang Kai-shek to issue an order in the name of the "Nationalist Government" that "there is no need to implement" simplified characters.
That is, on February 5, 1936, the "First List of Simplified Chinese Characters" was abolished.
167 days elapsed from the date of promulgation.
In 1936, when Lu Xun was on his deathbed, he said:
"If Chinese characters are not destroyed, China will perish. ”
On October 19, Lu Xun died.
In 1937, the Font Research Society of the Peking Research Institute published the first table of the "Simplified Chinese Character List", which collected 1,700 characters.
At the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Simplified Chinese Movement was forced to come to a halt, and its development continued mainly in Communist-ruled areas.
Immediately after the Communists seized power, they began to continue the simplification of Chinese characters.
Around the autumn of 1952, at a Kuomintang propaganda briefing, Chiang Kai-shek again proposed a text reform.
He said:
"We have too many strokes of Chinese characters, which makes it difficult for soldiers to educate and too difficult for students to learn. I think Chinese characters should be moderately simplified. My opinion, as in the mainland period, is to put forward a simplified plan first, and then submit it to the meeting for discussion. ”
In order to gain the support of the public, Chiang Kai-shek instructed Luo Jialun, the "vice president of the Examination Yuan," to first write some articles in newspapers and periodicals to create public opinion.
At the same time, the "Ministry of Education" of the Taiwan authorities, in accordance with Chiang Kai-shek's instructions, immediately organized experts and scholars to study a plan for simplifying Chinese characters.
Just when Chiang Kai-shek was once again pushing for the simplification of Chinese characters, Hu Qiuyuan, a member of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang and a well-known scholar, suddenly stood up and vigorously opposed it.
He believes that Chinese characters are the carrier of Chinese culture, the root of Chinese culture, which has been used for thousands of years, and there is no inconvenience in writing, and there is no need to simplify at all, simplifying Chinese characters is destroying Chinese culture.
Hu Qiuyuan's proposition was supported by some people in Taiwan's literary and historical circles.
Therefore, on the one hand, he used the rostrum of the "Legislative Yuan" to violently criticize Luo Jialun and others, who advocated the simplification of Chinese characters, and on the other hand, he wrote an article to explain to the people of Taiwan why Chinese characters could not be simplified.
In the period that followed, Hu Qiuyuan contacted a group of people who used every opportunity inside and outside the party to oppose the simplification of Chinese characters.
Chiang Kai-shek, seeing that there were constantly people in society who opposed the reform of the Chinese characters, felt that the matter was too resistant, and that it would be difficult to implement it for a while, so he stopped mentioning the matter of simplifying Chinese characters.
Although the reform of Chinese characters by the Nationalist Government failed, it is not difficult to see the traces of the reform of Chinese characters in the Republic of China period from the 1935 "List of the First Batch of Simplified Chinese Characters".
The Tasks of the Current Character Reform
Zhou Enlai
(10 January 1958)
One
At present, the tasks of the Chinese character reform are: simplifying Chinese characters, popularizing Putonghua, and formulating and implementing the Hanyu Pinyin scheme.
The first is to simplify Chinese characters.
The "Plan for Simplifying Chinese Characters" was promulgated by the State Council in January 1956.
The scheme consists of three parts: the first part, the first simplified table of Chinese characters, contains 230 simplified characters, which have been in general since the time the scheme was announced. The second part, the second simplified list of Chinese characters, contains 285 simplified characters, of which 95 simplified characters have been on trial since June 1956. The third part, the simplified table of Chinese characters, contains 54 simplified characters, and 30 simplified characters deduced from this table have been tried out since the time the plan was announced.
Together, there are 355 simplified characters used in newspapers and periodicals.
In the two years since the promulgation of the plan, simplified characters have been widely used in newspapers, periodicals, textbooks, and books in general, and have been welcomed by the masses, who have praised it as a great good thing, especially for children and adults who are learning the written language for the first time.
A teacher in Henan Province introduced the simplified character to primary school students, saying that the word "feng" for "harvest" could be abbreviated into the word "feng" in three horizontal and one vertical in the future, and the children applauded and cheered happily. A worker in Tianjin said that after studying the three words "exhaust, side, and do" for half a year, he could not remember them, but this time he simplified them to "end, side, and do", and he remembered them at once. Comrade Li Fenglian has a younger brother who farms in his hometown, and he wrote to Comrade Li Fenglian to complain about his grievances, saying that peasants generally find it difficult to learn Chinese characters. Some of the words commonly used by farmers, such as "farmer" for "farmer", "@" for "@子", "flour" for "flour", "wheat" for "wheat", and "miscellaneous grains", are not easy to write. Comrade Li Fenglian sent his brother a book on simplified Chinese characters, and his brother was very happy, and wrote back that "these new characters are much easier to learn," and complained about why his sister didn't send it to him earlier. Simplified characters are easier to learn and write than traditional characters, so it is only natural that the broad masses of people, including workers, peasants, primary school students, and teachers, warmly welcome simplified characters.
