Why are Chinese pinyin and English letters the same?
There was no Chinese Pinyin before.
It has been 45 years since the "Hanyu Pinyin Plan" was announced. On this anniversary, we can review the history of the Chinese Pinyin movement in our country and learn from it. New, but still very meaningful.
The ancient history of Chinese Pinyin
Our country originally did not have Pinyin letters, and used straight phonetic or fanqie methods to notate Chinese characters. Zhiyin means using homophones to indicate the pronunciation of Chinese characters. If the homophones are all rare characters, it will not be read even if the pronunciation is noted. Fanqie is to use two Chinese characters to phoneticize another Chinese character. The upper character of Fanqie has the same initial consonant as the notated character, and the lower character of Fanqie has the same finals and tones as the noted character. Mr. Zhou Youguang calls reverse cutting a "cutting and welding method in the heart". Both of these phonetic notation methods are inconvenient to use.
Shou Wen of the Tang Dynasty formulated thirty-six letters to describe the phonetics of Chinese characters based on the analysis of Chinese initials, vowels, and tones. This shows that my country's phonetic analysis had reached a very high level at that time. Unfortunately, he used Chinese characters to express it. These initial consonants and finals, therefore, such letters did not further develop into pinyin script.
500 years ago, some Muslim minorities in my country used the "Small Scripture" script, which is an Arabic script. Using Arabic letters to spell Chinese is a step further than Shouwen used Chinese characters to represent initial consonants and finals in the Tang Dynasty. *** has 36 characters, 4 of which are unique letters. This may be the earliest Pinyin script used to spell Chinese in my country. It no longer has traces of Chinese characters and uses Pinyin letters entirely. "Xiao Jing" is also used by Dongxiang, Salar and other ethnic groups.
In the late Ming Dynasty, Western missionaries came to China to preach. In order to learn Chinese characters, they began to use Latin letters to spell Chinese. In 1605, the Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) published "The Miracle of Western Characters" in Beijing, in which four articles in Chinese characters were added with Latin alphabet phonetic notations. This is the earliest publication to use Latin letters to pinyin Chinese characters. It is slightly later than the use of Arabic letters to pinyin Chinese characters in the "Xiao Jing". The "Xiao Jing" is probably the earliest attempt to use alphabetic characters to pinyin Chinese characters. The original book of "The Miracle of the West" is no longer easy to find. It is said that the Vatican Library still has a copy.
In 1626, the French Jesuit missionary Jeanne Gein published "Western Confucianism's Ear and Eyes" in Hangzhou, which was a glossary of Chinese characters using Latin letters. The scheme used for phonetic notation is modified based on Matteo Ricci's scheme.
The solution proposed by Matteo Ricci and Jin Nige is designed based on the "Mandarin reading pronunciation" and is suitable for spelling Beijing pronunciation. This novel Pinyin method has given Chinese scholars great inspiration. Fang Yizhi, a phonology expert in the late Ming Dynasty, said: "The diversity of words is caused by connections and borrowings. If things belong to one word, each word has a meaning, just like in the Far West, words are formed by sounds. Qing Dynasty scholar Yang Xuanqi said: "Xin Mao lived in the Weng family in the old Jin Dynasty, and his son Yunzhang published "Xi Ru Er Mu Zi" to show the rest. In the final volume, I suddenly realized that there is a certain reason for cutting words, because it can be used as a certain method." However, for two to three hundred years, the plans of Matteo Ricci and Jin Nige were only used by foreign missionaries and did not spread widely among the Chinese.
Between 1815 and 1823, Morrison, a British missionary who preached in Guangzhou, compiled a "Chinese Dictionary", which was the earliest Chinese-English dictionary. The dictionary used his own pinyin design. The scheme to spell Chinese in the Cantonese dialect is actually a dialect of the Roman alphabet. Then, dialect church Romanization of different dialects was also designed in other dialect areas. Among them, Xiamen's "dialect" began to spread in 1850, and 50,000 books were printed and sold in 1921 alone. Until the founding of New China, there were about 100,000 people using this dialect to teach Roman script. The Roman script of the church in other dialects spread in the southern treaty ports and was mainly used for proselytizing.
