JTC1/SC2/WG2 N3695
2009-10-01

Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set
International Organization for Standardization
Organisation Internationale de Normalisation
Международная организация по стандартизации

Contents

Introduction

This is a proposal to encode 335 simplified Chinese characters that have been used historically, but that are no longer in common use. These characters are taken from three sources:

• The table of 324 “first batch” simplified Chinese characters (Dìyīpī Jiǎntǐzì 第一批简体字) that were issued in 1935 by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (55 of these characters are proposed for encoding);
• The table of 502 simplified Chinese characters that were issued by the Singapore Ministry of Education in 1969 (28 of these characters are proposed for encoding, of which five are also “first batch” characters)
• The tables of “second stage” simplified Chinese characters (èrjiǎnzì 二简字) that were issued by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China in 1977 (257 of these characters are proposed for encoding).

First Batch Simplified Characters (1935)

Background

In January 1934 at the 29th meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the Unification of the National Language (Guóyǔ Tǒngyī Chóubèi Wěiyuánhuì 國語統一籌備委員會) of the Ministry of Education, Qián Xuántóng 錢玄同 (1887–1939) submitted a draft table of simplified characters (Sōucǎi gùyǒu ér jiào shìyòng de jiǎntǐzì àn 搜採固有而較適用的簡體字案). These were approved by the committee, and Qián Xuántóng was delegated to edit a table of simplified characters for publication. In August 1935 the Ministry of Eductaion published a first batch of 324 simplified characters (see Appendices A and F), with the intention of publishing a series of further batches of simplified characters. However, in February 1936 the Ministry of Education issued a directive halting the simplification program, and no further batches of simplified characters were issued. Although this first batch of simplified characters was not widely used, it was historically very important as it represented the first centralized attempt to promote the use of simplified characters in China, and was a precursor to the simplification movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the People’s Republic of China.

Fig.1 Jīngběn Tōngsú Xiǎoshuō 11:2a

DJ‑228:  (錢)

The simplifications in this table were based on commonly used vulgar form characters (e.g. 宝 for 寶), ancient forms of characters (e.g. 无 for 無) and cursive form characters (e.g. 为 for 為). Most of the 324 first batch simplifications are identical to modern standard simplified characters or Japanese simplified characters, but some are different to a greater or lesser extent; and those characters that are not currently encoded need to be encoded in order for scholars to discuss this pioneering episode in the history of Chinese character simplification. Moreover, some of the currently unencoded “first batch” characters are commonly found in early printed texts (see Fig.1), so it would also be useful to encode these characters for scholars of such texts.

Table of First Batch Simplified Characters

The table below lists all 324 first batch simplified characters in the order that they occur in the published table of simplifications. The reference number is prefixed “DJ” for Dìyīpī Jiǎntǐzì. Mappings to the corresponding standard simplified and traditional character forms are given in the columns marked “Simp.” and “Trad.” respectively. Characters that are proposed for encoding are given a Unicode number of U+XXXXX and printed in red. Unicode points marked with an asterisk are for CJK-D characters, and as of writing are still provisional.

Singapore Simplified Characters (1969)

Background

In 1969 the Ministry of Education of Singapore issued a table of 502 simplified Chinese characters for use in Singapore. Most of these characters were identical to the standard simplified characters used at that time in the People’s Republic of China, but 77 simplifications were different. Many of the different simplifications are the same as the earlier “first batch” simplified characters, and a few are the same as simplifications given in the later “second stage” simplification tables, but 23 simplifications are unique and unencoded.

In 1974 an expanded list of 2,248 simplified characters was issued, of which only 10 characters still differed from PRC simplified characters. Finally, in May 1976 a revised list of simplified characters was issued that omitted the 10 Singapore-only simplifications, and was now identical to the list of simplified characters used in the PRC.

Table of Singapore Simplifications

The table below lists only those 77 characters in the 1969 table of 502 simplified characters that differ from standard PRC simplifications (see Appendix D). The reference number is prefixed “SJ” for “Singapore jiǎntǐzì”). Characters that are proposed for encoding are given a Unicode number of U+XXXXX and printed in red. Unicode points marked with an asterisk are for CJK-D characters, and as of writing are still provisional.

Second Stage Simplified Characters (1977)

Background

Following on from the formal introduction of simplified Chinese characters in the 1950s and 1960s, an attempt to promote a second stage of further simplifications was made in the late 1970s. In May 1975 the Chinese Writing Reform Committee (Zhōngguó Wénzì Gǎigé Wěiyuánhuì 中国文字改革委员会) produced a first draft of Second Stage simplified characters for review by the State Council, and eventually on 20th December 1977 the final draft (entitled Dì'èrcì Hànzì Jiǎnhuà Fāng'àn (cǎo'àn) 《第二次汉字简化方案（草案）》) was published in the People's Daily (Rénmín Rìbào 人民日报), the Guangming Daily (Guāngmíng Rìbào 光明日报) and other newspapers (see Figs.2-3 and Appendix C).

