The Evolution of Chinese Language over the Times Author: Zhou Youguang
Source: Manuscript given by the author
Source date: 2007-10-29
This Site release time: 2007-10-29 9:56:28
Reads: 648 times
China is a country with ancient civilization and is actively modernizing today. China's modernization must catch up with the two eras of industrialization and informationization. In order to meet the needs of national modernization, language and writing must develop accordingly. People across the country must be able to communicate directly with each other, eliminating dialect barriers. The article should be written clearly as words, and read out so that everyone can understand it. Chinese characters should be organized and standardized to reduce learning difficulties and inconvenience in use. The phonetic notation should use letters instead of fanqie to unify the pronunciation of Chinese characters. Ethnic minorities should improve or create writing according to their specific circumstances. Pinyin should be used to input Chinese characters on the computer so that Chinese can enter the information Internet. All this is called the modernization of the Chinese language.
The evolution of society and the evolution of language are closely related. The Qin Dynasty merged with the six kingdoms, unified the world, and implemented the policy of "writing with the same text". "Official and prison duties were complicated. At the beginning, there were official scripts to facilitate the change of conventions, and the ancient writings were extinct." (Xu Shen, "Shuowen"). This is the evolution of ancient society that caused the evolution of language. After the Opium War (1840), when imperialism invaded China, it also opened the door to the closed-door Qing Empire. The Chinese nation awakened from shock and began a new chapter in Chinese history. At the same time, it set off a new trend of thought in the Chinese language. This is the evolution of language caused by modern social evolution.
After the Revolution of 1911 (1911), a Chinese language modernization movement went from inception to practice. This movement has different emphases and names at different stages: Qieyinzi Movement, Mandarin Movement, Vernacular Movement, Phonetic Alphabet Movement, Mandarin Romaji Movement, Latinized New Writing Movement, Shouji Movement, New Language Movement for Ethnic Minorities, etc. In the process of advancement of Chinese language modernization, there are successes and failures, highs and lows, old and new debates, and swings. We are constantly improving our understanding and developing situations through "trials and errors." Looking at the requirements of a series of movements, they can be summarized into four aspects: complete assimilation of language, colloquialization of style, simplification of characters and alphabetization of phonetic notation.
1. The assimilation of language
When Confucius taught his disciples to read, they did not use the Shandong dialect of his hometown, but the Chinese synonym "Yayan" at that time. Later, throughout the dynasties, there were synonyms for Taiwan, which were called "Tongyu" and "Mandarin". In ancient times, the synonyms of *** did not require strict standard pronunciation, and there were only a few users, mainly officials and businessmen. The modern homonym of *** comes from ancient times, but it is different from ancient times. It requires strict pronunciation standards and makes the popularization of Chinese synonyms a condition for the implementation of compulsory education for all. This is a basic project for building a modern country.
In the early years of the Republic of China, it was stipulated that the pronunciation of Chinese characters in most provinces should be the same as the national pronunciation standard (old national pronunciation). The popular view at the time was that as long as *** synonyms could be "expressed through words", there was no need to have uniform standards. Soon, through practice, I improved my understanding and realized that the standards must be unified and learning can be gradual. The standard pronunciation cannot use artificial pronunciation, but should use actual pronunciation, so the pronunciation of moderate Beijingers was used as the standard (New Guoyin). . In 1955, the National Speech Reform Conference stipulated that Mandarin "uses Beijing phonetic pronunciation as the standard pronunciation", reaffirmed this standard, and carried out more detailed Chinese standardization.
***The names of the same language have also evolved. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, it was called "Guoyu" (the same language as the national government). In the 1950s, it was called "Putonghua" (the synonym of the Han nationality). The 1982 Constitution stipulates that "the state promotes Mandarin, the national language" (National Chinese Tonghua). The Chinese in Singapore and overseas call it "Huayu" (the synonym for Chinese around the world). The name is different, but the essence is the same.
***The promotion work of Tongyu is staggering forward in the vast land of China, with ups and downs, but generally speaking, it is like a wave. The 1920s was a climax, and the 1950s was another climax. The climax varies from province to province. After the liberation of Taiwan, Mandarin was popularized, so that all schools used Mandarin as the campus language, and all public activities used Mandarin as the communication medium. The mainland's "popularization" campaign focuses on schools, using radio and television, and is accelerating its implementation.
However, the level of implementation varies from place to place, and there are many weak areas where "promoting universal education" will require long-term and arduous work in the future.
In ancient times, it was progress to be able to achieve "books with the same text". Today, if we are satisfied with "books with the same text", we are falling behind. Modern China needs both "books with the same text" and "language with the same pronunciation."