In 1867, Thomas F. Wade, the secretary of the British Embassy, ??published the Beijing phonetic Mandarin textbook "Language Ziji". He designed a spelling method to use Latin letters to spell Chinese names. , place names and names of things are called "Waitoma style".
Between 1931 and 1932, two foreign missionaries proposed "Spicy Chinese Characters", a Chinese Latin alphabet script designed based on "Guangyun" and based on syllables, with homophones. Almost every word has a different spelling, and the spelling is in dialect.
These plans for using Latin letters to spell Chinese characters provided experience for the subsequent Chinese Pinyin movement.
Modern History of Chinese Pinyin
The Chinese Pinyin movement began with the Qieyin movement in the late Qing Dynasty.
After the Opium War, China became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The enthusiasm to save the nation from danger and revitalize China inspired some patriotic intellectuals to put forward the idea of ??saving the country through education. Liang Qichao, Shen Xue, Lu Xunzhang, and Wang Zhao They all unanimously pointed out that the difficulty of Chinese characters was the reason why education could not be popularized. Therefore, a "Chinese Character Movement" was launched.
Liang Qichao pointed out in the "Preface to Shen's Music Book", "The country is evil and strong? The people are wise and strive to be strong, but the people are evil and wise? If all the people in the world read and are literate, then the people are wise." Shen Xue said: "The strength of the European countries...has the sound of Rome. People are easy to read, and they are easy to understand, understand, analyze pros and cons, be of the same mind from top to bottom, and emphasize wealth and strength." Lu Xunzhang said: "Use the pronunciation to understand Chinese... If the whole country can read and understand, how can the country be poor? How can the people become fish and meat?" Wang Zhao said: "Everyone, let's all be stronger individually. Look at us. What has become of China? ""The Chinese government must pay attention to the education of the lower classes. If it wants to remove the obstacles to lower class education, it must create a communication language to unify speech and language."
Lu Xunzhang (1854-1928) was the first person in my country to create pinyin writing. In 1892, he published "The Basics of Understanding at a Glance" in Xiamen, announcing the "New Chinese Characters for Qieyin" he created, using Latin letters and their variants to spell out the Xiamen pronunciation, spelling out the phonetic rhymes, writing horizontally on the left and right, with the initial consonant on the right. The finals are on the left, and nasal symbols and tone symbols are added. After adding initial consonants, Quanzhou and Chaozhou sounds can also be spelled. He believes that Chinese characters "may be the most difficult characters in today's world", and the new characters with cut sounds "can be read by oneself without a teacher after learning the letters and cut methods". In this way, "it saves more than ten years of writing". If you devote this time to arithmetic, style, chemistry, and all kinds of practical studies, why worry about the country not being prosperous and strong!" Lu Xunzhang did not demand the abolition of Chinese characters. He advocated "the juxtaposition of Qieyin characters and Chinese characters." Later, he compiled "Textbook of Chinese Alphabet Beijing Qiaoyin" and "Chinese Alphabet Beijing Qiaoyin Collection", using Qiaoyin characters to spell Mandarin.
Following Lu Xunzhang's "Elementary Steps of Understanding at a Glance", the 20-year Qieyin character movement began. Almost every one or two years, new phonetic character schemes appear, such as Wu Jingheng's "Bean Sprout Kuai Zi", Cai Xiyong's "Chuanyin Kuai Zi", Shen Xue's "Prosperous Vowels", Wang Bingyao's "Pinyin Chart Pu" , "Mandarin Harmony Alphabet" by Wang Zhao, "Added Harmony Simplified Characters" by Lao Naixuan, etc. Most of these cut-yin character plans are Chinese character stroke-type alphabet plans with double spelling of sounds and rhymes. Most of them are only practiced in a small area and are not widely promoted. Only Wang Zhao's Mandarin alphabet and Lao Naixuan's simplified Chinese characters are widely promoted.
Wang Zhao (1859-1933) participated in the Reform Movement of 1898. After its failure, he fled to Japan. Inspired by Japanese pseudonyms, he began to draw up the Chinese pinyin alphabet. In 1900, he returned to China secretly and took the pen name of "Ashi in the Ashes". Published the "Mandarin Harmony Alphabet", using Chinese character strokes as the basis of the alphabet, spelling out the sounds and rhymes, and advocating for Beijing dialect to be the standard Mandarin. He said: "Beijing dialect is the most convenient to promote, so it is called Guanhua; officials are public, and it is appropriate to choose the dialect that occupies a large area and has a large number of people." He did not advocate the abolition of Chinese characters. He said: "Those who have the strength to read but have no time to read, it is still better to read Chinese in ten years."
