Chinese characters and writing system
The Chinese character script is one of the oldest writing systems in the world.
It is the only one that has been in continuous use for more than three millennia.
What makes Chinese outstanding in this respect is that for almost two thousand years, ‘wenyan’ or ‘classical literacy language’ as Chinese standard written language was almost completely divorced from the contemporary speech of its users.
‘Wenyan’ refers to the style of writings prevalent in the period from the ‘ Spring and Autumn’ period to the Eastern Han dynasty.
Standardization
In 221 BC, after the emperor Qin Shi Huang unified China for the first time, among the first things he did was to unify the writing system using ‘xiaozhuan’ or known as ‘small seal’ style by burning the books written in other writing systems and executing scholars who disagreed with the harsh measures. Emperor Qin Shi Huang also put an end to the diversity of script in different parts of the country. This laid the foundation for the standardization of the written language across the country.
In the early period of the Han dynasty, the Confucianist schools were established as the orthodox school of thought and incentives were instituted to promote it across the land. At that time, the most enviable career for Chinese scholars was to be admitted into the imperial civil service after succeeding in the state examinations. Educational institutions of various levels were set up where the literature of the pre-Qin were mainly taught. As a result, the writings of the pre-Qin period became models both in content and writing style.
The practice of selecting officials through state examination of literary achievement which culminated later in the institution of ‘keju’ was an effective factor in the establishment and maintenance of using wenyan as the classical standard written language for scholarly, literary and official purposes. This status was retained up until the Movement on 4th of May in 1919. It was the abandonment of wenyan as the standard written language after the abolition of the state examination system.
The Emergence of early Modern Written Chinese
In the Eastern Han dynasty, a large number of vernacular elements began to appear in the writings and particularly in the translation of Buddhist texts into Chinese.
By the end of the Tang dynasty, a new type of written language which was ‘baihua’ or known as ‘vernacular literary language’ emerged and matured. ‘Baihua’ differed from ‘wenyan’ as ‘baihua’ is much closer to the contemporary vernacular. Meanwhile, ‘wenyan’ remained supreme as the Chinese standard written language because ‘baihua’ was only used for transcriptions of Buddhist admonitions and scripts for folk stories and plays. For a long period, wenyan and baihua co-existed as two types of written Chinese. Due to the prevalent conservatism, wenyan was considered as elegant, refined and ideal for high-culture functions compared to baihua which was despised as vulgar and coarse and seen as suitable only for low-culture functions. The language used in such writings was known as traditional baihua which different from modern baihua used in the twentieth century.
The foundation for the traditional baihua is mainly based on the Zhongzhou dialect, found much later in Buddhist tracts and quotations of Buddhist masters in the Dunhuang caves, as well as quotations from Neo-Confucianists, scripts of stories or operas and lengthy novels such as Honglou Meng, and Xi You Ji.
Replacement of wenyan by baihua as Standard Written Chinese
Earlier efforts
After the Opium War in 1840-1842, there was increasing opinion for the replacement of wenyan by baihua as the standard written language. It was argued that one of the effective ways to increase the literacy rate was to adopt the written language by the spoken vernacular so that it would be much easier to learn and use.
Among the first to advocate the Language Reformation was Huang Zunxian in 1868 who summarized his proposal with the famous line ‘woshouxiewokou’ which means my hands write as I speak with my mouth. Another scholar, Qiu Tingliang who highlighted the relevance of the written language to the general education of the population in 1898 where he wrote:‘ there is no more effective tool than wenyan to keep the whole population in ignorance and there is no more effective tool than baihua for making it wise’ (Tan 1956).
Around the turn of the century, the idea of reformation gained its support. Immediately preceding and following the famous Reform Movement in 1898 where more than a dozen newspapers in baihua were published in the lower Yangtze river areas of Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and southern part of China which targeted a wide range of readership.
Textbooks and dictionaries in baihua were also published all around the country. Literary works, stories and novels were all written in baihua. According to rough statistics, there were already dozens of newspapers and magazines, more than 50 textbooks and around 1500 novels published in baihua.
Earlier efforts
After the Opium War in 1840-1842, there was increasing opinion for the replacement of wenyan by baihua as the standard written language. It was argued that one of the effective ways to increase the literacy rate was to adopt the written language by the spoken vernacular so that it would be much easier to learn and use.
