Modernizing The Chinese Language
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Modernizing The Chinese Language.
The Chinese language, as is well known, is written in ideographic symbols
incapable of change or inflection. This handicap is beyond doubt due to the
too early development of intelligence among the ancient Chinese. They
seized the language in its undeveloped form before merchants and practical
men had made it phonetic, for the expression of their thoughts. So they
built up in the symbol writing a literature so valuable that they fixed it
forever in the esteem of their descendants. One result of this adoption of
the ideographs as the authorized mode of literary expression is not
generally understood. A literary style has been developed which has no
connection with spoken language. The literature of China appeals to the eye
and not to the ear. Very little of it would be understood by the hearers if
it were read aloud. It follows that while infinite pains are taken by
Chinese scholars to perfect their literary style they are very slovenly
speakers of their own language. They are as far as possible from being
purists either in the choice of words or in pronunciation. The pride which
educated men of other countries feel in the correctness of their speech and
accent is altogether lacking in China. There is no special difference
between the speech of an educated man and that of an illiterate coolie. In
the matter of pronunciation foreign sinalogues in China are practically the
only purists. The highest ranking Chinese scholars and officials make no
effort to correct local errors in pronunciation which they have picked up
in childhood. In Hunan Province the “H" sound is often pronounced
"F” and the "N" sound is like "L". I have heard an ex-premier, a
Hunan man of real scholarship and high attainments, speak of his native
province as "Fulan”. The great Vice roy Li
Hung-chang, used to interlard his speech with localisms from his native
place, Ho-fei Hsien in Anhui Province. It follows that those who
deal with Chinese officials have
to be good guessers. Thus when an official speaks of "yueh-dong” you
must be able to guess at once that he ^is^ talking
about "hsueh-t’ang”, schools. The ditinguished scholar and
writer, the Viceroy ChangChih-tung, was one of the very worst speakers
among the officials of the Empire. I remember once hearing him address a
school. The students listened to him most respectfully for a full hour, as
was due to his rank and reputation. After he had gone I collected a few of
the more intelligent of the students and asked them how much they had
understood of what the Viceroy had been saying. They replied without
hesitation that they had not understood one word. When Parliament formerly
assembled at Peking, the members used to have great difficulty in
understanding the remarks of those from certain provinces, although all
were supposed to speak the same language. Still more serious than the
slovenliness of the Chinese scholar about his speech is the fact that the
literary forms upon which he has con centrated his
attention have come to differ so widely from the colloquial. The uneducated
masses cannot of couse understand it properly composed
literature, and any writing in the colloquial is as offensive to the
Chinese scholar as English literature in ungrammatical slang would be to
anf^[inline]y^ scholar of taste in America
or England. China is now trying the experiment of a democratic form of
government and her success must depend upon quickening the intelligence of
the mass of the people. It must be made possible to open their minds to the
news of their own country and of the outside world. In my judgment this
will be impossible unless certain radical changes are made in the Chinese
language. Chinese must be written phonec^[inline]t^ically, and a new literary style must be developed based upon the
colloquial. A certain amount of progress is being made in both directions.
The Ministry of Educa tion has adopted a phonetic
system of writing Chinese sounds which is quite
satisfactory and which is
gradually coming into use. So far the phonetic signs are used along with
the Chinese characters as in Japan. There is this difference however in
that the full sentence is given in the Chinese characters at the side of
which the phonetic symbols are placed. A distinct improvement also is to be
noticed in the matter of pride in speech on the part of educated men. Two
things are influencing the people in this matter. The establishment of
schools with the necessity of frequently addressing the students and the
organization of Parliament with its oral exercises both tend to make men
more careful about speech. The matter of replacing the old literature by a
new literature based upon the colloquial is more difficult than it may seem
Since the written Chinese appeals to the eye rather than to the ear great
condensation has become has become [repeated
twice] a mark of literary excellence Written Chinese is
monosyllabic, while the colloquial is dissylabic or polysyllabic. Where one
chacter, if seen, is sufficient to make the meaning clear, two words at
least may be necessary to convey the same meaning to the ear. So the
diffuseness of the spoken language has bcome anathema to all aspirants for
an elegant literary style. To overcome this prejudice much time. In Europe
long ago the same battle in another form was fought between the scholars
and the people. The language of the street replaced the [illegible: overinflected] Latin of the scholars.
So we may hope that common sense will finally prevail in China. All of the
many newspapers are now published in a form somewhat simplified and some of
them are even printed in the colloquial. The province of Shansi is in
advance of all the other provinces owing to the fact that the people of
that province have remained outside the political disturbances that have
distracted the other provinces during the past few years. The province has
had no change of governors since the Revolution of 1911. The present
Governor, Yen Hsi-shan is a native of the province and has worked earnestly
for the welfare of his fellow provincials
He has now made the study of the
phonetic method of rendering Chinese compulsory in
all the schools of the province. To master the number of characters
necessary for reading and to acquire the literary style requires many years
of hard work on the part of the student. As long as the old system prevails
the mass of the people must be condemned to illiteracy, for the have not
time for the work required. The phonetic system of writing can be learned
in two or three weeks and if then a literature is open to the minds of the
people we may hope to see the rapid spread of intelligence among Chinese
Republicans and the consequent success of their experiment in government by
the people.
By Charles D. Tenney For many years Chinese Secretary of the American
Legation at Peking.
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