Since the late Qing Dynasty, especially since the May 4th Movement, the debate on simplified characters has never stopped since Lu Feikui and Qian advocated simplified characters. Before the founding of New China, the Nanjing National Government published the first simplified word list, which was then abolished, which is proof. After the founding of New China, a series of effective Chinese character reforms were carried out, and the simplified Chinese character scheme was adopted in 1956. The summary of simplified characters was published in 1964, and the revised version of the summary of simplified characters was reprinted in 1986. However, this series of Chinese character reforms has also caused extensive and fierce debates in Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and other Chinese-speaking and Chinese-speaking regions, with strong support, warm welcome, total negation and strong opposition.
The views against simplification of Chinese characters are as follows:
1, simplifying Chinese characters destroys the structure of Chinese characters and damages the motivation of word formation.
"The main disadvantage of simplified Chinese characters is that it destroys the font structure of Chinese characters, which brings a series of disadvantages." "Many Chinese characters are simplified without considering the glyph, and often only regard it as a symbol. Therefore, some words no longer apply to the rules of Liu Shu. " (Some thoughts on Luo Ning's resumption of using traditional Chinese characters)
2. Simplifying Chinese characters has destroyed China culture and damaged the ties of China traditional culture.
"The slogan of anti-propriety and anti-feudalism, which originated in the May 4th Movement, ideologically separated the tradition of modern people and culture, but the vernacular and simplified Chinese characters of modern China effectively separated the inheritance of China culture. After these two movements, classical Chinese and standardized Chinese characters have degenerated from the main carrier of culture to the special phenomenon of culture. For today's intellectuals, it is no less than a foreign language, without translation, annotation and teachers and friends. Books and figures before the Republic of China-not ancient ones-can't be interpreted smoothly. After these two movements, China culture has become' traditional culture' and' ancient culture' and has become a dead thing. " (Zhao Zhang, "What Simplified Characters Really Simplify")
3. Simplifying Chinese characters with homophones is a retrogression in the development of Chinese characters.
"Simplified characters only replace many words with similar pronunciation but irrelevant meaning with a word with fewer strokes, which artificially leads to the use of' other words', such as' only' and' only'; "hair" and "development" of "hair" later "and" queen "; The "dry" of "war" and "dry" of "talents" and so on. There are countless examples of this. This is a retrogression in the development of writing! "(Zhao Zhang's simplification of Chinese characters is not worth the loss).
4. Simplifying Chinese characters is not helpful for learning, reading and writing Chinese characters.
"Simplifying Chinese characters is to recombine a number of words with detailed division of labor into a multi-tone and multi-meaning word, thus reducing the number of Chinese characters. On the surface, it reduces the total amount of learning. However, due to the increase of polysyllabic words, it takes more energy to learn a single word. In principle, the more words, the simpler and more fixed the meaning, and the easier it is for ordinary people to learn and use; However, with few words, wide meanings, many functions and strong flexibility, it is only suitable for people who are good at drawing inferences from others and using them flexibly. I think the simplification of Chinese characters actually increases the difficulty of learning. " (Zhao Zhang's "Simplification of Chinese characters, not worth the loss")
"Can simplified Chinese characters with fewer strokes really increase clarity, make them easier to identify and speed up reading? A former expert on Chinese character reform admitted that the difference of strokes is too small, so the number of words with similar shapes increases, which will easily lead to discrimination errors and visual fatigue, which will reduce reading efficiency. " (Wang Guangdian, a reporter from World Daily, quoted people who opposed simplified Chinese characters in a series of reports on the dispute between simplification and simplification of Chinese characters. )
5. Simplifying Chinese characters is not helpful to the computer processing of Chinese characters.
"The decisive conclusion is that after successful computer input, practice has proved that the input speed of traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters is as fast as that of English. Whether it is Chinese mainland's pinyin input, An Zijie's digital input, or Taiwan Province's phonetic symbols, as well as Beijing's five-hair font and Taiwan Province's Cang Xie code, it may reach the same speed as English input. " (Peng Xiaoming's notes on the fate of Chinese characters)
6. Simplifying Chinese characters brings inconvenience to cross-strait, three places and international exchanges, further undermining the unity of Chinese character cultural circles.
"At present, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan still use traditional Chinese characters, and foreigners in China mainly read and write traditional Chinese characters. When sinologists in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea write in traditional Chinese characters, most of them are traditional Chinese characters. " "The unification of Chinese characters is also the unification of cultural circles in China ... The greatest use of Chinese characters in these countries is that many of their ancient books are printed in Chinese characters. Of course, they are all traditional Chinese characters. If people in these countries want to know their own history and traditions, they must learn Chinese characters as well as traditional Chinese characters. Otherwise, they have to learn traditional Chinese characters after learning simplified Chinese characters, so that they can understand their own history and culture. " "There is an urgent need to sort out and merge variant forms and standardize unified glyphs. This is the unification of Chinese characters being discussed in academic circles. It is hard for me to imagine replacing their Chinese characters with simplified Chinese characters. It is also hard to imagine using simplified characters instead of traditional Chinese characters in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Will the two sides of the strait be unified in the future, or will two sets of characters be implemented? " (Luo Ning's thought on resuming the use of traditional Chinese characters)
Agree with the viewpoint of simplification of Chinese characters;
1, the simplification of Chinese characters conforms to the historical development law of Chinese characters.
