February 11th this year marks the 60th anniversary of the National People’s Congress’s approval and promulgation of the Hanyu Pinyin Scheme (February 11th, 1958, approved and promulgated by the Fifth Session of the First National People’s Congress). Since the implementation of hanyu pinyin, it has achieved fruitful results: at home, it has become an important tool to read Chinese characters, eliminate illiteracy and learn Putonghua; Internationally, it has become the standard of transliteration of Chinese characters in Latin. The birth of the Chinese Pinyin Scheme is closely related to the implementation of Latinized new characters in people’s lives since the 1930s, and some features of Latinized new characters have been absorbed in the Chinese Pinyin Scheme. The Latinized New Characters Movement is also a colorful chapter in the history of Chinese language and writing. It is a passionate era in which everyone designs Pinyin and strives to be a Cang Xie in order to save the country through education.
The Latinized Textbook published in Shanghai in 1935
Origin: the birth of Latin new characters in northern dialect
The Latinized New Characters is a Chinese phonetic alphabet scheme that was implemented among the masses from the early 1930s to 1958 before the announcement of the Chinese phonetic alphabet scheme. It played an important role in China’s character reform movement and was the predecessor of Chinese Pinyin. Compared with other previous pinyin schemes, such as Wittoma-Zhai Lisi Pinyin (see the article "The most famous Chinese-English dictionary in the first half of the 20th century, including the pronunciations of 12 dialects" published by The Paper Fanshu Party on April 28, 2017) and the Romance of Mandarin (see "The Romance of Mandarin, the Failed Attempt of the Elite to Rebuild Civilization" published by The Paper Private History on January 12, 2018). Another major difference is that the first two were designed by sinologists and domestic linguists from Western consulates in China. However, Latinized new characters are a phonetic scheme invented by left-wing intellectuals and attracted the participation of the public.
Qu Qiubai
In April 1928, Qu Qiubai went to Moscow to preside over the upcoming Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China. At this time, it was the climax of the Soviet Union’s campaign to eliminate illiteracy, and the literacy target also included 100,000 Chinese workers in the Far East of the Soviet Union. In September, 1928, the Nanjing National Government College (once renamed as the College by the Ministry of Education) officially published the French Pinyin of Roman Characters in Mandarin, which was drawn up by the "Several People’s Association". Like Lu Xun, Qu Qiubai thinks that the Roman characters in Mandarin are a scheme formulated by scholars in the study, which is divorced from reality; Chinese, who was in the Soviet Union at that time, also believed that Latin alphabet literacy should be faster than Chinese character education. Therefore, he is determined to create a set of pinyin schemes that are more suitable for the public.
In February, 1929, with the help of Soviet sinologist Guo Zhisheng (C·B·Колокопов), Qu Qiubai drew up the Draft of Latin Alphabet of China. In October, the plan was finalized and finally named "The Latinized Letters of China". In the spring of 1930, "The Latinized Letter of China" was first published in the No.2 issue of Moscow’s "China Question" magazine, and then a one-line booklet was published by China Workers’ Communist University Press, which caused great repercussions. The booklet is printed in Chinese characters, Latin new characters and Russian, and its contents are in three aspects: first, it talks about the difficulty of learning Chinese characters and the possibility of pinyin of China characters; The second is to talk about whether it is necessary to note the tone; The third is the scheme and spelling.
The Latinized Letters of China.
In September, 1931, Vladivostok held the first congress on the Latinization of China characters, and determined the plan for the Latinization of new characters. However, because the Chinese workers in Vladivostok are basically northerners, in fact, the plan adopted by the conference is only one kind of Latin new characters in the northern dialect. Its phonetic standard is close to the old national sound established by the "Pronunciation Unification Conference" in 1913 (see The Paper Private History, June 25, 2017, The Attempt of phonetic chinese characters Without Inheritance: The History of Phonetic Symbols). Beila, as the predecessor of Chinese Pinyin, has a high similarity. The main differences are:
First, distinguish the sharp group sounds, and see the postal pinyin of word processing, even if it is palatalized, it is spelled without palatalization. Example: giu (9), ziu (wine).
Second, do not write empty rhymes (vowels on the tip of the tongue), I only mark vowels [i]. Example: z (word).
(3) ? [y] of Chinese Pinyin, and writing y in new characters; However, y[j], which is used as a prefix by Chinese Pinyin, is defined as J in new characters, but it is only used to separate syllables in the middle of words.
Fourth, the er of Chinese pinyin, writing r in new characters.
