The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

The discussion meeting on the establishment of the Chinese Language Society was held at Nanjing National Central University. Many linguists, including Zhao Yuanren, Qian Xuantong, Wang Guowei, Wu Zhihui, Li Hongxi, Chen Maozhi, Shen Jianshi, Huang Kan, etc., were invited to discuss the development of Chinese characters.

The meeting was led by the Ministry of Education, and the standard Mandarin Pinyin table (Romanized Pinyin) has been formulated and will be finalized soon, and then made public to the whole society. There are two main topics of the meeting: one is to promote the standard Mandarin, and the other is to discuss the simplification of Chinese characters.

Everyone has no objection to the promotion of standard Mandarin. After all, too many dialects are not conducive to communication. However, on the issue of simplifying Chinese characters, everyone is arguing particularly fiercely. It can be roughly divided into three factions: one group is more conservative and believes that traditional characters do not need to be changed; the other group advocates reform and requires the promotion of simplified characters;

The abolition of Chinese characters is relatively nonsense and has no operability at all, and their proposals were quickly ruled out.

The rest is the dispute between Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese...

Qian Xuantong took out a stack of manuscripts and said: "This is the "First Batch of Simplified Character List" that I made five years ago, which contains more than 2,000 simplified characters. There are ancient books, and there is no difficulty in promoting them. I think that Chinese characters must be simplified, which is conducive to printing, publishing, learning and dissemination. Not only that, I think the Ministry of Education should issue documents to advocate the use of new punctuation, Arabic numerals, AD Chronology, Chinese characters are written horizontally. For example, many newspapers still use vertical writing. This is very inconvenient and has set a wrong example for the public. I suggest that the government should order that all newspapers must be printed horizontally! "

Jiang Menglin resigned from the position of Minister of Education some time ago, and this position is temporarily vacant. Duan Xipeng, vice minister of education, said: "We will discuss the promotion of new punctuation and horizontal writing in the future. Simplified characters, I think it is still necessary, but whether it can be approved by the Ministry of Education, a meeting of the Ministry of Education must be held. Decision. The main issues we are discussing today are the promotion of standard Mandarin and Chinese characters, as well as the establishment of the Chinese Language and Character Society. If you have any good suggestions, you can speak freely."

Zhao Yuanren raised his hand and said, "I think there are two ways to promote the standard Mandarin. The first is radio, which has a large number of listeners, but the announcer's pronunciation of Mandarin is very problematic. Take China Central Radio as an example. It’s a radio station directly under the central government, but it still speaks bad Mandarin.”

Duan Xipeng nodded and said, "I will communicate with China Central Radio Station. Professor Zhao, please continue."

Zhao Yuanren said: "The second is the records. The Ministry of Education can record Mandarin records and read poetry, prose and novels in standard Mandarin. These records should be purchased by the Ministry of Education and distributed to universities and middle schools. They can also be provided to radio stations. It is broadcast on the radio. It can also be sold on the market for those who want to learn Mandarin.”

"Well, good idea," Duan Xipeng said with a smile, he turned to look at Zhou Hexuan, "Mr. Zhou has been silent, do you have any good suggestions?"

Zhou Hexuan was too lazy to speak. With the presence of linguists such as Zhao Yuanren and Qian Xuantong, he didn't have to express his views at all.

As for the promotion of modern Chinese pinyin, Zhou Hexuan didn't even think about it. The gang of Qian Xuantong and Wu Zhihui worked hard for more than ten years, and the Nanjing government organized manpower and material resources for more than two years, and finally came up with the Roman alphabet and dictionary. How could it be overturned and discarded?

Especially the "National Phonetic Dictionary", which was written by Wu Zhihui, one of the "Four Elders of the Nationalist Party", all of which use Roman alphabet. If anyone dared to propose another pinyin scheme, Wu Zhihui would probably jump up in anger—wouldn't his hard work be in vain?

Seeing the roll call by the Vice Minister of Education, Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "Then let me express my point of view. I support the promotion of standard Mandarin and the promotion of simplified Chinese characters. Professor Zhao made a lot of sense in the promotion of Mandarin. I just want to add For one thing, in addition to radio and records, you can also use movies."

"Movies?" Duan Xipeng asked puzzled, "Movies in China are all silent now, without sound at all."