2. Colloquialism of style
Ancient civilizations all have conflicts between written language (classical Chinese) and spoken language (vernacular). Spoken language continues to advance, while written language stagnates, becoming more and more separated from living spoken language, hindering the development of language and the popularization of education. During the Tang and Song dynasties, Buddhism used "Bianwen" and "Quotations" that were close to Japanese to spread its teachings, because spoken language could penetrate deeply into the masses. The reformers in the late Qing Dynasty proposed that "I write with my hand and speak with my mouth", "Advocating vernacular rather than classical Chinese", and "Vernacular is the foundation of the Restoration". In 1919, the "May Fourth" movement, spearheaded by the vernacular movement, was launched, which was called China's "Renaissance". Vernacular Chinese thus replaced classical Chinese and became the official style of literature and textbooks. Novels and essays are all written in "unrefined" vernacular. The vernacular movement was not only the emancipation of style, but also the emancipation of thought.
However, before World War II, the vernacular movement still left many blank areas. For example, the official document program still uses " Waiting for this", and it was not until the 1950s that the "official document reform" was implemented. At this time, the half-text and half-white "news body" of the newspaper was also changed to clear and clear spoken language. In addition, newspapers, magazines and various formal publications changed from straight lines to horizontal lines in order to match scientific terms and mathematical formulas. In the 1990s, amid the craze for “promoting Chinese culture,” many large-scale “Ancient Books and Modern Translation Series” were published, which was an extension of the vernacular movement.
The reform of style and style aroused strong opposition from "lovers of antiquity". Shortly after the May 4th Movement, a "classical Chinese Bible reading" movement was launched. They attacked the vernacular as "the words of a person who sells pulp" and "use vulgar and reckless writing to steal the name of high literature and art". They even abused their power and forced textbooks to return to classical Chinese.
In today's "information age", the stylistic reform of "consistency between words and words" has added new era tasks. "Multimedia" combines telecommunications technology (telex) for transmitting letters, sound transmission technology (telephone) for transmitting language, and audio-visual technology (television) for transmitting images, putting forward new requirements for language and writing. The language needs to be standardized and spoken so that everyone can hear it clearly (style language); the text needs to be spoken in a colloquial manner and read out so that everyone can understand it (style language). Language and text must be able to automatically convert into each other instantly. Vocabulary requires *** assimilation. Vocabulary differences between various regions, confusion of translations and terminology are no longer "interesting" phenomena, but "harmful" phenomena. In order to make the vernacular with "consistent language" a suitable literary style in the information age, a lot of language standardization work needs to be done.
3. Simplification of characters
Chinese characters have complex strokes, a large number of words, confusing pronunciation, and difficult retrieval, collectively known as the "four difficulties". In response to the "four difficulties" of Chinese characters, the character reform movement proposed the "four determinations" of countermeasures: shaping, quantification, pronunciation, and order.
Finalization: Variant characters must be unified, printed and handwritten characters must be close, and simplified characters that are clear, easy to recognize, and easy to write must be the norm. This is a requirement put forward in the late Qing Dynasty. Primary school students, literacy students, and people with lower education levels who are just learning to write generally want to simplify strokes.
In 1935, Shanghai launched the "Characters on Hand" movement, selecting more than 300 simplified Chinese characters that were commonly written on hand and publicly using them in 15 magazines. In the same year, the Ministry of Education in Nanjing released the "first batch of simplified character lists", including 324 "simplified characters that are relatively popular in society", and plans to continue to publish them in the future. However, in the face of opposition, the decision was withdrawn the next year.
In 1956, the "Chinese Character Simplification Plan" was announced, and simplified characters were officially implemented for the first time. This plan stipulated 515 simplified characters and 54 simplified radicals, which later became the "General List of Simplified Characters" (***2235 characters). Most of these simplified characters are "already in ancient times". At this time, the "vulgar style" was just upgraded to the "official style", just like "vernacular" replaced "classical Chinese". Simplified characters have been widely used in textbooks, newspapers and magazines in mainland China. After Singapore adopted simplified characters, Chinese schools in Malaysia, Thailand and other places also adopted them.
Calligraphy is not limited by simplification. In fact, ancient calligraphers often wrote simplified characters. One-third of Wang Xizhi's "Lanting Preface" is simplified characters, and one-sixth of Ouyang Xun's "Jiucheng Palace" are simplified characters. It is a simplified character, which shows that the ancients did not think that there is a contradiction between simplification and the art of calligraphy. Some people worry that simplification will destroy traditional culture. The "official change" from seal script to official script greatly simplified Chinese characters; the long-established cursive script and running script greatly simplified Chinese characters. These simplifications have not destroyed traditional culture, so how can the simplified characters inherited from them destroy traditional culture?
Quantitative Too many characters and an unlimited number of characters are the main reasons why Chinese characters are difficult to learn and use. Today, when it is difficult to reduce the word size, the "layered use" method can be used to reduce the inconvenience of learning and using. Nowadays, Chinese characters have been divided into "commonly used Chinese characters" (3,500 characters) and "general Chinese characters" (7,000 characters). The former is used for primary education, the latter is used for general publications, and the other is "rarely used Chinese characters", which are used in ancient books and Specialized publications. It can also be divided into "beginner's characters" (1,000 characters) as a starting point for learning Chinese characters. This is the tradition of "thousand-character writing". Experience tells us that it is better to learn less but be able to use it than to learn too much but not be able to use it. The frequency of use of Chinese characters is unbalanced. A small number are commonly used and a large number are rarely used. This is the "diminishing rate of utility" of Chinese characters. By grasping this rule and improving the way you use words, you can gradually reduce the number of words you use.