Among the first to advocate the Language Reformation was Huang Zunxian in 1868 who summarized his proposal with the famous line ‘woshouxiewokou’ which means my hands write as I speak with my mouth. Another scholar, Qiu Tingliang who highlighted the relevance of the written language to the general education of the population in 1898 where he wrote:‘ there is no more effective tool than wenyan to keep the whole population in ignorance and there is no more effective tool than baihua for making it wise’ (Tan 1956).
Around the turn of the century, the idea of reformation gained its support. Immediately preceding and following the famous Reform Movement in 1898 where more than a dozen newspapers in baihua were published in the lower Yangtze river areas of Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and southern part of China which targeted a wide range of readership.
Textbooks and dictionaries in baihua were also published all around the country. Literary works, stories and novels were all written in baihua. According to rough statistics, there were already dozens of newspapers and magazines, more than 50 textbooks and around 1500 novels published in baihua.
New Culture Movement
Towards the end of the second decade of the twentieth century, there was growing consensus among the mainstream scholars to use baihua for formal purposes such as educational, commercial, administrative etc.
Several factors contributed significantly to the rapid establishment of baihua as Chinese standard written language :
1) The abolition of the state examination of literary attainments in 1905 where
scholars were selected for official positions in the government.
2) As a result, students and scholars were less motivated to stick to wenyan which
no longer served to enhance the prospects of career advancement.
3) The Qing dynasty was overthrown six years later and the Republic of China was
established. With the change in political system in thousands of years of Chinese
history, the country was prepared for drastic changes to other aspects of society.
The increasing influence of modern Western ideas and awakening nationalism were factors which contributed to the New Culture Movement which started in the late 1910s. It had three major themes which involved Literary Revolution, democracy and science. The initiators of the movement involving mainly Western-trained intellectuals like Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu, Liu Bannong, QianXuantong, Fu Sinian and Lu Xun advocated that democracy and science were the prescription for a strong and prosperous China and demanded easier access to education for the population.
The major goal of the Literary Revolution was to replace wenyan with baihua that was much closer to daily vernacular and use it with multi-purposes.
* Following the May 4th Movement was a transitional period in which baihua
gradually replaced wenyan as the standard written language.
- Given the fact that wenyan had been used for thousands of years for formal purposes
it could not be replaced in such a short time.
* The use of wenyan was greatly reduced in China after 1949. Lup Changpei and Lu Shuxiang (1956)
argue that baihua won a comprehensive battle over wenyan as the standard form of Modern
Written Chinese only after 1949.
- Although wenyan expressions still abound in modern writings, texts have rarely been written in
wenyan since 1950s.
- Only occasionally some books written are composed exclusively in traditional wenyan.
Towards the end of the second decade of the twentieth century, there was growing consensus among the mainstream scholars to use baihua for formal purposes such as educational, commercial, administrative etc.
Several factors contributed significantly to the rapid establishment of baihua as Chinese standard written language :
1) The abolition of the state examination of literary attainments in 1905 where
scholars were selected for official positions in the government.
2) As a result, students and scholars were less motivated to stick to wenyan which
no longer served to enhance the prospects of career advancement.
3) The Qing dynasty was overthrown six years later and the Republic of China was
established. With the change in political system in thousands of years of Chinese
history, the country was prepared for drastic changes to other aspects of society.
The increasing influence of modern Western ideas and awakening nationalism were factors which contributed to the New Culture Movement which started in the late 1910s. It had three major themes which involved Literary Revolution, democracy and science. The initiators of the movement involving mainly Western-trained intellectuals like Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu, Liu Bannong, QianXuantong, Fu Sinian and Lu Xun advocated that democracy and science were the prescription for a strong and prosperous China and demanded easier access to education for the population.
The major goal of the Literary Revolution was to replace wenyan with baihua that was much closer to daily vernacular and use it with multi-purposes.
* Following the May 4th Movement was a transitional period in which baihua
gradually replaced wenyan as the standard written language.
- Given the fact that wenyan had been used for thousands of years for formal purposes
it could not be replaced in such a short time.
* The use of wenyan was greatly reduced in China after 1949. Lup Changpei and Lu Shuxiang (1956)
argue that baihua won a comprehensive battle over wenyan as the standard form of Modern
Written Chinese only after 1949.
- Although wenyan expressions still abound in modern writings, texts have rarely been written in
wenyan since 1950s.
- Only occasionally some books written are composed exclusively in traditional wenyan.
Simplification of the traditional writing system
Simplification of the traditional Chinese writing system proceeds in two ways :
1) One is through reduction of the number of strokes per character.
- This is effected when a component of a character is replaced by another with
fewer strokes or when the whole character is replaced by a homophonous
character that is simpler in terms of graphic structure.
