The completion of this small book spanned more than ten years, from my initial doubts about the May Fourth vernacular discourse to my final decision to summarize the achievements of the Chinese character revolution in the 20th century with "Chinese character writing". This book began with my doubts and curiosity about "discarded Chinese characters". Why were Chinese characters revolutionized? Why was it revolutionized at a turning point in the 20th century? What was the scale and course of the revolution? How many participants? If we believe that the Chinese character revolution in the 20th century was once mighty and echoed, and it was a miracle that has been rare for thousands of years since the Chinese character was found, then when did literary history and popular cultural memory no longer regard the Chinese character revolution as a major event intended to shake the context and affect Chinese Chinese language and literature? The core figures who support the abolition of Chinese characters, from Zhao Yuanren, the father of modern Chinese linguistics, to Hu Shi, the father of vernacular literature, and then to a group of modern literary masters led by Lu Xun, have they ever worried that Chinese Chinese linguistics, vernacular literature, and Chinese literature will still be "Chinese" after the abolition of Chinese characters? How has the basic outlook of Chinese and Chinese literature changed in the theory and practice of the Chinese character revolution? What are the implications of these changes for today's Chinese writing and theoretical production?
This series of questions involves three aspects: the history of the literary revolution, the twin revolution of writing and literature, and the theoretical significance of the literary revolution, which are the three themes that this little book aims to clarify. They taught me three lessons.
First, don't take regret pills. The saying "regret medicine" comes from Mr. Li Ling's "Bird Singing", which says that enlightenment, salvation and revolution can coexist, and there is no need to take regret the medicine of revolution. As an integral part of the Chinese revolution in the 20th century, the Chinese character revolution was naturally also a "discarding the old and making for the new", and enlightenment and salvation coexisted. It's one thing to be glad that Chinese characters haven't been truly revolutionized, but it's another thing to regret that Chinese characters have gone through the baptism of revolution and to pretend that the Chinese character revolution never happened and shouldn't have happened entirely. The Chinese character revolution is an important part of the rise of modern phonetic-centrism in the world, and it is a historical fact that reshapes the basic appearance of the Chinese Chinese language. It is a good thing that Chinese characters rely on their own traditions, combined with theories, and are finally preserved; But the questions about enlightenment, equality, and self-emancipation that the people who use and use them should not be forgotten. Acknowledging that Chinese characters and Chinese culture have experienced a crisis that has not occurred in a thousand years is the basic prerequisite for understanding the revolution of the 20th century, a necessary condition for critically inheriting the tradition of literature and drawing lessons from the revolution, and an important preparation for coping with the next crisis that may come.
Second, do not be superstitious about "Western medicine". The guiding ideology of the 20th century's Chinese character revolution – modern phonetic-centrism – was a treatise on Western medicine. This is not to say that there is no tradition of attaching importance to "sound" and "rhyme" within Chinese writing and literature, but that the metaphysics that puts language above writing is an imported product that accompanies linguistics, the nation-state, and the eastward expansion of colonialism and imperialism. After nearly half a century, the suspension of the Chinese character revolution and its solution to a certain extent relied on the method of not believing in Western medicine and integrating Chinese and Western medicine. Although the truth is simple, it is not simple. The golden mean here requires us to understand Western critical theory, value non-Western theoretical production, value our own and other cultures' theoretical resources, and discuss and solve difficult problems in an egalitarian, problem-oriented manner. Therefore, the title of my English book has been repeatedly set as "Chinese Character Writing", which is intended to highlight the critical theories that grew within the Chinese character revolution, with the pinyin of Chinese characters as the main axis, and at the same time realize its implosion while following phonocentrism, and finally return to Chinese character writing. Returning to the basic principle of not being superstitious about Western medicine, Chinese abandoned the literal translation of the title and returned to the "Chinese character revolution" to highlight the significance of this movement to the modernity of Chinese and Chinese languages. Word-oriented, the element of humanity.
Third, don't take arrogant pills. Even after the Chinese character revolution in the 20th century, Chinese characters are still the only living script in use today among the four oldest writing systems of mankind (Sumerian, Egyptian, Mayan, and Chinese). This deserves the comfort and pride of all those who know and love Chinese characters. However, as a result, it is inferred that Chinese characters are unshakable and Chinese culture is invincible, which is not only anti-historical, but will also completely miss the opportunity to inherit the positive legacy of the Chinese character revolution and repeat the dilemma of Chinese Chinese and literary practice. Combined with the non-superstitious belief in Western medicine, the Chinese character revolution unmistakably tells us the necessity of "double awakening". It is worth mentioning that during the "First World War", he went to France and China to explain the truth of double awakening, the so-called Western superiority and "** power" are all dreams, and only by breaking the dream can we truly give birth to "the patriotic heart of that strong country".
First of all, Chinese characters must be preserved and improved.
Second, dialects and Chinese are not necessarily opposed. Since positive phonocentrism asserts that all people and all dialects have the right to speak and be recorded, and since a standard language has been established, the centrifugal force of phonocentrism cannot be translated into the pluralism and richness of language, writing, culture, and thinking. On the premise of retaining Chinese characters and writing them in a unified manner, opening up one's ears, exercising one's tongue, and learning as many local dialects as possible is a good way to practice the Chinese character revolution in the post-revolutionary era. In this way, it is expected to realize Zhang Taiyan's expectation - "the different words of the world become new words". The Chinese character revolution's vision of the almost utopian transformation of the Chinese Chinese language can be summed up as nothing more than strengthening the phonetic ability of Chinese characters, advocating positive phonetic-centrism, and advocating equality between people and between languages.
Thirdly, if the twin revolutions of writing and literature in the 20th century ultimately pointed to the rise of mass writing, then in the post-revolutionary era, we should think more about the meaning of mass writing. It seems that everyone is indeed writing, but is it the loud and loud voices of all people who are writing today, or the voices and new voices of all beings after they have achieved self-enlightenment? After the Chinese character revolution, we should explore the possibility of self-enrichment of popular writing, discuss the quality and standards of popular literature and art, try to break through the limitations of revolutionary literature and culture in the 20th century, and truly fulfill Lu Xun's requirement of "handing over words to all people". In this sense, although the Chinese character revolution was suspended, the revolutionary cause could not be stopped.
The author is an associate professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada).