Advocate quality education and take the road of rejuvenating the country through science and technology. However, our college students are still learning their mother tongue (children have been learning for 20 years since they were born); errors in the use of words in newspapers, books and magazines, movies and television are ubiquitous; fashionable paperless (online) office workers are few, and genuine Penless citizens (reading newspapers, afraid of writing) are hundreds of millions...
    We should have a dialogue with the world and be in line with new technologies. However, the ranking of languages used by 128 million Internet users in 1998 is: 60% in English, 10% in Spanish, 9% in Japanese, 9% in German, 8% in other languages, 2% in Italian and 2% in Chinese.
    How can this not make people feel sad and shocked? Never before has the stereotyped topic of "Reform of Chinese Characters" been placed before the Chinese nation as severely and urgently as it is today!
    I. Problems in Simplifying Chinese Characters
    The latest reform of Chinese characters is the promulgation and popularization of simplified Chinese characters after the founding of New China. In January 1956, the State Council promulgated the "Chinese Character Simplification Program". Four batches of simplified characters were published, totaling 571 (excluding simplified and analogous words). Simplified Chinese characters have been widely welcomed and recognized by the people and played a great role. It is hard to imagine what it would be like if 1.2 billion people were still living in the jungle of traditional Chinese characters without simplification at that time.
    However, due to the limitations of historical conditions at that time, simplification was only a temporary measure, not a global design. At that time, it was generally believed that the end result of Chinese characters was "pinyin". Even simplified words should be abandoned sooner or later, which was reflected in the simplification method of "fetching doctrine". Some of these simplified characters adopted simplified characters or popular characters of past dynasties; some were newly created by the people in the liberated areas and after liberation; some took part of the original simplified characters as simplified characters; some used simple variants or homophones instead of strokes; others used the method of cursive script regularization, etc., in a word, there was no fixed formula. Simplified Chinese characters are ultimately inadequate, and some even become "aftermath". The following is a delusion about the main problems:
    1. Many new pen shapes and components have been added.
    The shape and combination of Chinese characters are fixed and vulgar. If many new strokes and components are added to simplify some characters, the whole Chinese character system will be complicated. For example, the third picture of the word "special" is not available in the original Chinese characters, and this stroke is only used for special characters or contains only a few words, so it is not worthwhile ("special" should be simplified more ideally). Another example is the word "door". There seems to be no reason for a point and a gap in the corner. There are no combinations of Chinese characters (both vertical and vertical). Therefore, the word "door" on the corner is like "drawing snakes and adding feet". Why not just use "Bi" as a "door"? In principle, it is more appropriate.
    2. It is difficult to write correctly because of imprecision.
    Such problems are most common, such as writing the upper part of the word "Lu" into "Yu" and the relevant part of the word "Wei Jieye" into "Mao" has become "everyday life". Here are two more words:
The second and third pictures of the word "wei" are obviously the words "li", which is in line with the strokes of "li". No wonder the word "for" is often written first, then according to "force", then, more people simply write "force" first, then add two.
    There is no such combination in the original Chinese characters of "long" one or two paintings, and the "three or four paintings" are more unconventional, such as the "melon" in the middle. Usually it is combined with two strokes (relative) at the same time, such as "Yichenliang". No wonder some people write "long" first and then finally.
    3. Causing ambiguity and reading trouble.
    Some simplified words have been proved to be ambiguous by practice. For example, the words "like" and "cover" have been restored, but the confusion is still difficult to clear up for a while. In addition, some words are easy to cause misunderstanding and trouble in reading because of their similar outlines, such as "clothes" and "farmer" and "moosebird". The problem beside the "obituary" is particularly serious. Almost everyone may regard "Hao Huo" as "good words" and "Qing Gu" as "guests" when reading. In a word, the words with the same parts on the right are easy to read wrong.
    4. It is difficult to solve the problem in a package
    The temporary nature of knowledge determines that we have to pick out some words from different places to "repeat the old mistakes". The time span is long and the adaptation speed is slow. It will also lead to the obsolescence of books one after another, and new contradictions will constantly arise, which will bring difficulties and waste in teaching, editing, typesetting and information processing of Chinese characters.