2) The reduction of the number of characters in common use.
- When a character had been used in different geographical places, through
different times and for different purposes, it often underwent changes in its
graphic shape giving rise to varying forms of the same character, which are
called yitizi or known as ‘character in variant shape’ in Chinese linguistics.
- The number of yitizi accumulated in Chinese is huge, which accounts for 40% of
the total characters in Kangxizidian.
* The writing system as a whole is simplified through choosing one of the variant
forms of the same character that is simplest in graphic structure and relegating
all the others to disuse.
Simplification of the traditional Chinese writing system proceeds in two ways :
1) One is through reduction of the number of strokes per character.
- This is effected when a component of a character is replaced by another with
fewer strokes or when the whole character is replaced by a homophonous
character that is simpler in terms of graphic structure.
2) The reduction of the number of characters in common use.
- When a character had been used in different geographical places, through
different times and for different purposes, it often underwent changes in its
graphic shape giving rise to varying forms of the same character, which are
called yitizi or known as ‘character in variant shape’ in Chinese linguistics.
- The number of yitizi accumulated in Chinese is huge, which accounts for 40% of
the total characters in Kangxizidian.
* The writing system as a whole is simplified through choosing one of the variant
forms of the same character that is simplest in graphic structure and relegating
all the others to disuse.
CRITICISMS
Gains and problems
The main purpose of the First Scheme was to reduce the number of strokes of characters in common use. It seems to be much easier to learn, read and write simplified characters. On the other hand, the reform has given rise to some problems and criticisms as well.
When simplified characters became too easy to learn, write, read, reproduce by modern printing techniques, and use with computers, those characters in turn became hard to recognize. Characters become less differentiated from each other as a result of simplification of their graphic structure. For example: 誉/誊, 俑/桶, 贯/贾, 戍戌戊咸威戚戒戎
Some of the simplified characters offer even fewer cues to their phonetic value. It also takes time for people who were trained in simplified scripts to learn to write in the traditional forms of Chinese characters. The readers who were taught simplified characters in school do not understand and recognize characters in classic works and literature in Chinese traditional characters. This is also leads to difficulties in translating works and interpreting the historical official documents.
Gains and problems
The main purpose of the First Scheme was to reduce the number of strokes of characters in common use. It seems to be much easier to learn, read and write simplified characters. On the other hand, the reform has given rise to some problems and criticisms as well.
When simplified characters became too easy to learn, write, read, reproduce by modern printing techniques, and use with computers, those characters in turn became hard to recognize. Characters become less differentiated from each other as a result of simplification of their graphic structure. For example: 誉/誊, 俑/桶, 贯/贾, 戍戌戊咸威戚戒戎
Some of the simplified characters offer even fewer cues to their phonetic value. It also takes time for people who were trained in simplified scripts to learn to write in the traditional forms of Chinese characters. The readers who were taught simplified characters in school do not understand and recognize characters in classic works and literature in Chinese traditional characters. This is also leads to difficulties in translating works and interpreting the historical official documents.
Reference :
Chen, P. (1999). Modern Chinese : History and Sociolinguistics. United Kingdom :
Cambridge University Press.
Retrieved from http://hk.chiculture.net/topic.php?cat05=6
Retrieved from http://www.historians.org/projects/giroundtable/Chinese/Chinese3.htm
Retrieved from http://club.ntu.edu.tw/~davidhsu/New-Character-Lecture/ch5.html
Retrieved from http://www.cpce.gov.hk/chi/news/culture/chinese_wording/
Retrieved from http://culture.edu.tw/history/subcategory_photomenu.php?subcategoryid=145&s_level=2
Retrieved from http://course.bnu.edu.cn/course/gdhy/zljc/zgwh/6.htm
Chen, P. (1999). Modern Chinese : History and Sociolinguistics. United Kingdom :
Cambridge University Press.
Retrieved from http://hk.chiculture.net/topic.php?cat05=6
Retrieved from http://www.historians.org/projects/giroundtable/Chinese/Chinese3.htm
Retrieved from http://club.ntu.edu.tw/~davidhsu/New-Character-Lecture/ch5.html
Retrieved from http://www.cpce.gov.hk/chi/news/culture/chinese_wording/
Retrieved from http://culture.edu.tw/history/subcategory_photomenu.php?subcategoryid=145&s_level=2
Retrieved from http://course.bnu.edu.cn/course/gdhy/zljc/zgwh/6.htm