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The Chinese script The Chinese script

Of its origin and development

OutlineOutline The origin of Chinese script

A brief introduction Various guesses and the legend of Cang jie The early format- Oracle Bone Script in the Shang Dynasty 16th—11th century B.C.

Great changes in history The artificial standardization in the Qin Dynasty The artificial simplification in P.R.C

On the way to Latinization

Today Simplification and Latinization- the debate never ceases Chinese script in Japan and Korea

A brief introductionA brief introduction

One of the oldest and most widely used writing systems in the world. With a history of 5000~6000 years, and is used by about 1/4 of t

he total population on earth. They are the basic carriers of the traditional Chinese culture, an

d, have played a critical role in the long history of the Chinese nation.

It is an ideographic writing system, in which the graphic structure is directly related to the meaning

Composition: According to a traditional theory known as Liu Shu (six writings)

There are six types of characters in the terms of their composition: pictographic/ indicatives/ ideographs/ phonetic compounds/ mutual explanatory/ phonetic loans.

The origin of Chinese scriptThe origin of Chinese script

Various guess recorded in the ancient books Knotting / the Eight Diagrams / Drawing

“ 结绳”　“图画”　 “八卦”　“书契”

Fu XI

+5,000 years ago

The origin of Chinese ScriptThe origin of Chinese Script

The popular legend of Cang Jie One story says he saw a divine being w

hose face had unusual features which looked like a picture of writings. In imitation of his image, Cangjie created the earliest written characters.

After that, certain ancient accounts go on to say, millet rained from heaven and the spirits howled every night to lament the leakage of the divine secret of writing.

Another story says that Cangjie saw the footprints of birds and beasts, which inspired him to create written characters.

+5,000 years ago

The origin of Chinese ScriptThe origin of Chinese Script

The Oracle Bones The script was developed in the late Sha

ng Dynasty 16th—11th century B.C.

Before late 19th century, the Oracle Bones were considered as a traditional Chinese medicine, rather than precious cultural relic.

Wang Yirong and Liu E started collecting and indepth study of the Oracle Bones, and in 1903, Liu E published the first book in this field.

Up to now, about 2,000 characters have been recognized.

Dawenkou Culture in Shan Dong

+ 4500 years ago

Great Changes in historyGreat Changes in history

First artificial standardization in the Qin Dynasty During the years of to , Ancient China underwent the “Chu

n Qiu” period and “The War States” period, when several slavery states fought with each other and there were no superpowers to overrule the land.

In the years of , a western state, Qin, gradually grew strong and in , the King of Qin finally conquered all the other six great powers to establish the first feudal society in the Chinese histoty.

By then, the Qin dynasty was still in the disintegrated status: all the former six countries had been using their own measurement, own language and writing script style.

Thus as one of the key methods to strength the new empire, Qin standardized the Chinese scripts for the first time in the history, also with some simplification of the system.

It was called “ 书同文”　–” Writing with the same scripts”

Great changes in historyGreat changes in history

First artificial standardization in the Qin Dynasty


The artificial simplification in P.R.C- The process 1951 年 6 月 6 日《人民日报》发表《正确地使用祖国的语言，

为语言的纯洁和健康而斗争》的社论。 1954 年 11 月，中国文字改革委员会成立 1955 年 10 月 15 日，全国文字改革会议召开。 1955 年 12 月 22 日，文化部和中国文字改革委员会发出联合

通知，发布《第一批异体字整理表》。 1956 年 1 月 31 日，《汉字简化方案》公布 1956 年 1 月 1 日起，全国报刊实行了横排横写。 1958 年 2 月 11 日，《汉语拼音方案》在第一届全国人民代

表大会第五次会议被正式批准通过。 1977 年 12 月 20 日，《第二次汉字简化方案（草案）》发表。 1977 年 9 月 7 日，联合国第三届地名标准化会议，通过我国

提出的采用《汉语拼音方案》作为中国地方名罗马字母拼写法的国际标准。



- The early advocators “Qian Xuantong, famous thinker in late Qing Dynasty, profe

ssor of Peking University Qu Qiubai, secretary-general of the Party in the 1930s state

d that the Chinese script wass the most dirty and foul and wretched mediaeval latrine pit.” 汉字真正是世界上最龌龊最恶劣最混蛋的中世纪的茅坑。”

Lu Xun, “ 汉字是愚民政策的利器”，“劳苦大众身上的结核”，“倘不先除去它，结果只有自己死。”

The USSR supported the inclination. Nearly all the western sinological linguist agreed that the Chi

nese language system was primeval and only the phoneticism marks the advanced culture.

government document



- Preparation of PRC

1956-1958 《汉语拼音方案》 (The Pin Yin Project) passed by the State Department.

Pin Yin was intended to help eliminate illiteracy during the first stage, and meanwhile generalized the simplified Chinese characters to substitute for the abolished ancient complex scripts.

In the 1957 “anti-rightwing movement”, nearly all the objectors were accused as “Rightwings ” and some were persecuted to death.

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