The Basic Contents and Features of General Specification Chinese Character List

　　In order to better implement the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the National Common Language and Characters, promote the standardization of the national common language and characters, adapt to the actual needs of modern language life and the development of national informatization under the new situation, and provide the standards for the quantity, grade and font of Chinese characters commonly used in modern society, the Ministry of Education and the State Language Committee have organized and developed the List of Chinese Characters for General Standardization (hereinafter referred to as the List).

　　First, the basic content of the word list

　　A total of 8105 standardized Chinese characters are included in the Character List, which is divided into three levels according to the degree and scope of universality. Among them, the first-level word list is 3500 words, which is the most frequently used set of commonly used words, and its function is equivalent to the modern Chinese common word list, which mainly meets the needs of basic education and cultural popularization. The second-level word list consists of 3000 words, which together with the first-level word list constitutes a common word set in the general social application field, and its function is equivalent to the modern Chinese common word list, which mainly meets the general needs of using words in modern society. There are 1605 words in the third-level word list, which are not included in the first-level and second-level word lists of surnames, names, scientific and technical terms and classical Chinese characters in Chinese textbooks for primary and secondary schools, but are more common in specific fields, mainly taking care of the basic needs of the public for words in special fields.

　　In order to clearly standardize the correspondence between Chinese characters and their corresponding traditional characters and variants, the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission have also organized and developed the Comparison Table of Standardized Characters and Traditional Characters and Variants (hereinafter referred to as the Comparison Table), which is used as a supplementary table and the Character List. The Comparison Table lists the traditional characters and variant characters corresponding to 2,546 standardized Chinese characters, including 2,574 traditional characters and 1,023 variant characters.

　　The collation of the correspondence between simplified characters and traditional characters in the Comparison Table is based on the Summary of Simplified Characters, and its overall spirit is consistent with that in the Summary of Simplified Characters. With the basic principle of not restoring traditional characters, 96 groups of simplified characters and traditional characters which can not be one-to-one correspondence are mainly decomposed. For example, the word "Dou [Dou]" in the Summary of Simplified Chinese Characters seems to have a one-to-one correspondence on the surface. In fact, in the text printed with traditional Chinese characters, the simplified word "Dou" corresponds to the word "Dou" and "Dou" respectively. The former means measuring instrument, with the sound d ǒ u; The latter means fighting, and the sound is du u. If it is not decomposed, it is possible to convert all the "dou" into "dou" in the conversion from simple to complex, so there will be errors such as "Big Dipper". The collation of the correspondence between simplicity and complexity in the Comparison Table provides convenience for the reading of ancient books and the exchanges between the three places.

　　The collation of the correspondence between standard characters and variant characters in the Comparison Table is based on the first batch of variant characters collation table. In view of the complexity of variant forms and the numerous problems involved, the Comparison Table does not expand the scope of variant forms, but focuses on the revision of the original variant forms in the First Batch of Variant Forms. According to the actual needs of using Chinese characters in modern society, the Word List and the Comparison Table restore or partially restore some "variant characters" that still have great application value and are closely related to people’s daily life into standardized characters for the convenience of people. For example, the word "Pan" was abolished as a variant of "Pan" in the First List of Variant Characters, but "Pan" was originally a surname, which originated from Pan-Guo in the Zhou Dynasty and has a very long history. A surname character represents the blood of a family. Out of respect for the family tradition, the Character List restored this kind of Chinese characters to the third-level character list as a surname character. Another example is the word "Zhe". The First List of Variant Characters is regarded as a variant of "Zhe". However, after investigation, it is found that the word "Zhe" contains two auspicious characters, which looks auspicious. Tens of thousands of people across the country have chosen this word for their names. Taking into account the people’s demand for Chinese characters and the reality of Chinese characters, the Word List has included it in the three-level word list, which is specially used for Chinese characters for names. On the basis of the First List of Variant Characters, 26 words such as "frustration, withering and gouging out" are recognized as standard words in the Word List and the Comparison Table, and 45 words such as "shua, pan and zhe" are regarded as standard words in a specific sense.And in the "word list" or "comparison table" in the corresponding position to explain its scope of use.

　　In terms of glyphs, the characters included in the List of Printed General Chinese Characters and the List of Modern Chinese General Characters are recorded according to the glyphs in the two lists. Words outside the two tables shall be uniformly adjusted according to the font rules inside the two tables.

　　Second, the overall characteristics of the word list

　　Under the guidance of the new concept of Chinese character standardization, the Word List was developed by using modern technical means according to the situation of Chinese characters in contemporary society and the needs of the information age. Compared with the past Chinese character standardization, the Word List mainly has the following characteristics:

　　1. Set a number of specifications for the convenience of the public.

　　Since the founding of New China, the state has attached great importance to the work of language and writing, and has done a lot of work in the collation and standardization of Chinese characters, and has successively published a variety of word lists, which has played an important role in standardizing the use of Chinese characters in society. However, because these specifications are independent and scattered, they are extremely inconvenient to use. To understand the correspondence between simplified Chinese characters and traditional Chinese characters, it is necessary to look up the Summary of Simplified Chinese Characters published by the China Language Reform Commission in 1964 (individual adjustments were made when the State Language Commission approved its re-publication in the State Council in 1986); To understand the corresponding relationship between standard characters and variant characters, we need to look up the First Batch of Variant Characters Arrangement Table jointly issued by the Ministry of Culture and the China Language Reform Commission in 1955. To understand the font standard, we need to look up the Font Table for Printing General Chinese Characters issued by the China Character Reform Commission in 1965. To understand the standard of character quantity, we need to look up the List of Common Characters in Modern Chinese and the List of Common Characters in Modern Chinese jointly issued by the State Language Committee and the State Press and Publication Administration in 1988. The development of "Character List" comprehensively integrates these independent Chinese character specifications, and covers the functions of various previous character lists with a character list and an annex, which greatly facilitates the use of the public.