Fifth, the tone is not marked, and the tone is regarded as an element that should be removed from Chinese. Save only a few that are extremely necessary and easily confused, and distinguish them by changing spelling, for example: jou (You), ju (You), maai (Buy), mai (Sell), Shansi (Shanxi) and Shanansi (Shaanxi);
Sixth, direct spelling of foreign words, for example: Latinxua (Latinization).
A New Latin Writing Scheme for Northern Dialect
The Congress also formulated thirteen principles of Latin new characters. Generally speaking, Chinese phonetic characters must be modernized, internationalized, popularized and dialectalized. Proceeding from the national conditions at that time, the Congress advocated that all dialects in China should be covered as far as possible in letter design, and each dialect could be written by itself. Popularization and dialectalization are the biggest differences between new characters and Guoluo, and Guoluo has clear phonetic standards, as Lu Xun later said: "Now China is not unified by one language, so it is necessary to spell according to the languages of different places and communicate in the future." (Lu Xun’s "On New Characters") In addition, due to the limitations of the times, the General Assembly, like the Guoluo School, believes that Chinese characters should be abolished.
On March 16th, 1950, Ningbo People’s Daily reprinted the Thirteen Principles of New Characters in China.
After the scheme was determined, in a short time, great progress was made in latinized new characters. By November 1933, the Far East had published 47 books in new languages, with a total of more than 100,000 copies printed.
Spark: the practice of Latin new characters in Ningbo dialect
In the early 1930 s, although overseas education on new characters had been carried out in full swing; At home, because the Kuomintang blocked the news, the public didn’t know the new characters at first. Fang Shan Jing (pen name Jiao Feng, a native of Zhenhai, Zhejiang), an esperantist, was the first to introduce new Latin characters to China. In 1933, after he saw Xiao San’s "Latinization of Chinese Calligraphy" in the publication "New Stage" of the Esperanto organ, he translated it into Chinese, which attracted the attention of domestic cultural circles. In October of the same year, Fang Shanjing published "The Latinization of Chinese Calligraphy", calling for vigorously promoting new characters.
Fang Shan territory
Shanghai is the center of the Latin New Character Movement. In 1934, the debate on popular language began in Shanghai cultural circles. Lu Xun and others criticized Wang Maozu and other old literati’s perverse ideas at that time, such as "abolishing vernacular", "restoring classical Chinese" and "advocating respecting Confucius and reading classics", which also promoted the movement of Latin new characters. Ye Laishi, a character reformer (formerly known as Bao Shuyuan, a native of Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, who has served as secretary-general, deputy director and consultant of the China Character Reform Committee since the founding of the People’s Republic of China) pointed out in Popular Language, Dialect and Latinization: "Dialect characters (pinyin characters written in dialects) are a sharp weapon to eliminate illiteracy". It is an important stage of the development of popular language, which is mutually promoted and closely combined with the popular language movement. Therefore, it actively advocates the latinization of dialect areas everywhere. On October 13th, Lu Xun published an article, saying that new characters are a sharp weapon for literacy: "But in China, only about two-tenths of the population are literate, and of course there are fewer people who can write … until the proposal of Latinization appears, this is the key to solving the problem." (Lu Xun’s essays on Jiejieting, the rebirth of China language).
Ye Laishi
In August of that year, Ye Laishi and others set up the Chinese Latinization Research Association in Shanghai, and began to spread the new Latin characters. The first thing the seminar did was to publish a booklet introducing new characters, The Latinization of Chinese Writing-Theory, Principles and Scheme. In November, Speech Science, the journal of esperanto association, published the Latin Draft of Ningbo Dialect in Fang Shan, which proved that the new characters can be popularized and dialectomized. This exciting practice has greatly expanded the influence scope of Latinized new characters.
The Latinization of Chinese Writing-Theoretical Principle Scheme
The biggest reason why Lu Xun supports new characters is that they are easy to learn. "As long as you know 28 letters and learn a little spelling and writing, anyone can write and understand them except slackers and imbeciles. And it also has the advantage of writing quickly. " (Lu Xun’s essays on Jiejie Pavilion, Talking about Foreign Languages) In March 1935, Mao Dun also published On New Characters, explaining his clear support position.
