한자의 약자 제정에 대한 고찰

Abstract

The present paper aims to suggest measures for simplifying Chinese letters as a means to solve the issues related to use of traditional Chinese letters of KangxiZidian (康熙字典) calligraphic style. This study was motivated by the Ministry of Education's declaration to begin using certain number of Chinese letters in the elementary school textbooks starting from 2018. Prior to proposing the principles and methods to simplify the traditional Chinese letters, second thoughts were given here to the needs of such simplification and the proposals and directions already discussed in this regard. It is surely assumed that simplification of Chinese letters will promote the learning effects of Chinese letters, make their use more convenient and help exchanges with neighboring countries to a certain extent. As evidenced in the cases of China and Japan which succeeded in popularizing use of Chinese letters through simplification, we too can expect lots of advantages from simplification of Chinese letters if we could realize it by rectifying and complementing the problems derived in the course of discussions for simplification of Chinese letters. Based on the principles for selecting the Chinese letters to be simplified that have been considered in the meantime, 144 letters were reviewed most of which are identical to or included in the letters and calligraphic styles adopted in Japan and China. Except for some letters, actual use of such simplification could be found in the old Korean as well as in the Chinese literature too. Some controversial letters were excluded from consideration in this paper as they deemed inappropriate to simplify. The new methods to simplify traditional Chinese letters in a standardized and practical manner in compliance with our circumstances are suggested in this study under the following principles: first, to select the Chinese letters which can suit to our reality from among those used already in the simplified form or adopted as popular form; second, to limit the number of Chinese letters to be simplified in around 200 out of 1800 ones designated as ≪Basic Chinese Letters for Teaching Purpose≫; third, to use the simplified Chinese letters only for educational purpose; fourth, to define the simplified Chinese letters just as those which are simplified by more than 3 strokes than the original ones; fifth, to exclude those that have been used in China and Japan in the simplified form, but for those which have solid ground of usage in the old literature; and sixth, to ascertain historical evidence for the hitherto controversial letters for simplification.