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China has carried out a total of two simplification of Chinese characters, but only the first of these two changes was smooth, and the second simplification of Chinese characters was announced to be stopped nine years after it was announced.
On January 28, ** published the "Chinese Character Simplification Scheme" for the first time.
On December 20, the "Second Chinese Character Simplification Plan" was announced in the "People's **".
In June of the same year, ** approved the State Language Work Commission's "Instructions on Abolishing the Second Chinese Character Simplification Plan (Draft) and Correcting the Confusion of Social Characters", and the use of "Erjian characters" was stopped.
The reason for the discontinuation was: "Caution should be taken with regard to the simplification of Chinese characters, so that the form of Chinese characters remains relatively stable for a period of time, so as to facilitate social application".
It took 9 years from the announcement of the plan in 1977 to the official announcement of its discontinuation in 1986. Why did only the first of the two simplifications succeed?
In fact, since the advent of oracle bone inscriptions, Chinese characters have begun a journey of simplification, from the original complex glyphs to simple and easy to understand. In the past, Chinese characters were indeed too cumbersome to write and record quickly, let alone disseminate and promote, so simplification was imperative.
* During this period, China had started the work of simplifying Chinese characters, but due to some historical factors at that time, it was not widely promoted, so it could only be interrupted. It was not until after the founding of the People's Republic of China that the simplification of Chinese characters really began.
At that time, China's various construction projects were in a state of ruin, and in order to rapidly revitalize China and restore its national strength, it was necessary to complete a large-scale eradication of illiteracy in the shortest possible time. Therefore, there was the first simplification of Chinese characters: at the end of 1954, China drew up the "Chinese Character Simplification Plan (Draft)", and the revised draft was reviewed and revised by the Chinese Character Simplification Program Review Committee, and on January 28, 1956, the 23rd meeting of the ** Plenary Session was adopted.
On January 31, it was officially announced by "People**". In May 1964, the "General List of Simplified Characters" was published. In 1965, the "Glyph List of Printing General Chinese Characters" was published, which stipulates the glyphs. There are three principles for the first simplification of Chinese characters:
1. The principle of saying but not doing;(Simplifying only existing kanji, not recreating new kanji).
2. Choose the simplified Chinese characters that are more common in the society, and use them first;(Simplified Chinese characters, which are generally popular and common in society, were first adopted).
3. If the original character strokes are very simple, no longer seek simplicity. (The original Chinese character strokes are simple and uncomplicated, and are no longer simplified).
So far, we can see that the first simplification of Chinese characters retains the simplest form of Chinese characters, while trying not to destroy the ideographic and epigraphic functions of Chinese characters themselves.
So, that's why even if we haven't learned traditional Chinese characters, we can still read them in general.
It can be seen that the first simplification of Chinese characters was successful.
After the first simplification, most people thought that the Chinese characters were not simple enough and still insisted on the idea of simplifying the Chinese characters, but due to the environmental factors at the time, the plan was put on hold for the time being.
It was not until the seventies of the last century that the simplification of Chinese characters was restarted, and after a series of preparatory work, the second simplification scheme of Chinese characters began to be released in 1977, which believed that there were 1,300 Chinese characters with more than ten strokes, and these characters were still used frequently in daily life, which needed to be simplified, and later these characters were called "two simplified characters".
The "two simplified characters" are the simplified Chinese characters that have been simplified, and they are made simpler by simplifying strokes and classifying and merging. At that time, textbooks, newspapers, and periodicals in primary and secondary schools no longer used the first simplified characters, but replaced them with two simplified characters.
"Erjian", like "Yijian", is for the most commonly used words, which is simpler than "Yijian". Almost every method was used, trying to reduce the number of strokes and simplify the structure. Roughly speaking, it can be analyzed from two aspects: simplifying the form and homophonic merger.
Although the "Erjian" only simplifies the commonly used characters, the system of Chinese characters does not allow the transformation of parts casually, and its original components contradict the new simplified characters. "Erjian" eliminated some of the "words that are easy to read and write incorrectly" and changed them to homophones;Simplify or transform some complex sides and structures into new formulations;A part of the side has been merged.
This simplification is actually a major change in Chinese characters. In May 1977, the Commission's revised draft was submitted again for review, with 248 new simplified words in the first table alone. More than five months later, we received instructions: The draft can be published in newspapers at or above the provincial level to solicit opinions from all walks of life, and the words in the first table will be tried in books and newspapers from the date of publication of the draft, and opinions will be solicited during the trial.
The second table contains 605 new simplified words, which were introduced for discussion only and have not been directly implemented. On March 4, 1978, Hu Yuzhi, Wang Li, Zhou Youguang and 23 others jointly wrote a letter to the Secretariat of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the Secretariat of the First Session of the Fifth National People's Congress, requesting that the main documents of the Fifth CPPCC National Committee and the Fifth National People's Congress not use the simplified characters in the first table of the draft.
These experts of the older generation who formulated the "one simplified character" believe that there is a big mistake with the second simplified character, and some characters are simply invented.
These simplified words are missing arms, legs, and are extremely ugly. From April to July 1978, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued internal notices to stop using the simplified characters of the first table in primary and secondary school textbooks, textbooks, newspapers, periodicals, and books. The "two simplified characters" were discontinued, but they were not obsolete.
The "second short" is a "draft", and once it is published, it must be further refined to make it a formal plan. In August 1981, the Second Simplified Plan for Chinese Characters (Revised Draft) was formulated, which included a total of 111 simplified characters and deleted more than 100 other "two simplified characters" that had been criticized from all walks of life.
It was not until June 1986 that the 1977 draft was formally abolished, which was tantamount to abolishing the subsequent revised draft and the revised draft. Subsequently, the State Language Commission re-published the "General List of Simplified Characters", with a total of 2,235 simplified characters, and only adjusted the 6 characters in the "General List of Simplified Characters" compiled and printed in 1964, which are still in use today.
This shows that the "two simplified characters" have been completely denied.
Do you know which province issued this food stamp and how many catties?"Handwritten letter" is simplified to "handwritten";The villain book "Hero Cave" that children like to read has become "Yingyu Cave", and more than half of the strokes of the word "male" have been directly removed;"Thailand" became "Taiguo", and people used the same pronunciation to come up with a simpler word instead. Even the word "exhibition" in "development" has been removed from the part below the word "corpse", and has evolved into a "corpse" with a horizontal under it.
Because it is simple and easy to write, the abolished "two simplified characters" still appear from time to time in non-public texts that need to be written quickly, such as notes, medical records, etc., and also affect the current social life in public places, such as markets, shopping malls and even important places such as street signs.
For example, "eggs" in the market are often written as "chicken dan", and "parking" in public places is written as "car". Many ** use this as an example in programs to promote the Chinese language.
Writing is the cultural carrier of a nation, it needs to be stable, not a rag, you can just take a new piece and throw away the old one. "Language and writing are the main representations of a nation, and it has a certain degree of stability and continuity. ”