　　2. Eliminate the original differences and unify the norms and standards.

　　Because the previous Chinese character specifications were formulated in different periods, for different situations and for different purposes, there was a lack of care between them, which inevitably led to contradictions. For example, the word "Bing" is treated as the variant of "Bing" in the First Batch of Variant Character Arrangement Table, and the Font Table of Printing General Chinese Characters is included as a standard character. The word "shame" is treated as the variant of "Yang" in the First List of Variant Characters; The Summary of Simplified Chinese Characters is simplified as "Hua" and regarded as a standard word. For these inconsistencies, users are often at a loss. This time, the development of the Word List has made key adjustments to these problems, given clear and unified norms and standards, and eliminated the original differences.

　　3. Use modern means to select words scientifically and quantitatively.

　　It has been more than 20 years since the previous specifications and standards were released at the latest. At that time, neither the development basis nor the development means could be compared with the present. For example, in the aspect of corpus foundation, the List of Common Words in Modern Chinese and the List of Common Words in Modern Chinese published in 1988 are based on 14 static word lists without frequency of use and 6 dynamic word lists with frequency of use. The largest number of these word lists is 7,754, and the smallest number is only 1,000, which is extremely uneven. The word list obtained by second-degree statistics of 20 word lists with different uses lacks objective and unified criteria for word selection, and the results obtained are bound to have certain limitations. The background of the development of "Character List" is very different from the past. Modern information technology provides a scientific means for the construction and application of large-scale corpora, while a large-scale and balanced corpus provides a reliable basis for the survey of Chinese characters’ traffic. The basic corpus used this time is the "Modern Chinese Balanced Corpus" of the State Language Commission, which is randomly sampled from a large number of corpora, with a total database of about 91 million characters, covering the corpus of nearly a century since the popularization of modern vernacular Chinese, covering 55 disciplines in content and having a very comprehensive corpus source. The size and balance of the corpus ensure the reliability of word frequency and coverage statistics. Coupled with the use of multiple auxiliary corpora, scientific statistical methods and reasonable manual intervention, it provides a strong guarantee for the scientific quantification and word selection of the Word List.

　　4. Considering different needs, reasonable classification.

　　The previous Chinese character norms were formulated in the era of cultural and educational popularization, and more attention was paid to the demand for Chinese characters at the popularization level. Nowadays, people’s cultural knowledge structure is increasingly diversified, and the social language life is increasingly diversified. As a national standard, Character List will face users from all walks of life in China. Different levels of education, different communication ranges and different industry demands will inevitably lead to different requirements for the use of Chinese characters. The Word List fully considers this point, and divides the received words into three levels according to the general degree and general scope, which reflects the demand differences of different classes and industries and reflects the actual use of modern Chinese characters, thus greatly improving the practicality of the Word List.

　　5. Take care of people’s lives and include special words.

　　The establishment of three-level word list is a highlight of Word List. In the past, the standardization of Chinese characters was limited to the general social application level, but with the development of society, the amount of Chinese characters used in society has gradually increased, and the use of Chinese characters in some special fields has become more and more close to people’s daily life, which has become an indispensable word for modern information storage and information transmission. Without standardizing these Chinese characters, people’s daily needs for Chinese characters cannot be met. Based on the principle of people-oriented, the "Character List" was formulated this time, and the Chinese characters in special fields closely related to people’s daily life were also included in the scope of Chinese character standardization. With reference to the information provided by the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Committee on Science and Technology Terminology and other relevant departments, the commonly used Chinese characters for surnames and names, Chinese characters for place names above the township level, Chinese characters for science and technology related to people’s lives, and Chinese characters for printing teaching materials are specially collected to form a three-level character list, thus solving the problem of Chinese characters for surnames and names such as ID cards and household registration cards to a certain extent, and meeting the needs of people for Chinese characters in special fields such as medicine and nutrition in their daily lives.

　　In addition, the development of the Word List has attracted widespread attention from all walks of life, and all major departments and fields have given strong support and help. A large number of experts and scholars have directly or indirectly participated in the development work, and the general public has also expressed their personal opinions and suggestions in various ways. This practice of developing norms and standards nationwide and socialized is also a major feature of the Word List that is different from the past. (Wang Lijun, male, professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Literature, Beijing Normal University, director of the Chinese Character Research Office of the Folk Classics Research Center of the Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, and one of the "Outstanding Talents in the New Century" of the Ministry of Education. )