As for intellectuals like us, we have been dealing with Chinese characters for decades, and the fact that we wrote other characters to the teacher to reproach or even beat the palm of our hands has gradually faded in our memory, so we feel that traditional and simplified characters do not matter, and we are not enthusiastic about simplified characters, and even feel unpleasant to the eye, and there is ideological resistance.
On this point, I very much agree with Mr. Li Zhuchen's view.
Mr. Lee wrote an article for the monthly journal Character Reform.
He said:
"When it comes to the reform of Chinese characters, there are always some people who put forward reasons of one kind or another, disagree with them or even resolutely oppose them. As someone says, 'Chinese characters are not difficult'. I think that such people are the same as those who 'forget the pain after the scars', and they have forgotten the pain when they first learned the "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Text". I think that if these people could recall the pain of learning Chinese characters themselves, and put themselves in the shoes of children and illiterates, they might not disagree or resolutely oppose it. ”
In his article, Li criticized those who opposed the simplification of Chinese characters.
He said: After the publication of the "Chinese Character Simplification Plan", some people said that they were "about to become illiterate".
He considers such exclamations and apprehensions to be unnecessary.
There are many words in Jianzi that people have been familiar with for a long time.
How can this "become illiterate"?
Of course, some words are relatively unfamiliar, but as long as you use your brain a little, the problem will be solved, and you will never "become illiterate".
For the sake of the broad masses of working people and millions of children, intellectuals should use their brains.
Therefore, Li Zhulao is not only in favor of simplifying the word "candle" to "candle", but also in favor of simplifying the word "dust" into "dust". I see this as the case. Since the simplification of Chinese characters is in the interests of the broad masses of the people, we intellectuals should actively support this work instead of treating it negatively.
We should consider the issue of writing reform in the light of 600 million people, not in terms of personal habits and momentary convenience. From the standpoint of the broad masses of the people, we should first affirm the work of simplifying Chinese characters.
The simplification of Chinese characters is a good thing that conforms to the interests of the masses and is warmly welcomed by the masses, and the trial over the past two years has also proved to be effective, and should be resolutely supported.
So does it mean that there are no shortcomings in the simplification of Chinese characters?
Does it mean that there are no inappropriate simplified characters in the "Chinese Character Simplification Scheme"?
No.
It should be pointed out that the policy adopted in the work of simplifying Chinese characters, "making steady progress according to conventions," is correct and has been proved by the experience of the past two years, but there are still some things that have not been well considered in the specific work. Practice has shown that a few abbreviated words are not properly applied, or misunderstandings may occur. These few simplified characters that have been improperly simplified and have proved to be defective in use should be simplified separately or retained in their original traditional characters. In the "Plan for Simplifying Chinese Characters" promulgated by the State Council in January 1956, in addition to the 230 simplified characters in the first table of simplified Chinese characters, the 285 simplified characters in the second table and the 54 simplified characters in the third table were still soliciting opinions, and the draft had not yet been finalized. It is the 230 abbreviated characters in the first table, and if there are indeed inappropriate, necessary changes can also be made. The Chinese Character Reform Committee is now soliciting opinions from all quarters and carrying out the work of sorting out and revising the simplified characters, and if you have any comments on the simplified characters, you can submit them to the Chinese Character Reform Committee for their consideration, and then further finalize the bill.
At present, there are still some differences in the use of simplified characters in society. Some people arbitrarily make up their own abbreviated characters, and almost no one else knows them except for themselves, and this phenomenon is naturally not good and should be properly controlled. When a person takes notes or writes private messages, no one can care what kind of words he writes. However, if you write a notice or notice for everyone to see, you should abide by the same norms. In particular, the misuse of simple characters must be prevented in printed matter and typed documents. It is hoped that attention will be paid to the press and publication and to the clerical work. There are some disagreements over the use of simplified characters, which are often used by the Chinese Character Reform Committee to blame. Yes, we can criticize the Character Reform Committee for not doing enough to publicize the simplification of Chinese characters and for not controlling the differences in simplified characters. But on the other hand, we should also admit that this phenomenon of creating new simplified characters has always existed, and the simplified characters that are now recognized by everyone were originally newly created by a small number of people, and this process cannot be stopped in the future, and it will develop.
