You’ve probably come across a language selection screen that mentions something akin to “Chinese (Simplified)”. What’s that about? Is it the same as Mandarin? Does it apply to speech too?
Let’s review the societal and political forces that led China to push such a deep, era-defining linguistic overhaul.
Ancient Calligraphy and Complexity
Chinese writing emerged with the Oracle Bone Script around 1200 BCE, and expanded into multiple systems before the unification efforts of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE) set in motion the process of a unified writing system across China. Over time, calligraphy morphed and expanded as an art form and a way to judge a person’s character. Many historians consider its golden age to be during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), especially under the impulsion of emperor and calligraphy enthusiast Tang Tai Zong (唐太宗). However, the beauty of these characters came at a cost – complexity. And as the modern era approached, it became apparent that it stinted literacy rates and thus economic growth, particularly in rural areas.
Early Initiatives for Reform
The earliest documented advocate of a simplification of writing systems was Lufei Kui (陸費逵) in his 1909 article “General Education Should Use Vernacular Characters”. A decade later, the anti-imperialist May Fourth Movement began strongly pushing for immediate and thorough modernization of China following the fall of the last dynasty and the end of imperial rule. The movement that birthed Chinese communism is also where simplification became a political and societal goal, although the first official table of simplified characters, published in 1935, was suspended one year later after opposition from the population and within the CCP.
The Communist Revolution as a Kickstarter
Although the standardization of all newspapers to horizontal script in 1956 was a first sign of profound changes to come, the pivotal moment for Chinese script came with the 1965 publication of “List of forms of Common Chinese characters for Publishing” (印刷通用汉字字形表) by the Chinese government. It stemmed from the work of the Chinese Script Reform Association, which was founded mere days after the People’s Republic of China itself (1949). The table contained over 6000 simplified characters, most of them in simplified forms, ranked in three tiers by how commonly used they were. A follow-up was attempted in 1977 but quickly retracted and officially shelved in 1986.
After reverting from the failed second round, the script system largely remained unchanged until the 2013 “Table of General Standard Chinese Characters” (通用规范汉字表) which added a few hundred new simplified characters and redistributed all of them among the three usage tiers. This is where we are today.
The Mechanics of Simplification
Simplified Chinese only applies to written characters, not speech. It is applicable to almost all Chinese dialects, which vary greatly in spoken form but are usually decently intelligible to one another in writing.
The simplification process was the result of a lot more historical and linguistic research than mere visual streamlining: existing traditional characters were replaced with their cursive, ancient or vernacular forms, some homophones were merged (although homophony was solely based on Mandarin speech), along with many other methods.
Confucius once said about himself “述而不作”. “I transmit, but I do not create”. That philosophy of resisting needless additions and baseless creations seems to have guided the processes of simplification Chinese script went through, with a methodology so deeply connected to actual uses of script across the country’s history and territory.
Global Implications and Ongoing Debates
Simplified Chinese transcended national boundaries, becoming the standard in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as organizations like the UN. However, the language reform faced resistance in regions like Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, where traditional characters continue to hold sway. The ongoing debate between proponents of traditional and simplified Chinese characters reflects the nuanced nature of this historical transformation.
Naturally, we only scratched the surface of this massive linguistic and societal undertaking, and there are many fascinating stories to tell about all this. But at least, next time you come across a document mentioning “Simplified Chinese”, you’ll know what it’s about.