In 1903, Wang Zhao established the "Mandarin Alphabet School" in Beijing. In order to obtain legal status, he surrendered and was imprisoned. After being released, he fully promoted his Mandarin alphabet. "In ten years, he continued to persevere and spread the practice to thirteen provinces." , whose spirit is admirable.
Lao Naixuan (1842-1921) was a phonologist. He actively supported Wang Zhao’s plan, supplemented the dialect alphabet with the Mandarin alphabet, and formulated interviews with Nanjing, Suzhou, Fujian, and Guangdong. The plans are collectively referred to as "Hesheng Simplified Chinese Characters". The achievements of promoting this kind of "harmonized simplified characters" are very remarkable. "Once illiterate women and villagers can read books and newspapers and write letters, they will be like a blind person who suddenly can see, and their joy is almost indescribable."
Although the creators of Qieyinzi do not want to use it to replace Chinese characters, they hope that Qieyinzi can become a pinyin script that can be used in parallel with Chinese characters. However, their wish did not come true.
The pinyin alphabet schemes proposed in the Qiyinzi movement are diverse and dazzling, and can be roughly summarized into three major systems:
①Kana system: imitate Japanese kana and use Chinese characters Radicals serve as pinyin symbols. The "Chinese Qie Yin New Characters" proposed in Lu Xunzhang's book "The Elementary Level of Understanding at a Glance" in 1892, and the "Mandarin Harmony Alphabet" proposed by Wang Zhao in 1901 all belong to the kana system.
②Shorthand system: uses shorthand symbols as pinyin symbols. The plans proposed in books such as Cai Xiyong's "Transmitting Sounds", Shen Xue's "Vowels in the Prosperous Age", and Wang Bingyao's "Pinyin Pu" published between 1896 and 1897 all belong to the shorthand system.
③Latin system: Latin letters are used as pinyin symbols. The solutions proposed in books such as "Jiangsu New Alphabet" by Zhu Wenxiong in 1906, "Chinese Phonetic Alphabet" by Liu Mengyang in 1908, "Tongzi" by Jiang Kanghu, and "Latin Interpretation" by Huang Xubai in 1909 all belong to Latin.
In February 1913, the Pronunciation Unification Conference was held in Beijing. The main tasks of the conference were "to determine the pronunciation of the Chinese pronunciation of all words" and "to adopt the alphabet." The meeting lasted for more than three months. At this meeting, the pronunciation of 6,500 Chinese characters was reviewed and the "standard national pronunciation" was determined through voting by representatives of each province; a set of phonetic alphabets, with a total of 39 characters, was drawn up. This set of letters adopts the stroke pattern of Chinese characters. Selected from ancient Chinese characters, the syllables use a three-pinyin system of initial consonants, finals and tones. The anti-cut method of double spelling is improved. Its purpose is only to mark the pronunciation of Chinese characters and is not used as a pinyin text. This set of phonetic alphabets was later reduced to 37 (12 initial consonants, 13 finals, and 3 mediators), which was almost half the number of letters in the plan of Shuangpin cut phonetic characters.
The meeting focused on the development of phonetic alphabets There was a heated debate on the role and status of the phonetic alphabet, and it was finally decided that the role of the phonetic alphabet is to phoneticize Chinese characters and cannot be used in parallel with Chinese characters. Li Jinxi clearly pointed out that the function of the phonetic alphabet is to "serve Chinese characters and stand next to them."
