After the end of World War II , South Korea launched a " Mandarin Purification Movement ". In order to enhance national self-confidence and achieve cultural independence, the Korean people in power at that time took measures to gradually abolish the use of Japanese and Chinese in formal occasions.
However, after more than 70 years of , the Koreans still retain the Chinese characters on their ID cards, because Koreans have always used Chinese characters as a label similar to "pinyin".
It turns out that the Korean language we see now is actually a kind of phonetic , which appeared before the Chinese characters were introduced into the Korean Peninsula.
However, since , Chinese characters have become the upper "official text" of ancient Korea since . Therefore, the Korean we see now has been developing in , and it is too short and too imperfect.
If there is no Chinese character annotation, the shortcomings of this simple "phonetic text" will be exposed, such as "the proliferation of homophones", which will cause difficulties in identifying people's names and may even make jokes.
Koreans want to achieve cultural independence, it is understandable that they want to "de-Chinese". But "culture" is a non-entity abstract concept, which must use language and text as the carrier .
Unfortunately, all historical documents of ancient Korea were written in Chinese characters. The forced abolition of Chinese characters directly led to Koreans not being able to understand their own ancient books, which also brought inconvenience to the inheritance of culture.
Chinese netizens often take a sarcastic attitude towards Koreans' insistence on "abolition of Chinese characters", but I think everyone should give them some sympathy.
Because Koreans started the "Mandarin Purification Movement" back then, not at the beginning, but at Japanese; what they wanted to abolish most was not Chinese characters, but Japanese.
and South Korea abolished Chinese characters. It is not because it hates China so much, but because it is purely because after being ruled by Japan for 50 years, it became the grandson of the Americans. It was so humble in my heart that there was nowhere to vent, so I could only regain national self-esteem through this form.
Below, let me take you to review the historical context of the development of Chinese characters in South Korea, and see why it was so important to ancient North Korea in the past and why it was abolished later, so that everyone can better understand this issue.
1. The development of Chinese characters in ancient North Korea
According to ancient history The book introduces that China's exchanges with ancient Korea first began in the Shang Dynasty. After King Wu's defeat of Zhou , King Zhou's uncle Jizi once moved to the Korean Peninsula with some merchants.
At the same time, he also spread the Chinese "Lianshan Yi", " Guizang Yi " and Chinese characters to the local area. Later, in the late Qin Dynasty , due to the Chu-Han War, another group of people moved to the peninsula.
Emperor Wu of Han when he established Lelang County on the Korean Peninsula, Han Text has been popular among the upper nobles of ancient Korea for many years and has gradually become the official "official text".
There are two uses of ancient Koreans to use Chinese characters: one is to directly use it as an official written language, and the other is to use it to mark their own text. 's "marking" method is actually to use it in ancient Chinese to use the " cheyun " method to make pinyin for Korean characters.
However, because China's "Chicyun" uses the Heluo dialect, "Chicyun" has been constantly in the long history. Changes have occurred. After it was transmitted to North Korea, it developed freely in the local area, which eventually led to the confusion of inconsistent pronunciation.
So in 1443 AD ( Ming Yingzong 8th year of orthodox senator), Lee's North Korean specially asked someone to sort it out an official version called " Xunmin Zhengyin ".
Lee's North Korean because Chinese characters are difficult to learn, so it vigorously promoted Chinese characters as "pinyin". The purpose is to weaken the orthodox status of Chinese characters among the Korean people and thus develop its own nation's pinyin.
However, because China was still the leader in the East Asian cultural circle at that time, although Li's North Korea vigorously developed its own pinyin characters, the orthodox status of Chinese characters could never be shaken.
2. Why does South Korea want to abolish Chinese characters
? So, when did Koreans want to abandon Chinese characters? In fact, we have mentioned this before, that is, after Japan withdrew from the Korean Peninsula in 1945.
The Japanese occupied Korea in 1895 until they were defeated and withdrawn in 1945, and 50 years of colonial time passed. In the past 50 years, in order to stabilize its dominance, the Japanese once forbidden the Koreans from using Chinese characters.
So after the end of World War II, many young North Koreans did not know how to use Chinese characters. Later, North Korea was divided into two parts, and South Korea changed its name to South Korea, and became a de facto colony of Americans in the Far East , which aroused the national self-esteem of the Koreans.
So-called wherever there is oppression, there is resistance. However, the "violent" Koreans have no way to resist his sect leader, the United States, so they can only try their best to regain their self-esteem on cultural issues. This point of
can also be verified from a psychological perspective. Because if a person is extremely "lower", then his external appearance will be very "arrogant".
In this case, South Korea is eager to cut off from Chinese culture. Not only did they abolish Chinese characters, they even had to tamper with history, reversed black and white , and refused to admit that China was once their "society ruler".
But at the beginning of the "Mandarin Purification Movement" launched in South Korea, the first thing they thought was to abolish the influence of Japanese in Korea.
The "brainwashing" rule of the Japanese made Korean impure. However, these Japanese in Korean are actually written in "Chinese characters", so the Korean government also "purified" some of the Chinese characters together.
In the early 1970s, then South Korean President Lee Seung-man once published the "Declaration on the Abolition of Chinese Characters", hoping to say goodbye to Chinese characters completely. As a result, within two years, he became "breaking his promise".
Because the older generation of Koreans have long been accustomed to using Chinese characters. If they don’t use Chinese characters, it will cause a lot of inconvenience to life and even make a lot of jokes, let alone be a researcher in cultural history.
If you don’t understand Chinese characters, you can’t understand ancient Korean books, and you can’t realize the inheritance of culture at all. So, is it feasible to completely abolish Chinese characters in an ancient East Asian country with a main pinyin? Judging from the example of Vietnam, there is no problem at all.
Since Vietnam was colonized by France in 1885, it quickly promoted a pinyin text and finally successfully replaced Chinese. So in time, Koreans will definitely put Chinese characters behind the scenes just like Vietnamese.
As for not being able to understand ancient books and being unable to inherit their own history and culture well, it is not important to them at all. Because of their culture, they are originally an auxiliary product of Chinese culture, but they never want to admit this.
The Koreans' solution to this problem is also very strange, that is, they refer to the deer as a horse and reverse the black and white. Even constantly tampering with history and making up history.
Conclusion
A Western celebrity once said: South Korea is a country of lies. They have been dependent on China for a long time in history and have been deeply influenced by Chinese civilization. Therefore, all their "cultural" symbols look like by-products of Chinese civilization.
includes the "Tai Chi" pattern on the Korean national flag now, and is also transformed from the gossip map passed down from China. In the South Korea you choose, the shadow of Chinese civilization is everywhere.
It is natural for a nation to want cultural independence. The movement to abolish Chinese characters has been in Korea for so many years, but it seems that it has not been completely successful yet. But in the future, it may be successful.
Koreans should use Chinese characters completely their freedom.Chinese people don’t need to pay too much attention to this. However, due to the abolition of Chinese characters, young and middle-aged people in modern Korea and Vietnam basically cannot understand their own history books.
At the same time, in order to stimulate the national self-confidence of young people, some Korean politicians with ulterior motives have constantly used lies to fabricate history, smear China, and "steal" Chinese culture, which is a question worthy of our attention.
