Shinjitai (in Shinjitai: 新字体; in Kyūjitai: 新字體; meaning "new character form"), are the forms of Kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( Neolithic signs At a range of Neolithic sites in China, small numbers of symbols of either pictorial or simple geometric nature have been unearthed which were Variant Chinese characters ( are Chinese characters that can be used interchangeably The second round of Chinese character simplification was an aborted orthography reform officially promulgated on 20 December 1977 by the People's The debate on Traditional Chinese characters and Simplified Chinese characters (繁簡之爭 more recently 正簡之爭 a are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana is an ancient Writing system which employs Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated Idu is an archaic Writing system which represents the Korean language using Hanja. Hán tự ( {{IPA|/han˦˥ tɯ˨/}}; 漢[[wikt 字|字]] meaning " Chinese character " or chữ Nho ( {{IPA|/tɕɯ˧˨˧ ɲɔ/}} Chữ Nôm ( IPA: /cɨ3ˀ5 nom33/ chữ Nôm in Unicode: 字[[wikt 喃|喃]]/ 𡨸 喃/ 𡦂 喃 chữ Nôm in Unicode The art of Calligraphy is widely practiced and revered in the East Asian Civilizations that use or used Chinese characters. Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in Chinese Bronze inscriptions are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on Chinese bronze artifacts such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons Seal script ( Chinese: Simplified 篆书 篆書 Pinyin: zhuànshū is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which The regular script or standard script, or in Chinese kaishu ( and Japanese kaisho, also commonly known as standard regular Semi-cursive script is a partially cursive style of Chinese calligraphy. Cursive script ( simplified草书 erroneously translated as Grass script is a style of Chinese calligraphy. Since the Chinese language uses a logographic script — that is a script where one or more " characters " corresponds roughly to one "word" or Kyūjitai (in Shinjitai: ja 旧字体 in Kyūjitai 舊字體 meaning "old character form" is the traditional form of the Japanese Kanji used before are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana The tōyō kanji, also known as the Tōyō kanjihyō (当用漢字 "kanji for general use" are the result of a reform of the Kanji characters Year 1946 ( MCMXLVI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Some of the new forms found in Shinjitai are also found in Simplified Chinese, but Shinjitai is generally not as extensive in the scope of its modification as Simplified Chinese. Thus, modern Japanese Kanji more closely resembles Traditional Chinese characters.
Shinjitai were created by simplifying the complicated Kyūjitai (旧字体/舊字體, "old character form"), unsimplified Kanji equivalent to the Traditional Chinese characters, also called 正字 seiji, meaning proper/correct characters) through a process (very similar to that of Simplified Chinese) of either replacing the tsukuri (旁) (right-hand part of a Kanji) indicating the On reading with another character of the same On reading with fewer strokes, or replacing a complicated section of a character with a more simplified symbol. Kyūjitai (in Shinjitai: ja 旧字体 in Kyūjitai 舊字體 meaning "old character form" is the traditional form of the Japanese Kanji used before are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana
There have been a few stages of simplifications made since the 1950s, but there have been no changes made since the promulgation of the Jōyō Kanji List in 1981. The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Year 1981 ( MCMLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981
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Background
The following forms were established as a result of the postwar character reforms - however, they were not completely created anew, but (like Simplified Chinese) many were based on widely used handwritten abbreviations (Ryakuji, 略字) from the prewar era. Ryakuji ( Japanese: 略字 or 筆写略字 hissha ryakuji meaning "abbreviated characters" latter meaning "handwritten abbreviated characters" This page [1] shows examples of these handwritten abbreviations, identical to their modern Shinjitai forms, from the postwar era. Due to the complexity of Kanji, many abbreviations were used in handwriting, whose status rose to become official characters in the postwar reforms. Attention was paid to the aesthetic balance of the characters in their new form.