    2. Preliminary Ideas for Reforming Chinese Characters

    To reform the current Chinese characters, we should not only simplify them comprehensively and thoroughly, but also make them scientific, modern and digital. According to my years of research and Exploration on Chinese characters and Chinese character informatization, I think we can consider the following aspects:

   1. The simplest components that conform to the internal structure of Chinese characters should be determined.

This simplest component (hereinafter referred to as component) is not a stroke, nor is it commonly considered asa component or root, but between the two. It is slightly more complex than a single stroke, but much simpler than a component, as if the simplest "prefabricated parts" of architectural Chinese characters. Components are no longer decomposed when they are understood and applied, just as letters A or B are no longer divided into three strokes (letters are also written by strokes). In this sense, components are the "spelling letters" of Chinese characters. Components should meet the following basic requirements:

    A. It's very simple. It's better to draw no more than 3-4 strokes.

    B. The total number should not exceed the number of phonetic letters. Because the components of block Chinese characters are combined on two-dimensional plane, and the phonetic letters are one-dimensional line-up concatenation (with the exception of Korean), theoretically, the available space of Chinese characters is much larger than that of phonetic characters.

    C. It's better to extract the existing Chinese characters without regeneration. The frequency of the extracted components in Chinese characters is similar.

    D. Shape should be distinctly different from C, e, I and l in English.

    E. We must be scientific, rigorous and practical. All the components in the current Chinese characters can form one or several components through reasonable selection and scientific evolution.

    2. Once the components are determined, all the existing Chinese characters (including simplified characters) should be transformed into new Chinese characters according to the established rules. The process of transformation is the process of "shaping and remolding" the new "Chinese characters".

    3. According to the need, special provisions can be made for the first part of the high-frequency use of the original Chinese characters, which is composed of one or at most two components.
    4. The rules to be formulated should be specific and meticulous. For example, the words of left and right, upper and lower, hybrid and other structures should be clearly stipulated in order to operate. It is better to formulate simple calculation "formulas" such as "addition, subtraction, multiplication and division". As long as the "formulas" are compared, they can be transformed and evolved by themselves to produce new types of "Chinese characters".
    5. The rules should have quantifiable criteria, not only for the components themselves, but also for the maximum number of strokes, components, distinction criteria for different structural characters, and simplification and abandonment of redundant parts.
    6. Many ornamental strokes, such as the dots at the end, the horizontal and vertical lines in the frame, can be omitted from the long-term evolution of Chinese characters. It does not interfere with the character itself or the distinction between them, but how to omit? What strokes should be omitted? There should also be reasonable and feasible provisions.
    7. When all the modern Chinese characters have changed greatly, we should properly handle some relations, such as the relationship with the rationality and meaning of Chinese characters, the relationship with traditional calligraphy, the relationship with minority cultures, the relationship between the mainland and overseas, etc. (I will discuss this issue in another article).
    8. The reformed Chinese characters should meet the following requirements:
    A. At a glance, you can see that the word is a few components, like looking at letters. Composition between components is like building blocks. Even if they are inserted and contained, they should be harmless and elegant because of the small size of individual components and the small number of composite components.
    B. It should be easier for people to adapt quickly to the new Chinese characters than to accept simplified characters.
    C. Really meet the requirements of quality education, such as the number of hours spent in primary school Chinese syllabus, especially in literacy and writing, should be significantly reduced.
    D. It is very easy for foreigners to understand and master new Chinese characters according to logical procedures.
    E. To meet the requirements of digitalization of Chinese character information, the most ideal is that the basic components are 10, which are similar to the basic components and can be reused by several extended components. Components can exchange information with Arabic numerals (not as troublesome as the 26 letters on the button of mobile phone).

    3. Using "Geometric Stroke" to Reform Chinese Characters

    I have put forward the theory of "geometric principle" of Chinese characters, and classified the basic strokes of Chinese characters into three categories and ten categories according to the simplest geometric form, compiled and published the Dictionary of Quick Lookup of Shape and Code, and successfully developed the Chinese character input software of "Geometric Number" (i.e. "Mass Geometric Code"). In the process of exploration and practice, it is realized that the geometric pen shape of "line corner frame" can be further exploited and utilized to contribute to the reform and simplification of Chinese characters, and the geometric pen shape "line corner frame" is briefly introduced below:

    1. "Line" shape, which is commonly called straight strokes (including straight strokes crossing), has vector meaning (different writing directions).

