This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Simplified Chinese characters" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.(April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
(Learn how and when to remove this template message)
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Simplified Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese
简化字
Traditional Chinese
簡化字
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin
Jiǎnhuàzì
Bopomofo
ㄐㄧㄢˇ ㄏㄨㄚˋ ㄗˋ
Wade–Giles
Chien3-hua4-tzŭ4
Tongyong Pinyin
Jiǎn-huà-zìh
IPA
[tɕjɛ̀n.xwâ.tsɹ̩̂]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization
Gáan faa jih
Jyutping
gaan2 faa3 zi6
IPA
[kaːn˧˥ faː˧ tsiː˨]
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese
简体字
Traditional Chinese
簡體字
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin
Jiǎntǐzì
Bopomofo
ㄐㄧㄢˇ ㄊㄧˇ ㄗˋ
Wade–Giles
Chien3-tʻi3-tzŭ4
Tongyong Pinyin
Jiǎn-tǐ-zìh
IPA
[tɕjɛ̀n.tʰì.tsɹ̩̂]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization
Gáan tái jih
Jyutping
gaan2 tai2 zi6
IPA
[kaːn˧˥ tʰɐi˧˥ tsiː˨]
Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized character sets widely used to write the Chinese language, with the other being traditional characters. Their mass standardization during the 20th century was part of an initiative by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to promote literacy, and their use in ordinary circumstances on the mainland has been encouraged by the Chinese government since the 1950s.[1] They are the official forms used in mainland China and Singapore, while traditional characters are officially used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
Simplification of a component—either a character or a sub-component called a radical—usually involves either a reduction in its total number of strokes, or an apparent streamlining of which strokes are chosen in what places—for example, the ⼓'WRAP' radical used in the traditional character 沒 is simplified to ⼏'TABLE' to form the simplified character 没.[2] By systematically simplifying radicals, large swaths of the character set are altered. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms that embody graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. In addition, variant characters with identical pronunciation and meaning were reduced to a single standardized character, usually the simplest among all variants in form. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification and are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies.
The Chinese government has never officially announced the completion of the simplification process after the bulk of characters were introduced by the 1960s. In the wake of the Cultural Revolution, a second round of simplified characters was promulgated in 1977—largely composed of entirely new variants intended to artificially lower the stroke count, in contrast to the first round—but was massively unpopular and never saw consistent use. The second round of simplifications was ultimately retracted officially in 1986, well after they had largely ceased to be used due to their unpopularity and the confusion they caused. In August 2009, China began collecting public comments for a revised list of simplified characters;[3][4][5][6] the resulting Table of General Standard Chinese Characters lists 8,105 characters, including a few revised forms, and was implemented for official use by China's State Council on 5 June 2013.[7]
Chinese characters
Chinese family of scripts
Written Chinese
Kanji
Hanja
Chữ Hán
Historical forms and styles
Neolithic symbols in China
Oracle bone
Bronze
Seal (Bird-worm
Large
Small)
Clerical
Cursive
Semi-cursive
Regular
Flat brush
Typefaces
Fangsong
Ming
Sans-serif
Properties and classification
Components
Strokes (order)
Radical
Collation and standards
Character-form standards
Jiu zixing
Xin zixing
Kangxi Dictionary forms (1716)
General Standard Chinese Characters (mainland China, 2013)
Graphemes of Commonly-used Chinese characters (Hong Kong, 2007)
Standard Form of National Characters (Taiwan, 1982)
Grapheme-usage standards
General Standard Characters (PRC, 2013)
Jōyō kanji (Japan, 2010)
Other standards
Standardized Forms of Words with Variant Forms (PRC, 2002)
Nan Min Recommended Characters (Taiwan, 2009)
Previous standards
Commonly-used Characters (PRC, 1988)
Tōyō kanji (Japan, 1946)
Reforms
China
Clerical reforms
Traditional characters
Simplified characters
(first round
second round)
Debate
Japan
Kyūjitai
Shinjitai
Ryakuji
Korea
Yakja
Singapore
Table of Simplified Characters
Homographs and readings
Literary and colloquial readings
Variants
Graphemic variants
Zetian characters
Derived systems
Slavonic transcription
Nüshu
Kana (
Man'yōgana
Hiragana
Katakana
)
Jurchen script
Khitan (
Large
Small
)
Idu script
Bopomofo
Sawndip
Chữ Nôm
Transliteration of Chinese
v
t
e
^教育部就《汉字简化方案》等发布50周年答记者问. GOV.cn (in Chinese). 2006-03-22.