After the approval of the phonetic alphabet, it was put on hold for five years before it was officially announced by the Ministry of Education of the Beiyang Government in 1920. "Mandarin Transmission Institutes" and "Summer Mandarin Courses" were opened across the country to promote the phonetic alphabet. Classical Chinese classes in primary schools were all changed to vernacular, and all primary school textbooks used phonetic alphabets for new Chinese characters. Beijing also established a phonetic alphabet book and newspaper company to print popular reading materials with phonetic alphabets, and also ran a phonetic alphabet newspaper from 1920. By 1958, the phonetic alphabet had been used in our country for nearly 40 years, which played a great role in unifying the pronunciation of Chinese characters, promoting Mandarin, and popularizing pinyin knowledge. In 1930, some upper-level officials felt that the name "phonetic alphabet" was used. No, it was renamed "phonetic symbols" to emphasize that this is not a script parallel to Chinese characters.
Zhou Enlai spoke highly of the role of phonetic symbols in "The Task of Current Character Reform". : "After the Revolution of 1911, the phonetic alphabet was produced. This is China's first set of pinyin alphabet officially announced by the state and widely implemented in primary and secondary schools. The phonetic alphabet has made certain contributions to literacy education and unification of pronunciation.
Although it seems today that the phonetic alphabet still has many shortcomings (for example, as a basis for the unity of various ethnic minorities and a tool for promoting international cultural exchanges, the phonetic alphabet is obviously far inferior to the Latin alphabet), the achievements of the phonetic alphabet in history are , we should affirm it. For the pinyin alphabet movement in the past forty years, the phonetic alphabet also played a pioneering role."
After the May 4th Movement, in 1918, Qian Xuantong published in the fourth volume and fourth issue of "New Youth" The article "China's Future Writing Issues" put forward the idea of ??"abolition of Confucianism" and "abolition of Chinese characters". He said: "If you want to abolish Confucianism, you must first abolish the Chinese language; if you want to get rid of the naive, barbaric and stubborn nature of ordinary people. Thoughts, we must first abolish the Chinese language." He even said: "If you want to prevent China from being destroyed and make the Chinese nation a civilized nation in the twentieth century, you must abolish Confucianism and destroy Taoism as the fundamental solution; and abolish the records of Confucius. "Chinese is the fundamental solution to the doctrines and Taoist demons"; he proposed: "After the abolition of Chinese," "Esperanto (Esperanto), an artificial language with simple and concise grammar, neat pronunciation, and excellent linguistic roots, should be adopted."
This is obviously a very radical statement, and it is academically wrong to confuse Chinese and Chinese characters and not be able to distinguish the difference between language and writing. Therefore, it was criticized by Chen Duxiu, who pointed out that language and writing. "These two issues that are closely related but different in nature" must not be confused. Therefore, "should we just abolish Chinese characters?" "Suppress and abolish the Chinese language" is worthy of study, so he put forward the opinion of "abolition of Chinese first, and keeping Chinese and using Roman script instead."
This opinion has been supported by colleagues in "New Youth" Qian Xuantong also accepted Chen Duxiu's opinion and jointly advocated the use of Roman characters in Mandarin and started the movement of Roman characters in Mandarin. In 1923, "Guoyu Monthly" published the "Special Issue on Chinese Character Reform", and the call for the use of Roman characters in Mandarin reached its climax. The Romaji movement entered a new stage. Qian Xuantong published the paper "Chinese Character Revolution", denying Chinese characters, saying "everywhere is enough to prove that this is an old man who is out of date and cannot adapt to the new life of the scientific and prosperous era of the 20th century." Therefore, it is absolutely possible to revolutionize Chinese characters and switch to pinyin." "The only way to say loudly and loudly is that Chinese characters should be revolutionized! Only in this way can the cause of Chinese character reform have hope of success." He was not satisfied with the phonetic alphabet and believed that the "fundamental reform of Chinese characters" should adopt the Roman alphabet.
Li Jinxi published "The Advancement of the Chinese Character Revolutionary Army" "A Great Road", raised the issue of "words connecting words", and conducted systematic research on this important issue. Zhao Yuanren published "Research on Mandarin Romaji" and proposed a "Draft of Mandarin Romaji", using internationally accepted methods. The Latin alphabet uses letters to represent the tones of syllables, no new letters are created, no new symbols are added, and systematic rules for connecting words are proposed.
In August 1923, the Ministry of Education held a preparatory meeting for the unification of the Chinese language. , decided to organize the "Guoyu Romaji Pinyin Research Committee"
In September 1925, some members and some linguists in Beijing took the initiative to organize a "Several People's Meeting" and proposed the "Guoyu Romaji Pinyin Method".
