or “Crazy Grass” but, not to worry, we won’t be dealing with anything like that in this course!
Here are some examples of characters written in Xíngshū and Căoshū:
SIMPLIFIED CHARACTERS
So as to increase literacy, the government of the People’s Republic of China began promoting the use of so-called 简体字 ( 簡體字 ) jiăntĭzì or “simplified characters” by means of two official lists it promulgated in 1955 and 1964. By the term “simplified” was meant primarily a reduction in the number of strokes of characters, especially of high-frequency characters composed of a higher than average number of strokes. Actually, the history of character simplification in China is a long one, most of the characters on the two lists having been used informally for centuries, much as we in English have long used abbreviations like “nite” for “night” or “thru” for “through” in informal writing. In Chinese, the main difference from before is that, in mainland China and Singapore, the simplified characters have now been standardized and given official status.
There is no doubt that simplified characters, having a reduced number of strokes, can be handwritten more quickly than the traditional characters (though in the past most adult writers did their rapid writing in Xíngshū, which is even faster). However, precisely because of the reduction in strokes, the number of points of contrast among characters has been reduced, resulting in an increased number of similar-looking characters. Take the two expressions shèyŏu “has established” and méiyou “does not have.” Written in traditional characters ( 設有, 沒有 ), the distinction is clear; but written in simplified characters ( 设有, 没有 ), they are easily confused, especially when handwritten rapidly. Other examples of such simplified character look-alikes include 活话 (cf. traditional 活話 ), 向问 (cf. traditional 向問 ), and 刷剧 (cf. traditional 刷劇 ). It could be argued that character simplification has made writing easier, but has in some instances actually made reading harder (not to mention that most readers must now become familiar with two sets of characters).
Roughly half of the three thousand or so characters necessary for literacy in Chinese has been affected by the simplification process. Of the 288 characters introduced in Basic Mandarin Chinese Reading & Writing, a total of 197 are the same in their simplified and traditional forms, with only 91 being different—and a number of those involve very small differences that are hardly noticeable. Learning the distinctions between the simplified characters and the traditional characters is not as burdensome a task as it may at first seem, since in many cases the simplification of one character component—for example, that of the so-called “speech radical” from 言 to 讠—has affected dozens of characters that contain it.
The main methods by which characters were simplified include:
1. Simplified characters already in popular use were given official status. Examples:
過 → 过 guò “pass”
當 → 当 dāng “serve as”
2. Simpler forms that were originally the standard form of the character but which had later been replaced by more complex forms were reinstituted. Examples:
從 → 从 cóng “from”
眾 → 众 zhòng “multitude”
雲 → 云 yún “cloud”
3. Simpler characters were borrowed to write more complex characters with the same pronunciation, according to the Jiăjiè principle of borrowed characters. While this occasionally creates ambiguities, the context usually makes the meaning clear. Examples:
困 kùn “difficulty,” 睏 kùn “sleepy” → 困 kùn “difficulty; sleepy”
谷 gŭ “valley,” 穀 gŭ “grain” → 谷 gŭ “valley; grain”
4. Cursive forms of characters were regularized into Kăishū style. Examples:
東 → 东 dōng “east”
樂 → 乐 lè “happy”
為 → 为 wéi “be”
5. Parts of characters were used to substitute for whole characters. Examples:
習 → 习 xí “practice”
與 → 与 yŭ “and”
雖 → 虽 suī “although”
條 → 条 tiáo “strip”
飛 → 飞 fēi “fly”
電 → 电 diàn “electricity”
6. The redundant parts of characters were deleted or simplified. Examples:
蟲 → 虫 chóng “insect”
齒 → 齿 chĭ “tooth”
7. Wide characters were made narrower, and long characters were made shorter. Examples:
噸 → 吨 dūn “ton”
蠶 → 蚕 cán “silkworm”
8. New characters were constructed based on the Xíngshēng principle of phonetic-semantic compounds. Examples:
藝 → 艺 yì “art” (since 乙 yĭ is a near homonym of 藝 )
畢 → 毕 bì “finish” (since 比 bĭ is a near homonym of 畢 )
9. Common character components were replaced by simpler components. For example, the common but complex component 雚 was replaced by the much simpler component 又. Examples:
歡 → 欢 huān “happy”
觀 → 观 guān “look”
勸 → 劝 quàn “urge”
權 → 权 quán “authority”
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CHINESE WRITING SYSTEM
In the PRC today, all mass media publications such as newspapers and magazines are printed exclusively in simplified characters. So are school textbooks from kindergarten through high school. Scholarly works and university textbooks,