From the history of Chinese characters, we can see that the multiple characters have existed since the oracle bone inscription.
If it is said to be chaos, then this kind of chaos is "ancient", at most it is "martyrdom in the present".
The main reason for this "martyrdom" is that today the broad masses are beginning to master the written language and are urgently demanding that it be reformed, which is not found in any other dynasty in history. The general trend in the evolution of Chinese characters is simplification. Due to the difficulty of writing Chinese characters, the masses of the people continued to create many simplified characters. Although the rulers of the past generations did not admit that they were "other characters" and "vulgar characters", simplified characters were still popular among the people and were welcomed by the masses. Therefore, we should say that long before the establishment of the Character Reform Committee, the masses of the people were already reforming the written language, and the work of the Character Reform Committee is nothing more than collecting and sorting out the creations of the masses and popularizing them through discussions among all parties. At the same time, we have also adopted some simplified Japanese kanji. It can be seen that some of the differences in the use of simplified characters are not caused by the simplification of Chinese characters, and the purpose of the formulation of the "Chinese Character Simplification Scheme" is to guide such differences to a unified standard. Only by taking active steps in the work of simplifying Chinese characters can this divergence be gradually reversed.
In addition, there is another question, that is, will the simplification of Chinese characters hinder the spread and hobby of calligraphy in the mainland? I don't think so. Calligraphy is an art that can certainly not be limited by the simplification of Chinese characters. Originally, simplified characters were mainly used for printing, and it is impossible for us to force everyone to write according to the "Chinese Character Simplification Scheme". Therefore, the simplification of Chinese characters will not have any adverse effect on the art of calligraphy on the mainland. At the same time, calligraphers should also be welcome to write according to simplified Chinese characters in order to improve the artistic level of simplified characters.
Two
The second is to promote Mandarin.
There are still serious dialect differences in the language of the Han people on the mainland.
A lot of it is phonetic. People from different regions often do not understand each other easily if they speak their own dialects. Even in the same province, for example, between the people of southern Fujian and the people of northern Fujian, and between the people of southern Jiangsu and the people of northern Jiangsu, it is difficult to talk.
Such differences in dialects have had an adverse impact on the political, economic, and cultural life of the people on the mainland. Cadres from the north sometimes have to be transferred to the south, university students from the south have to be assigned to the north, and workers in the coastal cities have to support the industrial construction of the interior -- without a common language, our construction work will encounter certain difficulties. It is often the case that an important report, an important lesson, is greatly hindered by the dialect that greatly hinders the comprehension of the listeners. Radio and film are important propaganda tools for us, but since Mandarin is not yet widely available, their effectiveness cannot but be limited in dialect areas. Since the liberation of the mainland, the mainland has achieved unprecedented reunification in history, and the people of the whole country have struggled for the common goal of building socialism under the leadership of the Communist Party and the people's government.
Therefore, it is an important political task to make efforts to popularize Mandarin among the Han people on the mainland, with Beijing as the standard pronunciation.
Since the October 1955 National Conference on Character Reform, some success has been achieved in promoting Putonghua. By the end of 1957, 721,000 Chinese teachers in primary and secondary schools and normal schools across the country had received language training in Putonghua. A large proportion of primary and secondary schools across the country have begun to teach in Mandarin. More than 2 million people across the country listened to the Putonghua pronunciation teaching radio lectures held by the Central People's Radio. According to Zhang Xiruo, the minister of the Ministry of Education, he visited Xi'an and found that some primary school students in Xi'an could speak Mandarin very well. This shows that as long as everyone attaches importance to this work and earnestly promotes it, it will be able to achieve results. We hope that the education departments in all localities will be able to complete the training of all primary and secondary school Chinese teachers in a relatively short period of time, so that all primary and secondary schools in the country will generally start teaching Putonghua.
Promoting Mandarin, which uses Beijing as the standard pronunciation, does not require all Han Chinese people to be able to speak the same language as Beijingers, which is neither possible nor necessary. Beijing voice is a standard, and if there is a standard, there is a direction, so everyone should keep up with it. However, in the specific promotion and teaching work, there should be different requirements for different objects. For example, broadcasters, film and drama actors, and language teachers in normal schools should be stricter, and ordinary people should be more lenient, and middle-aged and older people should not have such general requirements. In this way, we can reduce the resistance to the promotion of Putonghua and increase everyone's confidence and interest in learning Putonghua. Where to promote Putonghua? I think we should first try to promote it in schools, among children and young people.