^沒"Unihan data for U+6C92". www.unicode.org. Retrieved 2023-09-30."Unihan data for U+6CA1". www.unicode.org. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
^关于《通用规范汉字表》公开征求意见的公告. china-language.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
^汉字,该繁还是简?. Xinhua 新华网 (in Chinese). 2009-04-09. Archived from the original on 2009-04-28. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
^专家称恢复繁体字代价太大 新规范汉字表将公布. Xinhua 新华网 (in Chinese). 2009-04-09. Archived from the original on 2009-04-12. Retrieved 2009-04-10. Syndicated from 新京报, 2009-04-09. Accessed 2009.04.10.
^Wu, Jing; Guo, Likun (12 August 2009). "China to Regulate Use of Simplified Characters". China View. Archived from the original on 2009-08-16. Retrieved 2009-08-17.
^国务院关于公布《通用规范汉字表》的通知 [Notice of the State Council on Promulgating the "Common Standard Chinese Characters Table"] (in Chinese). Government of the People's Republic of China. 2013-08-19.
and 30 Related for: Simplified Chinese characters information
SimplifiedChinesecharacters are one of two standardized character sets widely used to write the Chinese language, with the other being traditional characters...
the existing SimplifiedChinesecharacters that are in use today. To distinguish from the later Second round of simplifiedChinesecharacters, this reform...
traditional Chinesecharacters and simplifiedChinesecharacters is an ongoing dispute concerning Chinese orthography among users of Chinesecharacters. It has...
standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of the predominant forms. Simplifiedcharacters as...
second-round simplifiedChinesecharacters. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Examples of use of second-round simplifiedChinesecharacters. Andrew West...
of SimplifiedCharacters (simplifiedChinese: 简体字表; traditional Chinese: 簡體字表; pinyin: jiǎntǐzì biǎo), which differed from the ChineseCharacter Simplification...
Modern Chinesecharacters (traditional Chinese: 現代漢字; simplifiedChinese: 现代汉字; pinyin: xiàndài hànzì) are the Chinesecharacters used in modern languages...
written Chinese between simplified and traditional forms. The standardization of simplified forms in Japan was distinct from the process in mainland China. The...
pronunciations: broadly, simplifiedcharacters are used to write Chinese in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia, while traditional characters are used in Taiwan...
multilingual character set of 149,813 characters, 98,682 (about two-thirds) are Chinese. That means computer processing of Chinesecharacters is the toughest...
Strokes (simplifiedChinese: 笔画; traditional Chinese: 壁畫; pinyin: bǐhuà) are the smallest structural units making up written Chinesecharacters. In the...
number of Chinesecharacters are simplified-traditional multipairings (简繁一对多; 簡繁一對多), which do not have a one-to-one mapping between their simplified and traditional...
Transcription into Chinesecharacters is the use of traditional or simplifiedChinesecharacters to phonetically transcribe the sound of terms and names...
Written Chinese is a writing system that uses Chinesecharacters and other symbols to represent the Chinese languages. Chinesecharacters do not directly...
A Chinese radical (Chinese: 部首; pinyin: bùshǒu; lit. 'section header') or indexing component is a graphical component of a Chinesecharacter under which...
The Chinese telegraph code, Chinese telegraphic code, or Chinese commercial code (simplifiedChinese: 中文电码; traditional Chinese: 中文電碼; pinyin: Zhōngwén...
or simplifications of characters, akin to Chinesesimplifiedcharacters or Japanese shinjitai are occasionally used, especially since many simplified forms...
The Chinese Wikipedia (traditional Chinese: 中文維基百科; simplifiedChinese: 中文维基百科; pinyin: Zhōngwén Wéijī Bǎikē) is the written vernacular Chinese (a form...
The List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese (simplifiedChinese: 现代汉语通用字表; traditional Chinese: 現代漢語通用字表; pinyin: Xiàndài Hànyǔ Tōngyòngzì...
Vietnamese, all of which use Chinesecharacters. Several general-purpose character encodings accommodate Chinesecharacters, and some of them were developed...
In Written Chinese, components (Chinese: 部件; pinyin: bùjiàn) are building blocks of characters, composed of strokes. In most cases, a component consists...
Simplified Cangjie, known as Quick (Chinese: 簡易) or Sucheng (Chinese: 速成) is a stroke based keyboard input method based on the Cangjie IME (Chinese: 倉頡輸入法)...
especially as the formal written Chinese language. Both Standard Chinese (PRC) (known in simplifiedChinese: 华语; traditional Chinese: 華語; pinyin: Huáyǔ; Zhuyin...
multilingual character set of 149,813 characters, 98,682 (about 2/3) are Chinese. That means computer processing of Chinesecharacters is the toughest...
Chinese calligraphy is the writing of Chinesecharacters as an art form, combining purely visual art and interpretation of the literary meaning. This type...