Simplified Chinese characters

Simplified Chinese
Type	Logographic
Languages	Chinese
Time period	Since 1956
Parent systems	Oracle Bone Script Seal Script Clerical Script Traditional Chinese Simplified Chinese
Sister systems	Kanji, Chữ Nôm, Hanja, Khitan script, Zhuyin
ISO 15924	Hans, 501
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.

Simplified Chinese characters (traditional Chinese: 簡體中文; simplified Chinese: 简体中文) are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Xiandai Hanyu Tongyong Zibiao (List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese) for use in Mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of many standard character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the People's Republic of China in Mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy.^[1] They are officially used in the People's Republic of China and Singapore.

Simplified Chinese characters are officially known as 简化字 (Chinese: 簡化字; pinyin: Jiǎnhuàzì),^[2] and colloquially called 简体字 (Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: Jiǎntizì).^[3] Mao Zedong said in 1952, at the start of the simplification movement, that the process of simplification should embody both structural simplification of character forms as well as substantial reduction in the total number of standardized Chinese characters, concisely stating the two parallel goals of simplification.^[4]

Traditional Chinese characters are currently used in the Hong Kong, Macau, and Republic of China (Taiwan). Overseas Chinese communities generally use traditional characters, but simplified characters are often used among mainland Chinese immigrants.

Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. Some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with same pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to one single standardized character, usually the simplest amongst all variants in form. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies.

Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictable from traditional characters, especially in those where a component is replaced by an arbitrary and simplistic symbol.^[5] This often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the 'overall process' of character simplification is also arbitrary.^[6][7] In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few and internally-consistent.^[8] On the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants.^[9] The debate over the use of traditional versus simplified Chinese characters continues in Chinese-speaking countries.

A second round of simplifications was promulgated in 1977, but was later retracted for a variety of reasons. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future. In August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Chinese characters
Scripts
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Type styles
Imitation Song · Ming · Sans-serif
Properties
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Variants
Standards on character forms
Kangxi Dictionary form Xin Zixing Standard Form of National Characters List of Forms of Frequently Used Characters
Standards on grapheme usage
Graphemic variants · Hanyu Tongyong Zi · Hanyu Changyong Zi · Tōyō kanji · Jōyō kanji
Reforms
Chinese (trad. · simp. · simp.2 · debate) Japanese (old · new · Ryakuji) Korea (Yakja) · Singapore (jiăntǐzì biǎo)
Sinoxenic usage
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Homographs
Literary and colloquial readings
Derivatives
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Origins and history

Mainland China

Although most of the simplified Chinese characters in use today are the result of the works moderated by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1950s and 60s, character simplification predates the PRC's formation in 1949. Cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed; they date back to as early as the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC).

One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lufei Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China. Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and therefore proposed that a reform be initiated. It was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the “writing of ox-demons and snake-gods” niúguǐ shéshén de wénzì (牛鬼蛇神的文字). Lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, "If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die." (漢字不滅，中國必亡。) Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the economic problems in China during that time.^[14]

In the 1930s and 1940s, discussions on character simplification took place within the Kuomintang government, and a large number of Chinese intellectuals and writers have long maintained that character simplification would help boost literacy in China.^[15] 324 simplified characters collected by Qian Xuantong were officially introduced in 1935 as the table of 1st batch simplified character (第一批簡體字表) and suspended in 1936. In many world languages, literacy has been promoted as a justification for spelling reforms.

The People's Republic of China issued its first round of official character simplifications in two documents, the first in 1956 and the second in 1964. In the 1950s and 1960s, while confusion about simplified characters was still rampant, transitional characters that mixed simplified parts with yet-to-be simplified parts of characters together appeared briefly, then disappeared.

Within the PRC, further character simplification became associated with the leftists of the Cultural Revolution, culminating in a second round of character simplifications (known as erjian 二简), or "Second-round simplified characters", which were promulgated in 1977. Intellectuals who opposed the reform were labeled rightists. One such intellectual, Chen Mengjia, committed suicide.^[16] In part due to the shock and unease felt in the wake of the Cultural Revolution and Mao's death, the second-round of simplifications was poorly received. In 1986 the authorities retracted the second round completely. Later in the same year, the authorities promulgated a final list of simplifications, which is identical to the 1964 list except for six changes (including the restoration of three characters that had been simplified in the First Round: 叠, 覆, 像; note that the form 疊 is used instead of 叠 in regions using Traditional Chinese). Although no longer recognized officially, some second-round characters appear in informal contexts, as many people learned second-round simplified characters in school.