(abbreviated)
Third, the Hanyu Pinyin scheme can serve as a common basis for all ethnic minorities to create and reform their scripts.
There are more than 50 ethnic groups on the mainland, many of which do not yet have their own written languages, and some ethnic groups have written languages, but they also need to be improved.
Among the ethnic groups that already have written Chinese, in addition to the Han Chinese, there are Tibetan, Mongolian, Arabic, Korean, and other alphabets.
What alphabets should these fraternal nations use as the basis for the creation and reform of their written languages? Can they just use Chinese characters as the common basis for the writings of all ethnic groups?
Someone has tried this in the past, but it didn't work, proving that this path is not going to work.
If dozens of nationalities each develop a set of alphabets, this will not only be an obstacle to the mutual learning and exchange of experiences among the people of various nationalities, but will also inevitably have their own sets of equipment for printing, typing, and telegraphing, which will be extremely unfavorable to the future development of various nationalities in the field of culture and education.
Many fraternal nationalities have expressed the desire to achieve unity with the Han nationality in the alphabet in order to facilitate cultural exchanges, the study of the Chinese language, and the assimilation of Chinese nouns and terminology.
In the past few years, there was some uncertainty about what alphabet to use in the Chinese language, and the work of some fraternal nationalities in creating and reforming the written language was also affected. At present, more than a dozen ethnic groups in the southwest have created the national script of the Latin alphabet, but they are still not very reassured, because our plan has not yet been finalized.
Therefore, the Hanyu Pinyin scheme can no longer be delayed, otherwise it will delay other people's affairs.
Since the Chinese language has now decided to adopt the Latin alphabet as the pinyin alphabet, it should establish such a principle: in the future, when all ethnic groups create or reform scripts, they should in principle use the Latin alphabet as the basis, and the pronunciation and usage of the letters should be consistent with the Chinese pinyin scheme as much as possible.
It can be expected that the formulation of the Hanyu Pinyin scheme will be of great benefit to the creation and reform of the written language of all fraternal nationalities, as well as to the mutual learning and communication between the people of all nationalities in the future.
Fourth, the Hanyu Pinyin scheme can help foreigners learn Chinese to promote international cultural exchanges. Due to the increasing status of the mainland in international affairs, more and more people are willing to learn Chinese in many countries, first of all, among the fraternal socialist countries and the friendly countries of Asia and Africa. The biggest difficulty they encounter is the Chinese characters, so they often hope to sigh. Now that we have the Hanyu Pinyin scheme, we can use this set of letters to compile and print textbooks, dictionaries, and reading materials for people from all over the world to learn Chinese, so as to help them overcome this difficulty. The first draft of the Hanyu Pinyin scheme was used in the teaching of the special course for foreign students at Peking University, which was very effective, which shows that the Hanyu Pinyin scheme has great advantages in this respect, and the Chinese characters and phonetic alphabets are far from being comparable with it. After learning Chinese, foreign friends can still rely on this set of pinyin letters as a phonetic tool, and then learn Chinese characters and Chinese, which will definitely be much easier than without pinyin letters. This is the function of the Hanyu Pinyin scheme in promoting international cultural exchanges.
In addition, the Hanyu Pinyin scheme can be used for various purposes in other aspects, such as it can be used to transliterate foreign names and scientific and technical terms, it can be used to transliterate Chinese names and place names in foreign documents, books and newspapers, and can be used for indexing, and so on.
Judging from the above-mentioned functions of the Hanyu Pinyin scheme, it is not an exaggeration to say that the formulation of the Hanyu Pinyin scheme is a major event in the cultural life of the Chinese people.
Chinese writing has a history of 3,4500 years from the oracle bone inscription.
Over the past 3,000 years, Chinese characters have undergone many changes: the glyphs have been simplified, new characters have been added, and some old characters have been eliminated.
In the early days, Chinese characters were pictographs, and then many phonetic characters, or homophonic characters, were produced—most of the characters we use today are phonetic characters.
However, due to the evolution of ancient and modern phonetics, the phonetic notes of many morphophonetic characters have lost the role of phonetics, such as "river" and "river", and they are no longer pronounced as "gong" and "ke".
Therefore, as Lu Xun said, Chinese characters have become "pictographs that are not pictographic, and homophonic characters that are not very harmonious". Since it is not easy to make out its sound literally, it has to be remedied. One way is "straight sound", that is, to use the word A to note the sound of the word B, that is, to use homophones to phonetize each other.