In September 1928, Cai Yuanpei, dean of the Graduate School, officially announced the "Mandarin Romaji Pinyin Method" as the "Second Form of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet", which was used to notate Chinese characters and unify the Chinese language. In contrast, it is considered to be an aid to the promotion of the national pronunciation." During the Mandarin Romaji Movement, some reading materials were published, such as the "Guoyu Phonogram Reader".
In 1932, the Ministry of Education published the "Commonly Used Guo Yin" "Vocabulary", comparing the phonetic alphabet and the Mandarin Roman alphabet. However, the Mandarin Roman alphabet has never left the circle of the intellectual class and has not been widely promoted in society. Its influence is far less than the Mandarin alphabet.
Mandarin Chinese. Romaji have always been used in Taiwan. In 1984, Taiwan published a revised draft of Mandarin romaji. After soliciting opinions, it was officially announced on January 28, 1986. It was named "The Second Style of Mandarin Phonetic Symbols" and was changed to The same symbol marking method used in the "Hanyu Pinyin Plan" is used to represent tones
The development of Hanyu Pinyin in the New Culture Movement
After the Mandarin Romanization Movement, my country also developed. Latinized New Writing Movement.
China's new Latinized script was created in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Its purpose was to eliminate illiteracy among the 100,000 Chinese workers in the Far East of the Soviet Union. In the future, when conditions are ripe, the new Latinized script will be used to replace Chinese characters to solve the problem of Chinese massacres. Literacy problem for most people. The Soviet government at that time listed the eradication of illiteracy among the Chinese workers in the Far East of the Soviet Union as a task for the Soviet Union. Therefore, Qu Qiubai, Wu Yuzhang, Lin Boqu, Xiao San and other Chinese Communist Party members in the Soviet Union and Soviet Sinologist Long Guo Husband and Guo Zhisheng collaborated to research and create new Latinized characters. Qu Qiubai wrote "Chinese Latin Alphabet Draft", which was published by the Chinese Workers' Communist University Press in Moscow in 1929. In 1930, Qu Qiubai published the book "Chinese Latin Alphabet", which caused great repercussions. In May 1931, the Presidium of the Scientific Conference of the Central Committee of the Soviet Nationalities' New Scripts reviewed and approved the plan for China's Latinized alphabet.
On September 26, 1931, at the First Congress on the Latinization of Chinese Characters held in Vladivostok, the Soviet Union, a written plan "Principles and Rules for the Latinization of Chinese Characters" was adopted. Its main contents are: 1. Principles of the new Chinese Latinized characters (13 items); 2. Rules of the new Chinese Latinized characters (including: ① letters, ② spelling rules, ③ writing rules). The new Latinized script was developed on the basis of Mandarin Roman characters. It is different from Mandarin Roman characters in the way of marking intonations. Guoyu Roman characters must mark the tones for all syllables, while the new Latinized characters stipulate that in principle no tones are marked. , only mark the intonation when it is extremely necessary or easily confused. For example, "buy" and "sell" are easily confused, "buy" is written as maai, and "sell" is written as mai. Thus, the Latinized new writing movement officially began, which promoted the historical process of Chinese language modernization.
There was a fierce debate between the creators of the new Latinized script and the creators of the Mandarin Roman script. The former was called the "Beila School" and the latter was called the "Guolu School". Later they all discovered that the two groups had the same understanding of some fundamental issues, but had differences on some minor issues. Zhou Enlai said in "The Current Tasks of Character Reform": "The new Latin script and the Mandarin Roman script are the two relatively complete schemes among the Latin alphabet-based Chinese pinyin schemes created by the Chinese themselves. When talking about the current pinyin scheme, At this time, we cannot but acknowledge their contribution.”
After the adoption of the Latinized new script plan, it was first implemented among Chinese workers. 47 kinds of books were published and more than 100,000 copies were printed. Many Chinese workers learned the new script and could read and write in the new script.
In 1933, the new Latinized text was introduced into the country. In August 1934, the "Chinese Latinization Research Association" was established in Shanghai to publish books introducing new Latinization characters. Then, Latinized new writing groups were successively established in some big cities in the north and south, and even among overseas Chinese, such Latinized new writing groups were also established. According to statistics, from 1934 to 1955, in the twenty-one years , there are more than 300 Latinized new writing groups.