Kyūjitai: 鐵→Shinjitai: 鉄 (TETSU; iron)
與→与 (On: YO, Kun: ataeru; to bestow, to impart)
學→学 (GAKU, manabu; to learn)
體→体 (TAI, karada; body)
臺→台 (TAI; [n. are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana ] stand; also used for Taiwan)
國→国 (KOKU, kuni; country)
關→関 (KAN, seki; involve, concerning)
寫→写 (SHA, utsusu; to write or compose)
廣→広 (KŌ, hiroi; expansive, wide)
圓→円 (EN; marui; round, circular; also used for yen)
There are other widely used Ryakuji of this sort, such as the abbreviations for 門 (in Simplified Chinese, this abbreviation, 门, has become official) and 第 (which exists in Unicode as [2]), but these have not been included in the Shinjitai reforms. Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's Unlike Simplified Chinese, these simplifications were originally only applied to characters in the Tōyō and Jōyō Kanji Lists, with the Kyūjitai forms remaining the official forms of Hyōgaiji (表外字, characters not included in the Tōyō and Jōyō Kanji Lists). (also and) are Japanese Kanji outside the two major lists Jōyō, which are taught in primary and secondary school and Jinmeiyō, which are additional kanji that For example, the character 擧 (KYO, agaru, ageru; raise [an example]) was simplified as 挙, but the character 欅 (keyaki; zelkova tree) which also contained 擧, remained unsimplified due to its status as a Hyōgaiji. Zelkova is a Genus of six species of Deciduous Trees in the elm family Ulmaceae, native to southern Europe, and southwest However, the JIS standards contain numerous simplified forms of Kanji following the model of the Shinjitai simplifications, such as 﨔 (the simplified form of 欅). The Asahi Shimbun newspaper is thorough in its simplification of Hyōgaiji, for example 痙攣 (KEIREN; cramp, spasm, convulsion) is simplified following the model of 經→経 and 戀→恋. The is the second most circulated out of the five national Newspapers in Japan; the other four are the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun This is also said to have been done because in the age of typewriter-based printing, more complicated Kanji could not be clearly printed. A typewriter is a mechanical or Electromechanical device with a set of "keys" that when pressed cause characters to be printed on a medium See the article on Asahi characters for more information. "Asahi characters" ( Japanese: 朝日文字 Asahi moji) are forms of Kanji particular to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper
Methods of simplifying Kanji
Adoption of grass script forms
Cursive script forms of Kanji were adopted as Shinjitai. Cursive script ( simplified草书 erroneously translated as Grass script is a style of Chinese calligraphy. Examples include:
- 圖→図
- 觀→観
- 示 (religion/ceremony radical) →礻
- 晝→昼
The aforementioned 门 handwritten simplification also originated from a cursive script form, but is not generally accepted in official Japanese writing.
Standardization and unification of character forms
Characters in which there were two or more variants were standardized under one form. The character 島 (TŌ, shima; island) also had the variant forms 嶋 (still seen in proper names) and 嶌, but the 島 form became standard. The 辶 radical was once printed with two dots (as in the Hyōgaiji 逞) but was written with one (as in 道), so the written form with one dot became standard. The character 青 (SEI, SHŌ, aoi; blue) was once printed as 靑 but written as 青, so the written form became standard. The upper ソ portion of the characters 半, 尊, and 平 was once printed as 八 and written ソ (as in these three examples), but the old printed form is still seen in the Hyōgaiji characters 絆 and 鮃.
Change of character indicating On reading
Kanji of the Keisei moji (形声文字) family contain a radical (bushu, 部首) and a character indicating its On reading (onpu, 音符). This disambiguation page differentiates the various historical uses of the term radical in the context of Chinese characters 清, 晴, 静, 精, 蜻 are all read with the On reading SEI, as indicated by the onpu 青. In this method of simplification, an onpu that is complicated is replaced by a simpler Kanji with the same reading, for example, the character 圍 (I, kakomu; enclose), in which the onpu is 韋 (read as I), is replaced by 井 (also read as i, although this is actually the Kun reading) to become 囲. Other simplifications of this method include 竊→窃, 廰→庁, 擔→担. There are also colloquial handwritten simplifications based on this model, in which various non-kanji symbols are used as onpu, for example 魔 (MA; demon) [simplification: 广+マ {Katakana ma}], 慶 (KEI; jubilation) [广+K] , 藤 (TŌ, fuji; wisteria) [艹+ト {Katakana to}], and 機 (KI; machine, opportunity) [木+キ {Katakana ki}]. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet
Removal of complicated portions
Some kanji were simplified by removing entire components. For example,
One curious example is 龍, meaning "dragon". It was simplified to 竜, but the same character was not simplified when it appeared as a part of another kanji. A particularly curious example is 襲, meaning "attack", because it appears on the list of jōyō kanji (and is the only character containing 龍 to do so), although 龍 itself does not. The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education.
Like one of the controversial aspects of Simplified Chinese, some Shinjitai were originally separate characters with different meanings. For example, the Shinjitai 芸 (GEI; performance, accomplishment) which was originally a separate character read with the On reading UN. Many of the original characters which have become merged are no longer used in modern Japanese: for example, 豫 (YO, arakaji(me); in advance) and 餘 (YO, ama(ri); excess) were merged with 予 and 余, respectively, both archaic kanji for the first person pronoun "I". However, 芸 poses a problem, in that Japan's first public library, Untei (芸亭) (built during the Nara Period) uses this character. The of the History of Japan covers the years from AD 710 to 794. This character also has significance in classical Japanese literature, and Japanese history books have had to distinguish between the two by writing UN using the old form of the 艹 radical, (十十). Japanese literature spans a period of almost two millennia Early works were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written However, since the shinjitai simplification is more conservative, and generally based on already-in-use simplifications, these collisions are rare, and shinjitai simplification has generally met with less resistance than Simplified Chinese.
External links
- Kanji - Japanese Simplifications
- The 20th Century Japanese Writing System: Reform and Change by Christopher Seeley
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