In December, 1935, the latinized new characters ushered in the most brilliant node in the history of sports. Tao Xingzhi initiated the establishment of the China New Characters Research Association in Shanghai, as the general meeting of the national new characters research groups, which played a great coordinating role for associations and workers all over the country. The seminar passed the "Our Opinions on Promoting New Characters" signed by 688 famous people from all walks of life in China, including Cai Yuanpei (he was the main supporter of Guoluo, but now he supports new characters), Sun Ke, Lu Xun, Tao Xingzhi and Chen Wangdao. The opinion said: "China has arrived in do or die (in 1996, the Japanese began to encroach on North China and set up the puppet regime’ Jidong Anti-Communist Autonomous Government’), and we must educate the public … The new characters that China people need are pinyin new characters." In the opinion, six specific suggestions were put forward to promote the new characters.
Latinized Chinese character reading "Everyone forms a heart"
Start a prairie fire: the spread of Latin new characters in popular language
Wu Zhihui, president of "Pronunciation Unification Association", once recalled that there were various pinyin schemes collected at the meeting in 1913, which made him feel that "everyone wants to be Cang Xie". Compared with the spreading period of Latin new characters, the enthusiasm of design scheme in this period is obviously far behind. Designers of phonetic symbols need to have a high level of knowledge in traditional primary schools (primary schools are the subjects that study the ancient Chinese language and characters in China, including phonology of phonetic interpretation, philology of phonetic interpretation, exegetics of interpretation, etc.), and all 80 representatives of the pronunciation unification association are linguistic elites; The designer of the Latinized New Text Scheme only needs to have literacy level. Under the impetus of domestic celebrities such as Lu Xun and the influence of core scholars such as Fang Shan Jing, N kinds of Latin new characters appeared, and the era of everyone striving to be Cang Xie appeared in China. This is actually an extension and practice of the popular language movement in terms of words.
From 1934 to 1937, following Beila, China Latinized New Characters successively designed 13 dialect schemes, including Ningbo dialect, Shanghai dialect (later renamed Jiangnan dialect), Suzhou dialect, Wuxi dialect, Wenzhou dialect, Fuzhou dialect, Xiamen dialect, Hakka dialect, Guangzhou dialect, Chaozhou dialect, Guangxi dialect, Hubei dialect and Sichuan dialect. Moreover, many large dialects even have county-level dialect schemes. For example, Ningbo, the hometown of Fang Shan, has also produced a new Latin script of Zhenhai dialect (designer Li Changlai) and a new script of Dinghai dialect (designer Yang Liangji). In this era, the popularity of mass pinyin design may only be comparable to that in the 1980s, when thousands of Chinese character input methods were invented.
Another manifestation of the rapid development of the Latinized New Characters Movement is the emergence of a large number of folk research groups. As a linguist, Ni Haishu (formerly known as Ni Weiliang, a native of Shanghai, who was the deputy director of the China Character Reform Committee after the founding of the People’s Republic of China) made statistics: "Since the Latinized Chinese characters were put forward, they have been in Shanghai, Beiping, Tianjin, Taiyuan, Kaifeng, Xi ‘an, Chongqing, Kunming, Hankou, Changsha, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Ningbo, Dushan, Guangdong and Puning. From August 1934 to August 1937, there were at least 70 Latinized groups established in various places in the past three years. " (Ni Haishu, "A Brief History of the Phonetic Character Movement in China")
Since the development of the Latinized New Characters Movement, the Nanjing National Government has been in a state of opposition, believing that it will affect the status of phonetic symbols. On January 1, 1936, the Kuomintang began to ban new characters and ordered newspapers to ban articles about new characters. "Then people were arrested in Shanghai, Beiping and other places, and all of them were run by the Communist Party." (Ni Haishu’s "The History and Chronicle of the Latinized New Characters Movement") In October, students in the new characters class of Shanghai Workers’ Night School were also arrested for writing banners of Latinized new characters in northern dialect and Shanghai dialect to bid farewell to Lu Xun.
In 1938, Chiang Kai-shek lost to Hankou. In May, in order to cope with the cruel War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and unite all forces that can be United, the Propaganda Department of the Kuomintang Central Committee had to announce the lifting of the ban. "If the Latinization movement of Chinese characters does not hinder or distract the Chinese people from the war of resistance, it is not bad to study it from a purely academic standpoint, or to regard it as a tool of social movements." (Ni Haishu, "The History and Chronicle of the Latinized New Characters Movement") The new characters have finally been recognized by the National Government. Fang Shan Jing and Ye Laishi, the core figures of the New Writing Movement who retreated to Hankou, also reached a consensus of reconciliation with their opponents-Guo Luo Pai Wang Yuchuan after interviews. In September, Hankou, as the wartime command center of the Kuomintang, also appeared such new books as Mr. Sun Yat-sen’s Three People’s Principles.