The spread of the new Latinized text has also received enthusiastic sponsorship from people in the cultural and educational circles. In December 1935, 688 celebrities including Cai Yuanpei, Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Chen Wangdao, and Tao Xingzhi jointly published an article "Our Opinions on the Implementation of New Writing", which said: "We feel that this new writing It is worth introducing to the whole country. We deeply hope that everyone will study it and promote it to make it an important tool for promoting popular culture and the national liberation movement." It was a revolutionary manifesto of the Latin New Letters movement.
On September 22, 1936, after reading this article, Mao Zedong wrote to Cai Yuanpei personally: "When I read the "New Text Opinion Paper", the person who was listed at the first place was Mr. Mao Zedong. 20 years Suddenly I see my beloved Mr. Jiemin making a new comment that is completely different from the ordinary old and new die-hard parties. Sir, you should know that I am not the only one who is happy when seeing this, not only the Communist Party, but also countless people! "Mao Zedong greatly appreciated the New Writing Movement at that time. Mao Zedong actively supported the New Writing Movement.
In his "On New Democracy" published in January 1940, he said: "Writing must be reformed under certain conditions, and speech must be close to the people." In January 1941, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government established the "New Script Working Committee" and officially announced that the new script had the same legal status as Chinese characters. In the same year, in the first issue of "SinWenziBao" ("New Text Newspaper") published in Yan'an, Mao Zedong's inscription was published: "Practice it effectively, the wider the better"; Zhu De also inscribed: "Everyone puts practical new characters into practice Promote it nationwide.”
In the most urgent years of the Anti-Japanese War, the spread of the new Latin script formed an unprecedented mass cultural revolutionary movement combined with the national liberation movement. This movement not only was not destroyed by the artillery fire of the war, but blossomed and bore fruit everywhere in the country during the war-torn years. The new script was implemented in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region with very good results. According to Wu Yuzhang, "In less than three months, more than 1,500 illiterates were eliminated during the winter school in Yan'an County. They learned new characters and were able to write letters, read, and read newspapers. They achieved great results."
The Latinized new writing movement lasted for nearly 30 years until the "Chinese Pinyin Plan" was announced in 1958. It has great and far-reaching significance for China's writing reform and the formulation and promotion of the "Hanyu Pinyin Plan".
The release of the "Modern Chinese Pinyin Plan"
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the development of the Pinyin Plan was immediately started. In October 1949, the non-governmental organization "Chinese Character Reform Association" was established. The association set up the "Pinyin Plan Research Committee" to discuss the issue of what letters to use in the Pinyin Plan.
In 1951, Mao Zedong pointed out: "The writing must be reformed, and the pinyin direction must be the most common in the world." However, he himself also considered repeatedly what form of pinyin scheme to adopt. When Mao Zedong visited the Soviet Union, he once asked Stalin what should be done about China's writing reform; Stalin said that China is a big country and can have its own alphabet. After Mao Zedong returned to Beijing, he instructed the Chinese Writing Reform Research Committee to formulate a national form of pinyin plan. At the same time, the New Script Research Association in Shanghai stopped promoting the new northern Latinized script, waiting for a new plan to be produced.
On October 15, 1955, the National Writing Reform Conference was held in Beijing. Ye Laishi said in his speech: "From 1952 to 1954, the Chinese Character Reform Research Committee mainly conducted research on the stroke-based pinyin scheme of Chinese characters. After three years of exploration, several drafts were drawn up, all of which were put on the "Inside the First Draft of the Chinese Pinyin Plan (Chinese Character Stroke Style)". At this meeting, six drafts of pinyin schemes were issued to the delegates, four of which were in stroke type, one in Latin alphabet, and one in Cyrillic alphabet. After the meeting, Wu Yuzhang, then director of the Chinese Character Reform Commission, reported to Mao Zedong that after three years of working on the national form project, it was difficult to get a design that everyone was satisfied with, so it was better to use Latin letters. Mao Zedong agreed to adopt the Latin alphabet and passed it at a central meeting.
