Language and Text Specification Manual

Author: None
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: Language and character work is related to all sectors of society and is an important aspect of socialist modernization construction. Promoting the standardization and normalization of language and characters is of great significance for the development of education, science, technology, and cultural undertakings, implementing the policies of opening up to the outside world and revitalizing the domestic economy, as well as strengthening economic and cultural exchanges both domestically and internationally. Since the founding of the country, the Chinese government and relevant departments have taken many positive measures in the standardization of language and characters, issuing various regulations. Some of these have been published as separate books, but due to their age, they are now difficult to obtain. Others are scattered in newspapers and magazines, making it hard to collect them completely, which is very inconvenient to use. Therefore, we have compiled and organized the main legal decisions, regulatory documents, international standards, national standards, and regulations related to language and characters issued and implemented over the years for everyone to reference. This manual is reprinted based on the revised edition of 1993. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the material and make it more practical and easy to use, this reprint has not only supplemented the international standard "Bibliographic Information Work—Romanization of Chinese Characters" but also replaced the newly revised and published three national standards: "Regulations on the Use of Numbers in Publications," "Rules for the Use of Punctuation," and "Basic Rules for the Orthography of Hanyu Pinyin." Additionally, in line with the spirit of the joint notice "On Issuing the 'Modern Chinese Common Character Stroke Order Norms'" dated July 4, 1997, the order of characters in the "Modern Chinese Common Character Table" and the "Modern Chinese Common Character List" has been adjusted. Furthermore, the original content, text, phonetic annotations, and formatting have been carefully reviewed and corrected for any errors caused by technical reasons. Some materials have been reorganized and adjusted in their arrangement, with necessary explanations or annotations provided. After the "Total Table of Simplified Characters," "Modern Chinese Common Character List," and "Judgment of Variants in the Pronunciation of Common Chinese Characters," there are separately attached the "Index for the Total Table of Simplified Characters" ("Looking Up Characters by Pinyin," "Looking Up Simplified Characters by Traditional Characters," "Looking Up Traditional Characters by Simplified Characters"), the "3500 Common Character Stroke Order Index" (arranged with common and less common characters mixed), and the "Stroke Order Index for the Judgment of Variants in the Pronunciation of Common Chinese Characters."