There had been simplification initiatives aimed at eradicating characters entirely and establishing the Hanyu Pinyin romanization as the official written system of the PRC, but the reform never gained quite as much popularity as the leftists had hoped. After the retraction of the second round of simplification, the PRC stated that it wished to keep Chinese orthography stable. Years later in 2009, the Chinese government released a major revision list which included 8300 characters. No new simplifications were introduced. However, six characters previously listed as "traditional" characters that have been simplified, as well as 51 other "variant" characters were restored to the standard list. In addition, orthographies (e.g., stroke shape) for 44 characters were modified slightly. Also, the practice of simplifying obscure characters by analogy of their radicals is now discouraged. A State Language Commission official cited "over-simplification" as the reason for restoring some characters. The language authority declared an open comment period until August 31, 2009 for feedback from the public.^[17]

Singapore and Malaysia

Singapore underwent three successive rounds of character simplification, eventually arriving at the same set of simplified characters as Mainland China.^[18]

The first round, consisting of 498 Simplified characters from 502 Traditional characters, was promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 1969. The second round, consisting of 2287 Simplified characters, was promulgated in 1974. The second set contained 49 differences from the Mainland China system; those were removed in the final round in 1976. In 1993, Singapore adopted the six revisions made by Mainland China in 1986. However, unlike in mainland China where personal names may only be registered using simplified characters, parents have the option of registering their children's names in traditional characters in Singapore.

Malaysia promulgated a set of simplified characters in 1981, which were also completely identical to the simplified characters used in Mainland China. Chinese-language schools use these.

Traditional characters are still often seen in decorative contexts such as shop signs and calligraphy in both countries.

Hong Kong

A small group called Dou Zi Sei (導字社) / Dou Zi Wui (導字會) attempted to introduce a special version of simplified characters using romanizations in the 1930s. Today, however the traditional characters remain.

Comparison with Japanese simplification

Main article: Shinjitai

After World War II, Japan also simplified a number of Chinese characters (kanji) used in the Japanese language. The new forms are called shinjitai. Compared to Chinese, the Japanese reform was more directed, affecting only a few hundred characters and replacing them with simplified forms, most of which were already in use in Japanese cursive script. Further, the list of simplifications was exhaustive, unlike Chinese simplification – thus analogous simplifications of not explicitly simplified characters (extended shinjitai) are not approved, and instead standard practice is to use the traditional forms.

The number of characters in circulation was also reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established. The overall effect was to standardize teaching and the use of Kanji in modern literature and media.

Method of simplification

An Euler diagram showing where all Chinese characters fit in the process of character simplification.

Structural simplification of characters (字型結構簡化)

All characters simplified this way are enumerated in Chart 1 and Chart 2 in Jianhuazi zong biao (简化字总表), "Complete List of Simplified Characters" announced in 1986.

• Chart 1 lists all 350 characters that are used by themselves, and can never serve as 'simplified character components' (簡化偏旁 or simplified radical components).
• Chart 2 lists 132 characters that are used by themselves as well as utilized as simplified character components to further derive other simplified characters. Chart 2 also lists 14 'components' or 'radicals' that cannot be used by themselves, but can be generalized for derivation of more complex characters.

Derivation based on simplified character components (簡化字與簡化偏旁之延伸與應用)

• Chart 3 list 1,753 characters which are simplified based on the same simplification principles used for character components and radicals in Chart 2. This list is non-exhaustive, so if a character is not already found in Chart 1, 2 or 3, but can be simplified in accordance with Chart 2, the character should be simplified.

Elimination of variants of the same character (廢除異體字)

• Series One Organization List of Variant Characters (第一批異體字整理表, or Di yi pi yitizi zhengli biao) accounts for some of the orthography difference between Mainland China on the one hand, and Hong Kong and Taiwan on the other. These are not simplifications of character structures, but rather reduction in number of total standard characters. For each set of variant characters that share the identical pronunciation and meaning, one character (usually the simplest in form) is elevated to the standard character set, and the rest are obsoleted. After rounds of revisions, by 1993, some 1,027 variant characters have been declared obsolete by this list. Amongst the chosen variants, those that appear in the "Complete List of Simplified Characters" are also simplified in character structure accordingly.

