"Please give me some advice, Mr. Fang." Zeng Yuan completely lost the momentum he had when arguing with Fang Yun before.
Fang Yun said: "Everything has a core. When ordinary people buy houses, their core needs are different. Some want to buy houses surrounded by green trees, some want to buy houses in the city center, some want to buy cheap houses, and some want to buy shops on the street for rent. For example, the core of a spear is to kill the enemy, the core of a shield is to protect, and so on. So, what do you think is the core of words?"
Zeng Yuan's momentum had been dampened by Fang Yun's previous words. He hesitated for a long time and said, "My understanding of the core may be different from yours. In my opinion, the most important thing about words is to express their meaning."
Fang Yun nodded and said, "You are right, but another more comprehensive way of saying it is that the core of writing is instrumentality. Humans first had language, then writing. Language itself is a tool, the most basic tool for communication. And writing is also a tool that carries information and allows us to communicate accurately. But in addition to being instrumental, writing also has artistry. For example, great calligraphers can show the ultimate beauty of writing. However, artistry is only a secondary characteristic of writing, far less than the core. Do you understand?"
"The students understand." Zeng Yuan said.
"The development of human writing has been enhancing its instrumentality. For example, the bronze inscriptions are very simple, but because they are too simple, they cannot carry effective information, so humans continued to complicate them and created the large seal script. In the Qin Dynasty, in order to facilitate human learning of writing and to make it more practical, the Qin Emperor and Li Si simplified the large seal script and created the small seal script. After that, humans continued to strengthen the instrumentality of the small seal script, but the small seal script was inconvenient to write and the shape of the characters was complex, so the easier to write official script was created. It is difficult to investigate where the official script originated, but there is one thing that is recorded in history: the people who really promoted the official script were the clerks in the government who often used characters. They had to write a lot of characters every day and knew the advantages and disadvantages of the two characters best."
"After being replaced by official script, did Xiaozhuan disappear completely? Did humans create official script in order to destroy Xiaozhuan? No. This is the uniqueness of Chinese characters, which are not only instrumental but also artistic. Although Xiaozhuan is an obsolete tool, its characters are beautiful and are loved by calligraphers. Therefore, the core of Xiaozhuan has changed from instrumental to artistic, and is more suitable for calligraphy works or seals rather than for communicating information. Therefore, Xiaozhuan today is more of a tool for carrying beauty than a tool for carrying information. There is no need for the general public to master it. Only those who like calligraphy and seals need to master it."
"Only by knowing what to give up, what to change, and what to accept can one make progress. Creatures that are self-satisfied will inevitably be eliminated by the myriad worlds. The change of the Lord of the Myriad Worlds is the best example."
"Students are learning." Zeng Yuan said.
Fang Yun continued, "Why was official script replaced by regular script? The generally accepted view is that official script has flaws in writing and the strokes lack continuity, which affects the fluency of writing. This is very fatal to the core of the text, which is a tool. Therefore, regular script, which has more reasonable strokes, replaced it. What's more, the artistry of official script also has flaws, that is, the structure of the characters is too simple, while regular script is more square and more in line with the aesthetics and concepts of the human race."
"Since the small seal script is inconvenient, the human race gradually tends to use the official script; since the official script is inconvenient, the human race gradually tends to use the regular script. Now, there is an irreversible trend in Shengyuan Continent, that is, the clerks and scribes of the human race in various places have begun to use the vernacular characters derived from calligraphy works or created by predecessors. The reason is simple. Many vernacular characters have the advantages of traditional characters, but they are simpler and easier to write, which can often double the writing efficiency of clerks and scribes! I just want to ask one question. Now that the human race is in crisis, in order to spread information faster, do you think it is more reasonable to use complicated traditional characters or simple vernacular characters?"
Zeng Yuan smiled helplessly and said, "I do prefer traditional Chinese characters, but since the times require it, it is more reasonable to use popular characters. Although I am stubborn, I am not stupid."
"Quick writing is not the biggest advantage of vernacular characters. The biggest advantage of vernacular characters is that they are easy to learn!"
Fang Yun's tone was very calm, but Zeng Yuan was stunned, and then his expression changed slightly.
Fang Yun smiled and said, "It seems that you have understood why I compared you to Lu Zhan before. People's abilities are limited, their time is limited, and their energy is also limited. Let me take Lu Zhan as an example. Lu Zhan's body and mind are not as good as yours, and he has not studied as long as you, and his energy is even less than yours. To put it more intuitively, Lu Zhan went to elementary school and learned a lot of poetry and articles. It took at least five years for him to accumulate 5,000 traditional Chinese characters. And you can accumulate 5,000 traditional Chinese characters in at most three years of study. In other words, in the first stage of elementary school, the gap between you is two years. Is there anything wrong with this statement?"
Zeng Yuan nodded slightly.
"But colloquial characters are different. Colloquial characters have simple strokes, are easy to remember, and are easy to write, which greatly reduces the learning time. If Lu Zhan had been studying poems and articles written in colloquial characters, it would probably only take four years for him to accumulate 5,000 colloquial characters. For you, is there any difference between colloquial characters and traditional characters?"
Zeng Yuan said, "Indeed, there is no difference. Let me give you the simplest example. It takes Lu Zhan three days to memorize 100 traditional characters. It takes about two days to memorize 100 popular characters. If a person with a photographic memory memorizes 100 traditional characters, it only takes 100 breaths to memorize one character per breath. And when memorizing 100 popular characters, it also takes about 100 breaths to memorize one character per breath. By switching from traditional characters to popular characters, the gap between Lu Zhan and a person with a photographic memory will be significantly narrowed."
Fang Yun nodded and said, "Vulgar characters are easier to write and remember than traditional characters. At the same time, they are easier to recognize and read faster. The human brain needs to expend energy when distinguishing words. The simpler the word, the less energy it takes, and the more complex the word, the more energy it takes. The difference between a traditional character and a vulgar character is very small, but over decades of life, these differences will accumulate and become very huge."
Zeng Yuan continued to nod.
"You also know that as long as humans study and learn, even if they have no talent or literary status, they will release power after death because of what they learned in their lifetime, making the Shengyuan Continent more energetic, making the Shengyuan Academy more talented, and making it easier for later scholars to master talent. The power of talent that is released after death will not increase because of knowing colloquial characters but not traditional characters, but it will increase because of the more knowledge they have mastered."
Zeng Yuan still nodded.
"So, if a person learns to use colloquial characters, it will take less time to learn, and he will be able to write and read faster. He will naturally gain more knowledge than using traditional characters, and his contribution to humanity will naturally be greater. Most colloquial characters have not deviated from traditional characters, but have made traditional characters simpler and easier to use, with stronger core tools. So, why don't we use colloquial characters and continue to use the current traditional characters?"
.(To be continued.)