Character form specification

Author: Cao Xianzhuo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-07-01
Features: This book is one of the "100 Series of Chinese Language Small" and is a reference guide on Chinese character forms. The authors are all language professionals with specialized knowledge, some of whom are renowned scholars. Language and characters are the carriers of information and an indispensable basic means of human civilization development. In the information age, their role is even more significant. The book is divided into two parts: Simplified Chinese Characters and Organized Chinese Characters. The first part summarizes the formation of simplified Chinese characters. The second part explains the knowledge related to organizing variant characters, replacing rare characters used in county-level and above place names, changing characters used in measurement unit names, organizing Chinese character forms, and the printing fonts of current Chinese characters. The content of the book focuses on the knowledge people encounter in their studies and daily lives. The form of current Chinese characters refers to the forms of simplified and organized characters as well as the inherited forms of Chinese characters (i.e., those that have not been simplified or organized).
1. Simplified Chinese Characters
On January 28, 1956, the 23rd session of the State Council Plenary Meeting passed the "Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters" and announced the resolution on the implementation of the "Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters." The "Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters" included 515 simplified characters and 54 simplified radicals. The simplified characters in the "Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters" were implemented in four batches:
--- On February 1, 1956, the first batch of 260 simplified characters was announced, including 30 simplified characters derived from radicals that were not included in the "Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters."
--- On June 1, 1956, the second batch of 95 simplified characters was announced.
--- On May 10, 1958, the third batch of 70 simplified characters was announced.
--- On July 15, 1959, the fourth batch of 92 simplified characters was announced.
The above four batches implemented a total of 517 simplified characters, including 487 simplified characters from the "Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters" and 30 derived simplified characters outside the "Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters."
Twenty-eight simplified characters included in the "Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters" were not implemented and continued to be used for trial purposes.
During the implementation of the four batches, adjustments were made to three groups of characters in the "Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters":
--- Some homophonic replacement characters, although commonly used in history, do not have entirely equal meanings. Their replacement may lead to confusion in meaning.
--- There were inconsistencies between the simplified character table and the simplified radical table in the "Scheme for Simplifying Chinese Characters."