Why was the second reform of simplified Chinese characters abolished and ended hastily?

Introduction According to the preface of Shuo Wen Jie Zi, "Cang Xie, the history of the Yellow Emperor, saw the traces of the hoofs and claws of birds and animals, and knew that today can be different, so he made a book contract." Human civilization has been passed down for thousands of years, and historical materials and history books can be said to be the greatest contributors to the endless culture. In the past, our ancestors ate and drank blood like animals, but we still don't know what records are. Then, the simple record of "knotting notes" appeared gradually. Until later, Cang Xie "began to use book contracts to knot ropes instead", which is the real human civilization recorded in words.

▲ Cang Xie Statue

There is also a record in the Book of Huainanzi: "Cang Xie once wrote a book. It rained at night and ghosts cried." Although this is a myth and a rumor of ghosts and gods, it also fully illustrates the importance of Cang Xie and the characters he invented. The wheel of history has been run over, and the characters are gradually improving and perfecting. After Oracle Bone Inscriptions, there were inscriptions on bronze, big seal script, small seal script, and then official script. In order to communicate better, Qin Shihuang unified the characters of the Central Plains for the first time, and completed the first time in the history of China that "the same language is not named". Interestingly, in modern times after China's reform and opening up, there was such an "innovation" in writing, but it was abandoned after only nine years. This "abortion" character is China's "two simplified characters", which is very similar to Japanese characters.

0 1 In the early 1950s, the motherland was just founded, and the land of China gradually showed the scene of the revival of everything. At this time, a group of educated and progressive young intellectuals went abroad to study and found that there were still some stubborn feudal ideas in society. Under the guidance of wrong ideas, these progressive young intellectuals directly targeted the innocent people in China.

▲ Chinese character reform comics

They believe that the fundamental reason why decadent traditional culture and feudal remnants are so stubborn is Chinese characters, so it is naturally nonsense to launch a "campaign to abolish Chinese characters." But interestingly, although the movement of abolishing Chinese characters ended in failure, it promoted the innovation of Chinese characters invisibly.

In fact, due to the existence of the feudal dictatorship before, few people could go to school except prominent officials, which directly led to the low literacy rate of the people after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and even most of them were illiterate. In order to better complete the popularization of basic education and improve the comprehensive quality of the people, it is imperative to simplify Chinese characters.

▲ "Two Simplified Characters" Comparison Table

Therefore, "two simplified characters" began to be brewed in the 1950s after the simplified characters scheme was passed by the China Character Reform Commission. 1972, the prime minister presided over the resumption of formulation. After professional discussion and revision, "two simplified words" were finally born.

After the birth of "two simplified characters", with the vigorous promotion of the Education Bureau and all walks of life, it quickly spread throughout the country. As the name implies, the simplified Chinese characters are easier to learn and master than the simplified one. This is a brand-new change compared with the obscure traditional Chinese characters.

▲ Two simplified Chinese characters

In a sense, the birth and use of "Two Bamboo Slips" have achieved great success. In the wave of advocating and encouraging the study of Chinese characters, a large number of illiterate people quickly mastered the "two simplified characters" and were able to use them flexibly and efficiently. It has effectively improved the reading and knowledge level of middle and lower class people in China.

However, how was such a successful Chinese character innovation movement finally abolished? It turned out that the promotion of Two Simplified Characters was very successful, but people soon found some problems. As we all know, 5,000 years of Chinese culture is profound. As hieroglyphics, Chinese characters have their own framework and structure handed down by predecessors. Chinese characters not only have artistic beauty, but also have certain historical value. Experts pointed out that such simplification, the glyph "missing arm and broken leg", looks not only unsightly, but also the essence of Chinese characters themselves.

▲ "Do not park" is a simplified word.

In the process of using "two slips", people gradually found many inconveniences. Because the "two simplified letters" are too much, the new words are not clearly expressed; Or "two simplified characters" are too different from the original font to be recognized. In addition, our neighbor Japan, whose katakana and hiragana are taken from the radicals of Chinese characters in China, and the simplified "Er Jian" is more like Japanese characters than China characters. Therefore, nine years after the "two simplified characters" were put into use, they were finally abolished by the state.

The conclusion is very interesting. After the abolition of simplified characters, it achieved the effect of "abolishing without ending". Until today, some "simplified Chinese characters" are still used. In the process of continuous improvement and perfection of Chinese characters, Er Jian Zi is the first and only innovation failure, but it still gives us great inspiration. After all, there will always be successes and failures in reform and innovation, as well as gains and losses.