Fixed pronunciation: In the early years of the Republic of China, the work of "unifying pronunciation" of Chinese characters began. Dictionaries always used letters to indicate the standard pronunciation, instead of fanqie. In the 1950s, the "Putonghua pronunciation review" work began to unify the pronunciation of "differently pronounced words". The finalization work has achieved initial results. However, only by popularizing Mandarin can "unification of pronunciation" be completely realized.
Sequencing In the information age that requires fast retrieval, the issue of "sequencing" of Chinese characters has become even more prominent. Both the "radical method" and the "stroke method" are difficult to adapt to the requirements of the era of automatic and fast retrieval. After the "phonetic alphabet" was announced in 1918, the "phonetic sequence method" using alphabetical order began to be developed. After the "Modern Chinese Dictionary" used the "phonetic sequence method" of pinyin letters to arrange the text, large publications such as the "Encyclopedia of China" also used the "phonetic sequence method" to arrange the text. This is a new development of the "sequencing" method.
4. Alphabetization of phonetic notation
The number of Chinese characters has reached 60,000, but there is a lack of a set of letters.
In 1918, the "phonetic alphabet" based on ancient Chinese characters was announced, and the "alphabetization of phonetic notation" began. From then on, letters replaced "Fanqie".
In 1928, the "Guoyu Romaji" was announced, adopting the internationally accepted alphabet. In 1958, the "Chinese Pinyin Plan" (referred to as "Pinyin") was announced to inherit and update the "Mandarin Roman characters". Taiwan uses the "phonetic alphabet" (called "phonetic symbols") internally and the "Mandarin Roman characters" externally. In 2001, it is considering switching to "pinyin". The mainland uses "Pinyin" uniformly both internally and externally. In 1982, the "Chinese Pinyin Scheme" became an international standard (ISO7098). The Chinese alphabet changed from "national form" to "international form", from "domestic use" to "international use", and from "national standard" to "international standard" , a bridge has been built that brings Chinese language and culture to the international stage.
"Alphabets" are not "characters". This is the anti-Japanese policy of the mainland and Taiwan. Some people are afraid that pinyin will divide China. It is unfounded to worry that Pinyin spells Mandarin, and promoting Mandarin can only strengthen unity and will not cause division.
After "Pinyin" became an international standard, its use gradually expanded. In this era, it is a necessary means to connect to the international information network, and the importance of this role will gradually become apparent. By inputting pinyin on the "Chinese processor", using "words, phrases, idioms, and paragraphs" as units, you can Automatic conversion into Chinese characters without glyph encoding is a new development in Chinese character input technology.
China's language modernization includes the language construction of ethnic minorities. China has 55 ethnic minorities, using more than 30 kinds of scripts, and 20. Since the 1950s, scripts that are inconvenient to use have been sorted out, revised or reformed according to specific circumstances. There are 17 Latin alphabet scripts for ethnic minorities, including 4 original Latin scripts and 13 new Latin scripts. "Wen" has been printed on RMB.
In the "Chinese Character Cultural Circle", Japan first strives to modernize the language. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), the national language was popularized, kana was standardized, comprehensive kanji phonetic notation was implemented, and the romaji movement was launched. After the war, the official document reform was carried out, and 1945 commonly used Chinese characters were stipulated. The characters used in laws and official documents were limited to this, and the legal Japanese romaji (instructional style) were announced. Japan attaches great importance to reducing the number of words used. When the number of words is reduced, it is easier to simplify the strokes. Japanese has changed from using a small number of kana characters between kanji characters to using a small number of kanji characters between kana characters. North Korea (North Korea) switched to the phonetic Hangul alphabet and abolished Chinese characters. South Korea (South) continues to use a mixture of Chinese characters and Hangul letters. General publications use 1,800 Chinese characters, and Chinese characters are not taught in primary schools. After Vietnam became independent, it adopted Latinized pinyin writing and abolished Chinese characters. Language modernization is a long-term cultural movement carried out in all countries in the "Chinese Character Cultural Circle". After World War II, there were more than 100 emerging countries. Some of them need to establish a national language, some need to formulate a text, some need to update the old text, and some need to enrich the vocabulary. Even in developed countries, language problems occur when forming a new communist community. An emerging discipline that studies macro-level issues in Chinese language was born, called "Language Project". "Script reform" includes language, and "language plan" includes script. This is a worldwide cultural movement. China should refer to the experience of other countries around the world and implement language policies that are conducive to national modernization based on China's own specific conditions.
Revised in April 2001, when he was 96 years old