Fig.2: Announcement in the People's Daily (20th December 1977)	Fig.3: Second Stage Simplification Tables in the People's Daily

The draft comprised two tables, Table 1 with 172 individual simplifications and 21 generic simplifications, for immediate use; and Table 2 with a much larger number of simplifications for future use if the Table 1 simplifications proved successful. Table 1 only was added as an appendix to a new edition of the General Table of Simplified Characters (Jiǎnhuàzì Zǒngbiǎo 简化字总表) that was published in December 1977 (see Appendix B).

On 21st December 1977, the day after the draft was published, the People's Daily started to use the simplified characters listed in Table 1 only, and continued to do so until July 1978 (see Figs.4-5).

Fig.4: Headline from the People's Daily (2nd February 1978)

哥德巴赫想 Goldbach's Conjecture

Fig.5: Collage of Table 1 Simplifications from a 1978 edition of the People's Daily

Source: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/二简字

(Note that Table 2 simplifications such as  (商),  (喜),  (侵) and  (柬) are not used)

Postage stamps issued between June and November 1978 also made use of the new simplified characters from Table 1 (see Figs.6-10).

Fig.6: Stamp J28-2 (1978)	Fig.7: Stamp T31-2 (1978)	Fig.8: Stamp T34-4 (1978)
全国财贸学大庆学大会议	公路拱桥 无钖 新虹桥	...全发

Fig.9: Stamp T25-1 (1978)	Fig.10: Stamp T29-3 (1978)
化学纤维・料	犀牛（㲺）

During 1978 the new simplified characters from Table 1 were widely used in newspapers, books, and publications of all kinds, but the experiment was judged to have been a failure, and in July 1978 a directive to stop using the new simplified characters was issued. Although the new simplifications were not used in official publications after the end of 1978, they were not officially withdrawn until 24th June 1986 (see Appendix H). Nevertheless, the new simplifications did not entirely die out, and were occasionally used in printed contexts during the 1980s. Even today simplified characters from Table 1 are frequently met with in informal contexts such as shop signage and personal correspondence.

Fig.11: “Friendship First, Competition Second”

友谊第一，比第二

There is a pressing need to encode the Table 1 simplifications, both in order to discuss the history of Chinese character simplification, and also in order to accurately represent those texts that are written using second stage simplifications. As an example, a web site about Chinese post cards (http://www.postcardxp.com/list.asp?unid=2144) has the following entry about a set of post cards published in 1986 that includes the second stage simplification  for 罐 guàn “pot” in the titles of several of the post cards. The author of the web site is unable to represent this character, and is forced to describe it using its component parts.

15.《柳湾彩陶》全套10枚。青海人民出版社出版。青海省新华书店发行。外贸无锡印刷厂印制。青海省外事办公室. 青海省彩陶研究中心 编。1986年3月第1版第1次印刷。书号：8097・598。定价：0.92元。摄影：李金举、宋亦增。封面：马厂类型裸体人像壶。内容：马厂类型裸体人像壶、马厂类型“丰”字纹缶又、马厂类型蛙纹彩陶壶、马厂类型八圈纹缶又、马厂类型彩陶瓮、马厂类型蛙纹瓮、半山类型渴纹壶、半山类型彩陶壶、齐家文化鴞面陶缶又、齐家文化带咀陶缶又（注：“缶又”是“罐”不规范的简化字。）（注：彩色摄影片，尺寸规格100×150mm。）

Unlike the simplifications listed in Table 1 of the Second Stage Simplification Tables, which were widely used and are still widely recognised, the simplifications listed in Table 2 were not used in official publications such as the People's Daily (or in any printed books that I have been able to find) and most Chinese people are not familiar with them. However, there is still a need to encode these characters in order for historians of Chinese character simplification to represent the draft simplification tables in electronic format, and to discuss these abortive simplifications.

A number of the simplifications in Table 2 are based on cursive or vulgar character forms that are commonly found in printed and manuscript texts dating back to at least the Tang dynasty, such as Yuánkān Zájù Sānshízhòng 元刊雜劇三十種 and dūnhuáng biànwén jí 敦煌變文集 (see Figs.12-15), and so encoding the Table 2 characters would also be of benefit to scholars working with old Chinese texts. Other vulgar simplifications found in texts such as these will be the subject of a future proposal.