Zhou Hexuan said: "China's first sound film has been produced, and it may be released in half a month. There will be more and more sound films in the future. The Ministry of Education can jointly formulate regulations with the publishing department. Chinese sound films must use Mandarin. Films in dialects are not allowed to be shown.”

"Yes, I will pay attention." Duan Xipeng nodded.

Next, everyone began to discuss the charter structure of the Chinese Language and Characters Association, and somehow turned to the dispute between simplified and traditional characters.

"Chinese characters are the most beautiful characters in the world. Traditional Chinese characters are orthodox. Once simplified, they become broken characters. I oppose the simplification of Chinese characters." Huang Kan said firmly.

Qian Xuantong said: "Simplified characters have existed since ancient times. They existed in the Tang and Song Dynasties. But in the Republic of China, they went backwards?"

The director of the examination, Dai Jitao, slammed the table: "Whoever wants to simplify Chinese characters, I will simplify him! Chinese characters are traditional characters, and traditional characters are Chinese characters, and every single stroke is indispensable!"

Wu Zhihui laughed loudly: "Stop arguing, let me see, it's more convenient to just abolish Chinese characters."

Yes, a group of gods fight.

Huang Kan will not talk about it, he is a lunatic, whoever catches and bites, but he is a small role in this meeting.

The frightening thing is that Dai Jitao and Wu Zhihui are both Chang Kaishen's mentors and think tanks, but their views are just the opposite.

Dai Jitao advocated the retention of traditional characters. Historically, Chang Kaishen promoted simplified characters in the 1930s. Dai Jitao was the most vehemently opposed. He even did not attend any National Party meetings for three months, forcing Chang Kaishen to cancel the promotion plan of simplified characters.

Wu Zhihui was even more radical, calling for the abolition of Chinese characters and the Latinization of Chinese. This guy is also a lunatic, nicknamed "Master Mad Dog", he even scolded himself when he got angry.

Dissatisfied with Chang Kaishen's practice of excluding dissidents, Wu Zhihui lit up a lantern to meet Chang Kaishen in broad daylight. Chang Kaishen asked him: "Mr. Zhihui, what are you doing with a lantern for a meeting in broad daylight?" Wu Zhihui imitated Ningbo accent and said, "Mother Xipi, it's too dark here, too dark!"

Last year, Chang Kaishen asked Wu Zhihui to invite Li Jishen, but when Li Jishen came to Nanjing, he was directly detained by Chang Kaishen. Wu Zhihui stomped his feet in anger, and asked the captain of the guard to tell Chang Kaishen: "You are raised by a bitch!" Chang Kaishen made a special trip to visit Wu Zhihui, and Wu Zhihui opened the window and shouted, "Wu Zhihui is not at home!"

Now the two tempered people got into a quarrel, and Dai Jitao said categorically: "Wu, if you want to abolish Chinese characters, you will forget your ancestors!"

"You are still holding on to incompleteness. Why don't you keep using the old chamber pot? The 30-year-old chamber pot is the most fragrant!" Wu Zhihui laughed and cursed.

Qian Xuantong said with a headache: "One step back, one step back. Abolishing Chinese characters is too troublesome. Government documents, newspapers, magazines, and scientific books will all be abolished. The loss outweighs the gain. But traditional characters are indeed not conducive to dissemination. Let's take it step by step first." , the best way is to promote simplified characters." After speaking, Qian Xuantong said to Zhou Hexuan, "Mr. Zhou, tell me a few words!"

"Why are you involved with me again?" Zhou Hexuan sweated wildly.

Qian Xuantong said: "I heard people say that Mr. Zhou's manuscripts for writing articles and the lecture notes used for lectures at Tsinghua University are all simplified characters. Tell me about your own experience in using simplified characters."

"Me," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "I use simplified characters just for convenience, so far, no one has dyslexia, and they can even recognize them by guessing."

Dai Jitao patted the table and said, "Do government documents and legal clauses have to be guessed?"

Zhou Hexuan rolled his eyes, too lazy to talk nonsense. Chang Kaishen's order to implement simplified characters will be reprimanded by Dai Jitao, not to mention that he is white.

This discussion on the development of Chinese characters is obviously impossible to produce results.