This approach often encounters difficulties: sometimes there is no homophone for a word, or even if there is a homophone, the word happens to be a cold word, and a note is equal to no note. Another way is to "reverse cut", that is, to use two words to spell a sound: the upper word takes the sound, and the lower word takes the rhyme. The invention of reverse cut can be said to be the germ of pinyin. However, due to the great differences in pronunciation in various parts of the mainland, the pronunciation of two characters is often the same in place A, and there are different pronunciations in place B, which increases the chance of divergence and error between straight and reverse cuts.
In particular, it is necessary to know a lot of words first, whether it is straight or reversed, so it is difficult for children and adults who are new to learning words.
After the Xinhai Revolution, the phonetic alphabet was produced, which was the first set of phonetic alphabets officially announced by the state and widely implemented in primary and secondary schools.
The phonetic alphabet has contributed to literacy education and pronunciation unity. Although today, the phonetic alphabet still has many shortcomings (for example, it is clear that the phonetic alphabet is far inferior to the Latin alphabet as a common ground for the languages of various ethnic minorities and as a tool for promoting international cultural exchange), the historical merits of the phonetic alphabet should be recognized. For the pinyin alphabet movement in the past 40 years, the phonetic alphabet has also played a pioneering role.
Now this Hanyu Pinyin scheme, one of its main functions is to phonetize Chinese characters, in this sense, the Hanyu Pinyin scheme is to inherit the tradition of straight, reverse cut and phonetic letters, and develop on their basis.
(abbreviated)
The draft of the Hanyu Pinyin scheme that has been released now is developed on the basis of the straight pronunciation, reverse cut, and various pinyin schemes of the past.
In terms of the use of the Latin alphabet, its historical origin can be traced back to more than 350 years ago, and it can be said to summarize the experience of the mainland people in creating the Hanyu Pinyin scheme in the past 60 years.
This scheme is indeed more complete than the phonetic schemes of the various Latin alphabets that have existed in history and are still in use today. After the first draft was published by the Chinese Character Reform Committee in February 1956, it was adopted by the 60 th plenary session of the State Council on 1 November after extensive discussions by people from all walks of life organized by the CPPCC National Committee and local CPPCC committees, and after repeated deliberations and revisions by the Hanyu Pinyin Scheme Examination Committee set up by the State Council, it was discussed again at the enlarged meeting of the CPPCC Standing Committee in October last year. It is not difficult for people to see from this that the government has adopted a responsible and prudent attitude toward this issue, and it is by no means a small number of people working behind closed doors.
(abbreviated)
In addition to this, there is another question that everyone is concerned about, that is, the question of what is the future of Chinese characters.
Chinese characters have made indelible contributions in history, and we all agree on this.
As for the future of Chinese characters, is it forever the same?
Or do you want to change?
Is it a change in the form of the Chinese character itself?
Or is it replaced by pinyin characters?
Is it replaced by the Latin alphabet phonetic script, or is it replaced by another form of phonetic script?
We are not busy with conclusions on this issue at this time.
But characters always have to change, as evidenced by the past changes in Chinese characters.
There will always be changes in the future. Moreover, it can be said that the written forms of the various peoples of the world will one day gradually be unified, and even the languages will eventually be gradually unified.
The final trend in the development of human language and writing is to gradually approach, and in the end there may not be much difference. This ideal is not bad, but good. As for what plan to use, I'm not busy with it now. There are different opinions on the future of Chinese characters, and I am not going to go into them here, because it is not within the scope of the current task of character reform.
These are the three tasks of the government's current writing reform.
We hope that the current work on the reform of the script will receive everyone's support.
The reform of the written word is a major matter that concerns the people of the whole country, and the government is very cautious in taking steps against it. We are willing to listen to the opinions of all parties as much as possible, so that we can brainstorm and work together to do a good job. If there are shortcomings in our work, we will correct them, and this is the policy of our party and government in carrying out all kinds of work, and the same is true for the work of reforming the written language. With regard to the reform of the written word, the propaganda work in the past was very poor, so many people did not understand it, and there were even many misunderstandings. I hope that everyone will do propaganda to dispel this misunderstanding. I hope that you will actively support the work of reforming the Chinese character and promote this work instead of "promoting retreat" from it, so that the Chinese character can be steadily and actively reformed to meet the needs of the 600 million people to shake off cultural backwardness and to meet the needs of developing the socialist cause in a multiple, fast, good, and provincial way.
(This is a report at a report meeting held by the National Committee of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference, first published in People's Daily on January 13, 1958)