Adoption of new standardized character forms (採用新字形)

• new standardized character forms (新字形, or Xin Zixing) originated from the "List of character forms of General Used Chinese characters for Publishing" containing 6,196 characters, published in 1965. The new forms tend to adopt vulgar variant forms for most of its characters. The List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese list, published in 1988, contains 7,000 commonly used characters, and replaces the 1965 list. Since the new forms take vulgar variants, many characters now appear slightly simpler compared to old forms, and as such are often mistaken as structurally-simplified characters.

Structural simplification of characters

All characters simplified this way are enumerated in Chart 1 and Chart 2 in the Complete List of Simplified Characters. Characters in both charts are structurally simplified based on similar set of principles. They are separated into two charts to clearly mark those in Chart 2 as 'usable as simplified character components', based on which Chart 3 is derived.^[19]

Replacing a character with another existing character that sounds the same or similar:

穀 → 谷; 醜 → 丑; 蘋 → 苹; 鬆 → 松; 隻 → 只; 乾、幹 → 干; 髮 → 发; etc.

Using printed forms of cursive shapes (草書楷化):

書 → 书; 長 → 长; 書 → 书; 當 → 当; 韋 → 韦; 樂 → 乐; 車 → 车;興 → 兴; 發 → 发; 東 → 东; 專 → 专; 過 → 过; 報 → 报; 爾 → 尔; 盡 → 尽; 寶 → 宝; etc.

Replacing a component of a character with a simple symbol such as 又 and 乂:

對 → 对; 觀 → 观; 歡 → 欢; 嘆 → 叹; 難 → 难; 鳳 → 凤; 風 → 风; 這 → 这; 劉 → 刘; etc.

Omitting entire components:

廣 → 广; 廠 → 厂; 誇 → 夸; 習 → 习; 寧 → 宁; 滅 → 灭; 親 → 亲; 業 → 业; 鄉 → 乡; 餘 → 余; etc.

Further morphing a character after omitting some components:

婦 → 妇; 麗 → 丽; 歸 → 归; 顯 → 显; 務 → 务; etc.

Preserving the basic outline or shape of the original character

飛 → 飞; 龜 → 龟; 齒 → 齿; 奪 → 夺; 門 → 门; etc.

Replacing the phonetic component of phono-semantic compound characters:

鄰 → 邻; 斃 → 毙; 蠟 → 蜡; 鐘 → 钟; 艦 → 舰; etc.

Replacing some arbitrary part of a character with a phonetic component, turning it into a new phono-semantic compound character:

華 → 华; 憲 → 宪; 歷、曆 → 历; 賓 → 宾; etc.

Replacing entire character with a newly-coined phono-semantic compound character:

護 → 护; 驚 → 惊; 藝 → 艺; 響 → 响; etc.

Adopting obscure ancient forms or variants^[20]:

塵 → 尘; 竈 → 灶; 膚 → 肤; 從 → 从; 眾 → 众; 雲 → 云; 網 → 网; 與 → 与; 無 → 无; 電 → 电; etc.

Adopting ancient vulgar variants^[20]:

體 → 体; 國 → 国; 憑 → 凭; 雙 → 双; 陽 → 阳; 陰 → 阴; etc.

Re-adopt abandoned phonetic-loan characters:

餘 → 余; 後 → 后; 裏 → 里; etc.

Derivation based on simplified character components

Based on 132 characters and 14 components listed in Chart 2 of the Complete List of Simplified Characters, the 1,753 'derived' characters found in the non-exhaustive Chart 3 can be created by systematically simplifying components using Chart 2 as a conversion table. While exercising such derivation, following rules should be observed:

• The "Complete List of Simplified Characters" employs character components, not the traditional definition of radicals. A component refers any conceivable part of a character, regardless of its position within the character, or its relative size compared to other components in the same character. For instance, in the character 摆, not only is 扌 (a traditional radical) considered a component, but also is 罢 a component.
  • Each of the 132 simplified characters in Chart 2, when used as a component in compound characters, systematically simplify compound characters in exactly the same way the Chart 2 character itself was simplified. For instance, 單 is simplified in Chart 2 to 单. Based on the same principle, these derivations can be made: 彈 → 弹; 嬋 → 婵; 囅 → 冁; etc.
  • The 14 simplified components in Chart 2 are never used alone as individual characters. They only serve as components. Example of derived simplification based on the component