Chapter 9 About Chinese Character Sorting and Literacy Teaching

The essay solicitation for "Writing Reform" aroused my great interest.From my own burden and experience, I will also talk about one or two issues about Chinese character arrangement and literacy teaching. First of all, I am one of the 10,000 people in favor of simplification of Chinese characters. Needless to say, for the convenience of listening to reports and writing notes, this idea can be said to be more than 50 years ago, when I started to learn to write my scientific name "Xie Wanying". At that time, it has sprouted.There are more than forty characters in my name, and it takes a long time to write it horizontally and vertically, which is a heavy burden for a child.I remember when I was young, when I was taking an arithmetic test, I did simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, which took me less time than writing my name on the test paper.Therefore, I have a headache about my name, but there is no way to change the surname. The word "wan" in my name is the ranking of sisters in the big family, and it can't be changed easily.I also had to endure pain and burden for many years.

After the May 4th Movement, I started to write some unremarkable short stories. I was thin-skinned, afraid that my classmates would make fun of me, so I thought of a pseudonym.First of all I want it to be simple and easy to write. The strokes of the two characters "Bing Xin" are very simple, and they have the meaning of "Ying", so I adopted them.This makes some friends in the future either ask me the meaning of this pseudonym, or make a joke, especially foreign friends who have never read the Tang poem "A piece of ice heart in the jade pot", they will often shake their heads and say with a smile: "Writers and poets? Should it be cold-hearted?"

This is going too far. Although the three characters of my scientific name have been simplified by the radical of "箠" and the prefix of "", it is difficult to write. I neither use it. Don't worry about it either.What I mean is that there are many Chinese characters that are very complicated and difficult to write. In order to reduce the burden on students, the commonly used characters must be simplified to save time and energy. As for how to simplify, I am a layman, so I have to leave it to the masses and Experts to discuss the decision.I also suggest that when parents name their children, it is best to choose a word that is commonly used, has simple strokes, or has a simplified font.A student has to write his name several times a day in school. Having a simple and easy-to-write name can save him a lot of time.

As for the pinyin alphabet, it is very beneficial for literacy. I have not had much contact with children in the past few years, but I have had many conversations with foreign friends who are new to Chinese characters.When we—the Chinese cultural delegation—visited Europe in 1958, friends from Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom all showed great interest in our writing reform.they said: "We yearn for Chinese culture, we love Chinese literature and art, we want to know the reason why your revolution is successful, we must learn Chinese language, but it is really difficult for us to learn your square characters! Now we have the teaching of pinyin letters It’s great.” Later some of these friends came to China, and they raised their hopes to me again, and they said: “We have learned Pinyin, and we can pronounce the names of places at any station, which makes us very happy. , but when we arrive in a city, we don’t know how to call them if there are no pinyin letters on the street or alley signs, or on the names of shops or goods.” This is also worthy of our consideration.

Also, I have a child in the first grade of elementary school. She once taught me to read several "names of plants, trees, birds and animals" that I can't read. She learned these from the pinyin alphabet.It's a pity that as soon as she reached the senior grades, the teacher didn't use the phonetic alphabet, and quickly forgot them.How widely and long-term the pinyin alphabet should be used in children's textbooks and reading materials is also a question that we should investigate and study. (This article was originally published in "Guangming Daily" on April 29, 1962.) I only picked children from many places. Returning from Xiangshan, passing by the Summer Palace, I saw the entrance of the Summer Palace. squeezed out of the door.These big red doors are like a big magic box with the lid open, and groups of little angels that can't be closed are rushing out.

What an interesting scene!I think of two poems: "Children don't know where spring is, and they only choose tourists to travel in many places." Conversely, it can also be said, "Tourists don't understand where spring is, and they only choose children to travel in many places."We smiled and got out of the car, and squeezed into the Summer Palace against the flood of children. We originally wanted to drink tea by the Zhichun Pavilion, but we didn't know that there was no gap beside the Zhichun Pavilion!Girls and boys, those wearing red scarves, those who took off their coats and put them on their shoulders and held them in their hands, clustered here and there, chirping and quacking, not knowing what to say or laugh, all with their noses pointed Beads of sweat glistened on his face, and the fragrance of the sun emanated from his small body.There are also some children, probably tired from running, sitting on the hillside with their backs against the roots of the trees, concentrating on reading comic books.There are countless small boats full of children on the lake, rippling on the waves, and bright red team flags rattling in the rippling east wind.

We stood for a while and walked towards Yulan Hall along the white stone railing by the lake. At the turning point, we bumped into groups of children who hurriedly said "I'm sorry" and hurried forward again. The Zhichun Pavilion and the gate of the garden were probably where they gathered. The sun was already westward, and it was time for them to go back. Walking into the courtyard of Yulan Hall, my eyes suddenly lit up. Those biggonia trees were covered with dense layers of light red flowers. The flowers bloomed from the branches to the treetops without leaving any gaps. Just like a few flying springs spraying flowers... Spring will be so full, so romantic, so pungent, so extravagant, it squanders the spirit and strength stored in the winter to its heart's content!

We admired loudly under the flowers, causing a group of children who were just about to go out to gather around again. They looked up at the flowers and at us.I grabbed a boy with short hair on his forehead.I asked with a smile, "Do you think this crabapple flower is pretty?" He smiled coyly and said, "It's pretty." The girl behind him smiled and said: "It's just driving well!" So they smiled and ran out of the door as if they had passed a level. That's right, it's a great drive!As long as it is well managed and watered and fertilized in a timely manner, the flowers, like children, are inspired by spring, cheerfully and lively, with exuberant vitality, stretching out their fresh and beautiful limbs and doing their best. Feel happy, others look happy too.

Where is spring, my friend?When you go on a spring outing, remember to "only pick children and travel in many places", you will never miss spring! (This article was originally published in "Beijing Evening News" on May 6, 1962, and later included in the collection of essays "Xiaozha Gleaners".)