    2. "Angle" shape is the connection combination of different lines, such as folding strokes (one stroke of different straight strokes) and vertical connection (two strokes of different straight strokes). Angles also have the meaning of direction or orientation. They can be located in four quadrants of the geometric coordinate system (similar to the Chinese character "meter"), such as the first quadrant on the upper right and the third quadrant on the lower left.

    3. "Frame" is the combination of line and angle, that is, the end of straight brush and folding brush is connected. Frame shape has the meaning of area and inclusion, such as the mouth.

    The internal logic rules of three geometric pen shapes can be described as follows: straight pen as line; line connecting as angle; line angle as frame.

    Geometric pen can be coded with numbers 1-0, i.e. it is related to geometric pen according to the direction or shape of writing at the end. The basic pen shapes and codes are as follows: vertical point 1 (pen-shaped down); horizontal point 2 (pen-shaped down to the right); skimming 3 (pen-shaped down to the left); line fork 10 (straight cross); upper left corner 5 (corner up to the left); right corner 6 (corner up to the right); lower left corner 7 (corner down to the left); diagonal eight (point up to the right); open frame 9; The mouth is 0.

    The following is an example of the word "reform":

    The word "change" is composed of open frame, right corner, right corner and line fork. The code is 9664.

    The word "leather" consists of horizontal line 1, open frame, closed frame mouth and line fork 10. The code is 2904.

    On the basis of the coding of my original Dictionary of Shape Codes and Geometric Numbers, I try to use these ten geometric pen shapes as the simplest components, and according to the above reform ideas, I have set up some rules and regulations to test a thousand random Chinese characters, which I believe is basically feasible. According to the experiment, the new "Chinese characters" of "plastic remodeling" can be set up to 4-5 single-character components (five combined characters). The total number of strokes of all characters is about one third less than that of the current Chinese characters (how much is omitted). Among them, the Chinese characters below fifteen strokes are basically not deformed. As long as the "fine-tuning" of the control component is used, even if the word "operation" is greatly changed, the appearance and the original character are also included. The internal connection, the so-called "eight nine inseparable ten", is never as necessary to learn from scratch as to recognize new words. The biggest characteristic of these "characters" is symbolism, which can be arranged and combined conveniently in the "Tian" font, and can be digitized.

    Of course, these "characters" can not be counted, so they can not be declared to people, let alone to the beginners of Chinese characters, such as pupils, foreigners to do experiments. All I said is just to say that Chinese characters can be completely reformed and simplified.

    IV. The Reform of Chinese Characters is a National Event

    Chinese government departments have done a lot of work on the collation and standardization of Chinese characters, such as improving the font base, stipulating the standard of commonly used words, further stipulating the use of words, words and so on. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has also specifically legislated for Chinese characters, clarifying the legal status of Chinese characters, which undoubtedly lays an unshakable foundation for the existence and development of Chinese characters.

    In recent years, many experts and scholars at home and abroad have carried out multidisciplinary and multi-level research and demonstration on the role and value of Chinese characters, with fruitful results; hard-working gardeners have boldly experimented on the reform of Chinese teaching in primary and secondary schools, some of which have achieved gratifying success; others have rushed to revive the Chinese characters and made every effort to do so. A contentious and democratic academic atmosphere is taking shape in China, which is the best preparation for deepening the reform of Chinese characters and the hope of promoting Chinese culture. How I wish there would be more and better articles, suggestions, plans and assumptions to explore the reform of Chinese characters, so that more people would know and comment on them, and at the same time compare with each other to learn from each other's strengths and make up for their weaknesses.

    Chinese characters are created by the people and are also the most basic information tool used by the people. Any change in Chinese characters should be concerned and participated by the whole people. Therefore, apart from the relevant government departments or the people directly related to Chinese characters (referring to occupation, career, hobbies, etc.), people from all walks of life must be more concerned about this issue and make the people who occupy the nation concerned. Most of the workers, peasants and soldiers came in and truly formed the pluralism of academics and the democratization of decision-making.

    The above is only the author's preliminary thinking and Exploration on this issue. Prejudice and error are unavoidable. We earnestly hope that experts, scholars, colleagues and the broad masses of the people will participate in the discussion and criticism.

    Ji Lin