"The general trend of the evolution of Chinese characters is simplification. This conclusion is based on numerous facts in the history of Chinese characters. The development of Chinese characters from Oracle Bone Inscriptions and inscriptions on bronze to Xiao Zhuan is a simplified process. Small seal script is simplified as official script, and official script is simplified as regular script. This process of continuous simplification reflects the general trend of the evolution of Chinese characters. The simplification trend of Chinese characters is mainly manifested in the structure and writing methods of Chinese characters. The structure combines or omits some components, and the writing is graphic. Symbolic enhancement, the stroke shape changed from painting-like lines to strokes composed of points and straight lines. The simplification trend of Chinese characters is also manifested in the same font. As early as Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jin Wenli, there were many phenomena that simplified and traditional Chinese characters were adopted at the same time. In the end, traditional Chinese characters were gradually eliminated and simplified Chinese characters were handed down. The simplification of regular script is more prominent, and the font shape has been simplified for two thousand years.
2. Simplification of Chinese characters conforms to the direction of modernization of Chinese characters.
"Compared with traditional Chinese characters, simplified Chinese characters have the following obvious advantages: fewer strokes, simple structure, clear font and clear distinction. It is easier to learn and use than traditional Chinese characters. The implementation of simplified characters is conducive to eliminating illiteracy, popularizing education and improving the efficiency of study and work. The development of contemporary Chinese information processing technology proves that simplified characters are completely in line with the direction of modernization. Therefore, adhering to the direction of simplified characters is not only the need to develop education and improve the scientific and cultural quality of the whole nation, but also the need. "
"Compared with traditional Chinese characters, simplified Chinese characters greatly reduce strokes, and the difficulty of learning and remembering is also greatly reduced."
3. Simplification conforms to the current trend of using Chinese characters.
"Since the announcement of 1956 simplified Chinese characters scheme, simplified Chinese characters have been widely promoted in mainland China, and have been widely welcomed by the people, especially children and adults who have just started to learn culture."
"Other regions and countries also use simplified characters to varying degrees. Hong Kong intellectuals have adopted the attitude of "simplifying the complex". Simplified Chinese characters are widely used in Taiwan Province Province, and the government and cultural circles have also openly discussed the simplification of Chinese characters for many times. Simplified characters are also widely used as the standard of handwritten running script in the standard running script model issued by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan Province Province. Malaysia and Thailand have learned to use simplified Chinese characters in Chinese teaching. Many other countries have also learned to use simplified characters in Chinese teaching. It can be seen that the use of simplified Chinese characters is the general trend, and the road to restoring traditional Chinese characters is not feasible. " (Shanghai Language and Literature Network "Why Should We Stick to the Direction of Simplification of Chinese Characters")
4. Simplifying Chinese characters is helpful for computer information processing.
"The computer processing of Chinese characters puts forward higher requirements for the standardization and standardization of Chinese characters. For example, we want to keep strokes for words that are more than vertical and horizontal. "
So, how do we view the simplification of Chinese characters?
We believe that simplification of Chinese characters should be viewed objectively, that is, evaluated realistically from reality.
First of all, we should evaluate Chinese characters scientifically and correctly.
Chinese characters are neither magical "most commonly used in the world" nor "Chinese characters die or China dies". They are just symbols that record Chinese, faithfully undertake the function of recording Chinese, and basically adapt to Chinese.
Secondly, we should correctly view the relationship between Chinese characters and China culture.
Chinese characters have recorded China's cultural achievements for thousands of years, and they are faithful recorders of China's cultural classics. It is not that China's cultural classics cannot be recorded in simplified Chinese characters, but in traditional Chinese characters. The newly published simplified edition of Notes to Thirteen Classics by Peking University Publishing House is an obvious proof.
Third, we should distinguish between general Chinese character simplification and specific Chinese character simplification.
At present, most scholars who criticize and oppose the simplification of Chinese characters point their finger at the "one simplification" and "two simplification" published after the founding of New China (especially the abolished "two simplification"), pointing out their irrationality, and then fundamentally denying the simplification of Chinese characters. This is rude and wrong. These two concrete simplification of Chinese characters are really unsatisfactory (especially "two simplification", many of them are.
Besides, we should draw a clear line between academics and politics.
Some criticisms of simplification of Chinese characters are not purely academic, but political. For these malicious criticisms, we should keep our eyes open and distinguish right from wrong.
Finally, we should sum up the experience and lessons of implementing "one simplification" and "two simplifications" and work out a feasible simplification scheme.
For some reasons against the simplification of Chinese characters, you can experience and think for yourself, so we won't refute them one by one.
For the simplification of current Chinese characters, we think it is necessary to do the following work:
First, some Chinese characters have too many strokes and need to be further simplified. This is related to the lattice of Chinese characters. If there are too many strokes, many characters cannot be displayed completely. For example, the "measuring nose" you see now is not a standard font. On the one hand, it is necessary to further improve the computer font display technology. On the other hand, I think it is necessary for Chinese characters to make concessions and further simplify those words with complicated strokes, especially those commonly used words.
Second, efforts should be made to further simplify Chinese characters systematically. For example, Lulu is abbreviated as Lulu, while Lu Lu badminton is abbreviated as Lu Lu badminton. This is the embodiment of non-system. There are still some incomplete places, such as "Huan Huan" simplified as "Huan Huan", while "Huan" has not been simplified.
Third, to further simplify Chinese characters, we should fully consider the meaning and simplification of Chinese characters, and try our best to reduce the improper methods that are easy to damage the meaning and meaning of Chinese characters, such as homophones and cursive scripts. This is also one of the main attacks of opponents of simplification of Chinese characters.
Fourthly, the simplification of Chinese characters can no longer be confined to the mainland itself, but must focus on the areas where Chinese characters are used all over the world. Compare similarities and differences, compromise with each other, and take the "golden mean" (Chen Jianmin's Theory of Intermediary and Simplification of Chinese Characters).