In ancient times, there was no Pinyin, so Fanqie was used, which is to use two characters that you know and can pronounce, take the initial consonant of the first one, take the final rhyme of the second one, and put them together. In ancient times, the Hui brothers in China did not learn Chinese characters, but learned Arabic, but they used Arabic letters to spell the spoken language (Chinese), so this is the earliest pinyin in China.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian rulers used modified Tibetan letters to spell Chinese and other languages, called Pasiba. Although it is not specifically spelled in Chinese, it can be considered a type of Chinese pinyin. In the Ming Dynasty, Western missionaries used Latin letters to spell Chinese, which was the earliest Latin pinyin in China. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the pinyin method of using simple ancient characters to express Chinese phonetics appeared. During the Republic of China, the government formulated the "phonetic alphabet", which was the concentrated expression of this system.

Historical evolution

On February 11, 1958, the Fifth Session of the First National People's Congress officially approved and promulgated the "Chinese Pinyin Plan". The legal Chinese Latinized Pinyin scheme was born, and it realized the dream that the Chinese people had worked hard for since the end of the 19th century.

At that time, Premier Zhou Enlai of the State Council and Wu Yuzhang, director of the Chinese Character Reform Commission, both said this: The "Chinese Pinyin Plan" is a summary of the historical experience of the Chinese people in creating the Pinyin plan in the past 60 years.

Reference for the above content: China News Network-History of Chinese Pinyin