User:Remsense/Chinese language reform

Chinese script reform

Antiquity
The broadest trend in the evolution of Chinese characters over their history has been simplification, both in graphical shape, the "external appearances of individual graphs", and in graphical form , "overall changes in the distinguishing features of graphic[al] shape and calligraphic style, [...] in most cases refer[ring] to rather obvious and rather substantial changes". The traditional notion of an orderly procession of script styles, each suddenly appearing and displacing the one previous, has been disproven by later scholarship and archaeological work. Instead, scripts evolved gradually, with several coexisting in a given area. Prior to the 20th century, the irregular use of character variants by scribes was pervasive. It was common for multiple variants of a character to appear within the same manuscript written by a single scribe. As an example of this variation, during the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) the character meaning 'bright' was written as either or —with either  or  on the left beside the  component on the right. The Book of Han (111 AD) describes an earlier attempt made by King Xuan of Zhou (d. 782 BC) to unify character forms across the states of ancient China, with his chief chronicler having "[written] fifteen chapters describing" what is referred to as the large seal script.

The traditional narrative, as also attested in the Shuowen Jiezi dictionary (c. 100 AD), is that the Qin small seal script that would later be imposed across China was originally derived from the Zhou big seal script with few modifications. However, the body of epigraphic evidence comparing the character forms used by scribes gives no indication of any real consolidation in character forms prior to the founding of the Qin.Following Qin's wars of unification that founded the imperial Qin dynasty (221–206 BC), Chancellor Li Si (d. 208 BC) attempted to universalize Qin small seal script across the country. Li prescribed the form for 'bright', but some scribes ignored this and continued to write the character as. However, the increased usage of was followed by the proliferation of a third variant, with  on the left—which had likely been derived as a contraction of. Ultimately, became the character's standard form.

The Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) that inherited the Qin administration coincided with the perfection of clerical script through the process of libian.

Eastern Han period (1–300 CE)
Inscriptions in stone became common during the Eastern Han dynasty.

Modern campaigns
Beginning in the modern era, Chinese conceptions about language rooted in Confucian lexicography and philology were increasingly challenged in part by ongoing contact with the Western world and its wholly distinct traditions focusing initially on grammar, and later the modern fields of linguistics.

Late Qing vernacular and Republican-era reform (1850–1949)

 * Upon the arrival of Jesuits in China
 * China Inland Mission (CIM)
 * Lu Zhuangzhang

While the state had perennially made efforts to standardize character forms, the impulse prior to the 20th century was generally conservative, and rejected simpler character forms.

Though most closely associated with the People's Republic, the idea of a mass simplification of character forms first gained traction in China during the early 20th century. In 1909, the educator and linguist Lufei Kui (1886–1941) formally proposed the use of simplified characters in education for the first time. Lu Xun, one of the most prominent Chinese authors of the 20th century, stated that "if Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die". Over the following years, which were marked by the 1911 Xinhai Revolution that toppled the Qing dynasty, followed by growing social and political discontent that further erupted into the 1919 May Fourth Movement—many anti-imperialist intellectuals throughout China began to see the country's writing system as a serious impediment to its modernization. In 1916, a multi-part English-language article entitled "The Problem of the Chinese Language" co-authored by the Chinese linguist Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982) and poet Hu Shih (1891–1962) has been identified as a turning point in the history of the Chinese script—as it was one of the first clear calls for China to move away from the use of characters entirely. Instead, Chao proposed that a national form of the language be written with an alphabet, which he saw as more logical and efficient.



Parallel campaigns of alphabetization and character simplification campaigns would continue within the Republican intelligentsia for the next several decades. During the 1930s and 1940s, discussions regarding simplification took place within the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party. Many members of the Chinese intelligentsia maintained that simplification would increase literacy rates throughout the country. In 1935, the first official list of simplified forms was published, consisting of 324 characters collated by the philologist and Peking University professor Qian Xuantong. However, opposition from within the KMT resulted in the list's rescission in 1936.

First round (1949–1977)
Work throughout the 1950s resulted in the 1956 promulgation of the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme, a draft of 515 simplified characters and 54 simplified components, whose simplifications would be present in most compound characters. Over the following decade, the Script Reform Committee deliberated on characters in the 1956 scheme, collecting public input regarding the recognizability of variants, and often approving forms in small batches. Parallel to simplification, there were also initiatives aimed at eliminating the use of characters entirely and replacing them with pinyin as an official Chinese alphabet, but the abandonment of this possibility was confirmed in a 1958 speech given by Zhou Enlai. In 1965, the PRC published the List of Commonly Used Characters for Printing which included standard printed forms for 6196 characters, including all of the forms from the 1956 scheme.