The New Text Version of Mr. Zhongshan’s Three People’s Principles
Unlike the Kuomintang, communist party has been actively supporting the Latinized New Writing Movement. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and various base areas (liberated areas) have established the New Characters Research Society. In February 1940, the Latinized Sowing Team was established in the anti-Japanese base area in northern Jiangsu. In November 1940, Yan ‘an established the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region New Characters Association. In June 1942, the Huainan New Characters Promotion Association was established in the Jiangsu-Anhui Border Region. At that time, stamps or teaching materials with new characters were issued in the liberated areas, which is the historical evidence of the application of new characters. On December 23, 2017, Poly Autumn Auction, a 1943 "Huainan" five-pointed star with a 20-point stamp was sold for 3,105,000 yuan; At the same time, a 10-cent stamp issued by Shuzhu District in 1945 was auctioned.
In 1949, the textbook of Liaoxi Provincial People’s Government in the Liberated Area "Nine-day Pass of New Characters"
After the full-scale outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, compared with the almost disappeared national language Roman characters, the Latin new characters also showed great vitality. From November 1937 to November 1938, Ni Haishu and others conducted literacy experiments in 40 refugee shelters and 30,000 refugees in Shanghai, and achieved remarkable results. In the liberated areas, people use Beila to literacy, and the effect is also obvious.
Teaching situation of new language classes in refugee shelters
During the period from liberation to the publication of the Chinese Pinyin Scheme, Chinese people’s enthusiasm for the study of new characters remained the same. Shanghai New Writers Association was established in September 1949, with Chen Wangdao as its chairman and Ni Haishu as its vice chairman. The print run of Knowledge of Chinese published by the Association reaches as many as 150,000 copies per issue. Major cities in China, such as Hangzhou, Ningbo, Qingdao, and even overseas Chinese in Japan and Singapore also have new character education activities.
In August, 1949, Wu Yuzhang wrote to President Mao Zedong, suggesting that in order to effectively eliminate illiteracy, it is necessary to carry out rapid text reform. On October 10th, China Character Reform Association was formally established, with the task of studying the formulation of Chinese Pinyin scheme. In December, 1951, the Cultural Education Committee of the State Council set up the China Character Reform Research Committee, with Ma Xulun as the chairman and Wu Yuzhang as the vice-chairman. The members mainly included those who had participated in phonetic symbols, those who had participated in Roman characters in the national language (the former two were li jinxi) and those who had participated in Latin new characters (such as Ye Laishi and Ni Haishu). By 1955, 633 people from all over the country and overseas Chinese had sent 655 Chinese phonetic alphabet schemes, of which 264 were selected by the Chinese Character Reform Research Committee and compiled into the Compilation of Chinese phonetic alphabet schemes sent by people from all over the country as reference materials for developing Chinese phonetic alphabet schemes. This phenomenal scene is inseparable from the new writing movement.
"Compilation of Chinese Pinyin Writing Schemes Sent by People from Various Places"
On October 14th, 1955, the Pinyin Scheme Committee of China Character Reform Commission submitted the First Draft of the Scheme of Chinese Pinyin Characters (Latin alphabet) to the National Character Reform Conference, which was similar to Beila, but also divided into different groups. In 1958, the officially promulgated Chinese Pinyin Scheme also absorbed the characteristics of phonetic symbols, national Roman characters and Latin new characters.
On February 3, 1958, Wu Yuzhang gave a report on the scheme of Chinese Pinyin at the Fifth Session of the First National People’s Congress.
In January 1986, in his later years, Ye Laishi fondly recalled: "The Latinized New Characters was the most extensive and far-reaching character reform movement in the history of China before liberation … It was closely integrated with the national salvation movement at that time, and went deep into workers, peasants, troops, refugees and overseas Chinese, and received extremely enthusiastic support from many progressive and patriotic people, such as Cai Yuanpei, Zhang Yilin, Lu Xun and others … (Preface of Ni Haishu’s "The Beginning and End of the Latinized New Character Movement and Chronicle") This assertion of the old man is the best summary of the New Character Movement.
The whole story and chronicle of the Latinized New Character Movement.
References:
Ni Haishu: The History and Chronology of the Latinized New Character Movement, Knowledge Publishing House, December 1987.
Ye Laishi: Selected Works of Ye Laishi, China Esperanto Publishing House, September 1995.
Shi Chuankan and Xiao Songlan: One Hundred Years of Chinese, Shanghai Education Press, September 2008.
