Making Hanzi Accessible

As we have seen in the Prologue, the structural shape of Chinese hanzi was finalized in the Eastern Han period. Historically, numerous dictionaries, compiled either by individual etymologists or under royal patronage, were published, and because all dynastic governments’ script policies were characterized by a backward-looking conservative orientation, hanzi’s structure in formal publications remained extremely stable over this 1800- year period of development. This situation lasted until the modern period when the issue of language and script increasingly became a common concern among the educated. In this chapter we look at the history of governmental intervention in hanzi’s development to provide the necessary background information to better understand the modern reform movements.