When China was formulating the pinyin plan, the Soviet Union had stopped engaging in Latinization and instead engaged in Cyrillicization, changing all Latinized national scripts into Cyrillic letters. The Mongolian People's Republic also changed the Mongolian alphabet into the Cyrillic alphabet. In the 1950s, China was leaning towards the Soviet Union. Some people advocated adopting the Cyrillic alphabet and forming a literary alliance with the Soviet Union. Serdyuchenko, a linguist sent to China by the Soviet Union, also proposed the use of Cyrillic letters. It is said that when a deputy prime minister of the Soviet Union visited China, he once told Vice Premier Chen Yi that he hoped that both China and the Soviet Union would use the same letters. Vice Premier Chen Yi replied that Chinese culture must be connected with East and Southeast Asia, and East and Southeast Asia are accustomed to using Latin letters. In this way, China did not adopt the Cyrillic alphabet. If our country had adopted the Cyrillic alphabet, we would have much more difficulty using computers today. The Chinese government's decision on the choice of letters was very correct.
On January 20, 1956, Mao Zedong delivered a speech in favor of the Latin alphabet at a conference on intellectual issues.
He said, "Comrade Wu Yuzhang's speech was very good. I very much agree with the idea of ??writing reform. Do you agree with the use of Latin letters in the future? I think that among the masses, there is not a big problem; among intellectuals There are some problems inside. How can China use foreign letters? However, it seems that it is better to use this kind of foreign letters, because there are only about twenty of them. It's simple and clear. Our Chinese characters are really not comparable to them. Don't think that Chinese characters are that good. Several professors told me that Chinese characters are the best in the world. Writing cannot be reformed. If the Latin alphabet was invented by the Chinese, there would probably be no problem. The problem lies in the fact that foreigners invented it and the Chinese learned it. We have been using numbers for a long time, right? The Latin alphabet originated in Rome and is used by most countries in the world. Isn’t it a sign of betrayal if we use it? We have to learn everything that is useful to us, and we have to take it all and digest it and make it our own. This is what the Han Dynasty did in Chinese history, and it was also what the Han and Tang Dynasties did. , are very famous and powerful dynasties in the history of our country. They are not afraid of absorbing foreign things and welcome good things. As long as the attitude and methods are correct, it will be of great benefit to them." (Reprinted) Quoted from "The Analects of Confucius" by Zheng Linxi).
During this period, many writing plans were also created among the masses and sent to the Chinese Writing Reform Commission. According to statistics, from 1950 to the National Writing Reform Work Conference on August 31, 1955, 655 plans were sent. From August 31, 1955 to the announcement of the Chinese Pinyin plan in February 1958, 655 plans were sent. There were more than 1,000 proposals. From February 1958 to the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1980, 1,667 proposals were sent. There are more than 3,300 various text schemes designed by the masses. This enthusiasm for creating writing plans is unprecedented in the history of the development of Chinese culture. This fully illustrates the social nature of language planning.
In February 1955, the Chinese Character Reform Committee established the "Pinyin Plan Committee", began to design a Chinese Pinyin plan, and proposed the "Hanyu Pinyin Plan (Draft)". On February 12, 1956, the Chinese Character Reform Commission issued the "Chinese Pinyin Plan (Draft)" for public comment. This draft has 31 letters, including 5 new letters (i without dot; n with long legs; z, c, s with tail), in order to achieve "one word, one sound" without changing the pronunciation and Double letters. After the draft was published, it aroused heated discussions across the country, and even overseas Chinese and international students also put forward their opinions.
In October 1955, the State Council established the "Chinese Pinyin Program Approval Committee". After a year of work, the "Draft Amendment" was proposed in October 1957, which was approved by the 60th plenary session of the State Council on November 1. The meeting adopted the new "Hanyu Pinyin Plan (Draft)" and submitted it to the National People's Congress for review. On February 11, 1958, the Fifth Session of the First National People's Congress formally approved the "Hanyu Pinyin Plan". Beginning in the autumn of 1958, the "Chinese Pinyin Plan" entered primary school classrooms across the country as a compulsory course for primary school students. The "Hanyu Pinyin Scheme" is a set of pinyin letters and spelling methods for spelling standardized Mandarin. It is the legal pinyin scheme of the Republic of China. This scheme draws on the advantages of various Latin alphabet pinyin schemes in the past, especially the Mandarin Roman script and the Latinized new pinyin scheme. It is the crystallization of the Pinyin alphabet movement in my country for more than 300 years and the pinyin scheme created by the Chinese people over the past sixty years. The summary of experience is more complete and mature than any Latin alphabet-based pinyin scheme in history.