Fig.12: Yuánkān Zájū No.14 folio 3a	Fig.13: Yuánkān Zájū No.16 folio 4b
 (能) and cursive form of 事 corresponding to  (EJ‑2.5.013)	 (要) and cursive form of 推 showing the origin of the  component simplification (EJ‑2.9.012)

Fig.14: Yuánkān Zájū No.4 folio 4a	Fig.15: Dūnhuáng Biànwén Jí page 656
 (要) and  (腰)	 (身)

Second Stage Simplification Tables

The published draft of the second stage simplifications is divided into two tables: Table 1 comprises those simplifications that were intended to be put into immediate use; whereas Table 2 comprises those simplifications that were not intended for immediate use, but which would be introduced if the Table 1 simplifications proved to be successful. Scans of both tables are given in Appendix B and Appendix C of this document.

Table 1 is divided into two subtables: Subtable 1 lists individual character simplifications of various types; and Subtable 2 lists generic simplifications that can be productively extended to all other characters that contain the particular character as a component element. For each simplification in Subtable 2, a list of example characters that have been simplified according to the simplification paradigm is given. Although in theory the generic simplifications given in Subtable 2 could be applied to many more characters than the examples provided, as the examples cover all the common characters with the particular simplifiable component element it is unlikely that in practice any characters beyond the set of example characters would have been simplified in a like manner in printed matter during the brief time that the Table 1 characters were in use. Therefore, only those simplified characters which are explicitly listed in Subtable 2 are proposed for encoding.

Table 2 is divided into nine subtables. Subtables 1 through 7 list individual character simplifications of various types:

• Subtable 1: Homophonic Substitutions (同音代替字) in which a complex character is replaced by a simpler existing character that is a homophone or near homophone of the original character (e.g. 陡 dǒu is simplified to 斗 dǒu). The only characters in Subtable 1 that need encoding are those that are also subject to component simplification, such as the second stage simplification of 嚼 (EJ‑2.1.025) which is first simplified to the existing character 噍, and then further simplified to  according to the paradigms for EJ‑2.9.012 and EJ‑2.9.013.
• Subtable 2: Pictophonetic Simplifications (形声字) in which a different, simpler phonetic element is used in place of the original phonetic element (e.g. the 夷 yí element on the righthandside of the character 姨 is replaced by the homophonic 乙 yǐ element to give ).
• Subtable 3: Idiosyncratic Simplifications (特征字) in which a complex character is reduced to one characteristic component (e.g. the character 德 is reduced to its lower righthandside component, ).
• Subtable 4: Outline Simplifications (轮廓字) in which the outline of a character is kept, but some of the internal detail is omitted (e.g. the two internal strokes of the character 耳 are omitted to give ).
• Subtable 5: Cursive Simplifications (草书楷化字) in which the simplified character is based on the cursive or grass script way of writing it (e.g. the character 事 is simplified to ).
• Subtable 6: Semantic Simplifications (会意字) in which one component of a character is replaced by a different, more meaningful component (e.g. the 豕 "pig" component in the character 家 "family" is replaced by 人 "person" to give 𡦼).
• Subtable 7: Symbolic Simplifications (符号字) in which a complex component is arbitrarily replaced by a simple component that has no relationship with the component that it is replacing (e.g. the 鬼 component in the character 魏 is replaced by 乚 to give ).

Subtables 8 and 9 list generic simplifications (简化偏旁) that can be productively extended to all other characters that contain the particular character as a component element (e.g. the component 旁 should be written as 㝑 in any character with that component, such as the characters 傍, 谤, 榜, 膀, 磅, 镑, 耪 and 螃). Subtable 8 lists generic simplifications of component elements that occur as standalone characters, whereas Subtable 9 lists generic simplifications of component elements that do not occur as characters in their own right (although most such components are encoded in Unicode as CJK unified ideographs). Both these subtables provide lists of characters that should be simplified according to the simplification paradigms, but unlike Table 1 Subtable 2, the resulting simplified character is not actually shown. Therefore it is not possible to propose the 348 example simplifiable characters given in Subtables 8 and 9 for encoding on the basis of these tables. However, a couple of these characters are attested in their second stage simplified form in other sources, and where this is the case they are proposed for encoding: the character  (腰) is attested in Yuan dynasty editions of plays (see Fig.14); and the character  (陷) is attested in an explanation of the Second Stage Simplification Plan published in the 31st January 1978 edition of the the People's Daily (see Appendix G).

In the tables below, those characters that require encoding are printed in red and given a Unicode number of U+XXXXX. The reference number for each character is prefixed “EJ” for èrjiǎntǐ.

Table 1 Subtable 1 : Individual Simplifications (172 entries)

Table 1 Subtable 2 : Generic Simplifications (21+55 entries)

Table 2 Subtable 1 : Homophonic Substitutions (72 entries)