The "Chinese Pinyin Plan" has the following characteristics:
① Only use the internationally accepted 26 letters, without adding new letters;
② Try not to use additional symbols (Only two additional symbols are used);
③ Try not to change the pronunciation;
④ Use y, w and the soundproof symbol "" to isolate the sound;
⑤Use four double letters zh, ch, sh, ng;
⑥Use four tone symbols to represent the four tone categories of Yinping, Yangping, rising tone and falling tone;
⑦ Adopt the common alphabetical order of Latin letters and determine the names of Chinese Pinyin letters.
Zhou Enlai said in the report "The Tasks of Current Character Reform": "The Chinese Pinyin scheme announced now is developed on the basis of the past Zhiyin, Fanqie and various pinyin schemes. From Using the Latin alphabet, its historical origins can be traced back to more than 350 years ago, and its recent history can be said to be a summary of the 60 years of experience of the Chinese people in creating the Chinese Pinyin scheme. This scheme is better than those that existed in history and currently. The various Latin alphabet pinyin schemes that are still in use are indeed more complete."
Since the "Chinese Pinyin Scheme" was formulated, it has been rapidly promoted and applied. The main aspects are as follows.
① Used to notate Chinese characters: Starting from the autumn of 1958, Chinese language textbooks in primary schools across the country used Hanyu Pinyin to notate Chinese characters. Then, middle school textbooks, dictionaries, dictionaries, popular books, and literacy textbooks also used Hanyu Pinyin. Phonetic notation. "People's Daily" and other newspapers use Chinese pinyin letters to notate difficult words. In October 1958, the Central Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Chinese Character Reform Commission jointly issued a notice requiring the inclusion of Chinese Pinyin letters on various trademark designs and product packaging. The names of postal and telecommunications offices, railway stations, weather stations, and city street names are also marked in Chinese Pinyin. On June 19, 1982, the National Bureau of Standards issued the national standard "Chinese Pinyin for Titles of Chinese Books and Periodicals", which stipulates that domestically published Chinese books and periodicals should add the Chinese pinyin of the book title and journal title on the cover, or front page, or back cover, or copyright page. .
② Used for teaching Mandarin: After the "Chinese Pinyin Plan" was announced, Mandarin textbooks, reading materials, word lists, dictionaries, and dictionaries written using Chinese Pinyin were successively published, promoting the promotion and popularization of Mandarin. In teaching Chinese as a foreign language, the "Hanyu Pinyin Plan" has become an indispensable tool for foreigners to learn Chinese and conduct comprehensive training.
③ Used for phonetic notation and sorting of dictionaries and dictionaries, and indexing of books and periodicals. The 75-volume "Encyclopedia of China" is arranged in Chinese Pinyin, and every entry in the text is marked with Chinese Pinyin.
④As the unique basis for the creation and reform of writing by ethnic minorities in my country. There are already Zhuang, Miao, Dong, Hani, Lisu, Wa, Li, Naxi, Tu and other ethnic minorities in my country that use alphabets that are consistent with the Chinese pinyin alphabet.
⑤ Used in areas where Chinese characters are inconvenient or cannot be used: The "Chinese Pinyin Plan" provides the basis for the development of Braille and sign language for the deaf and mute. Chinese Pinyin can also be used in hand flag communication and light communication, using hand flag signals or light symbols corresponding to the Chinese Pinyin letters to convey information. In terms of inputting Chinese characters on electronic computers, the pinyin input method is the most popular input method.
In 1977, the United Nations Conference on Standardization of Geographical Names decided to adopt the "Chinese Pinyin Scheme" as the international standard for spelling Chinese place names. In September 1978, the State Council forwarded the "Report on Switching to the Chinese Pinyin Scheme as the Unified Standard for Roman Alphabet Spelling of Names of People and Places in my country". On August 1, 1982, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO
Reference: http://cls.admin.yzu.edu.tw/pronounce.htm