A brief history of the Chinese language
The language you are studying right now is one of the oldest continuously used writing systems on the planet.
nǐ xiàn zài zhèng zài xué xí de yǔ yán shì dì qiú shang lì shǐ zuì yōu jiǔ 、 chí xù shǐ yòng zuì jiǔ de wén zì xì tǒng zhī yī 。
你现在正在学习的语言是地球上历史最悠久、持续使用最久的文字系统之一。
That is not a throwaway fact; it genuinely changes how you should think about learning it.
zhè búshì yī ge wú guān jǐn yào de shì shí ， tā zhēn de huì gǎi biàn nǐ duì xué xí hàn zì de sī kǎo fāng shì 。
这不是一个无关紧要的事实，它真的会改变你对学习汉字的思考方式。
When you write a character today, you are often tracing a shape that a scribe carved into bone three millennia ago.
dāng nǐ jīn tiān xiě yī ge zì shí ， nǐ wǎng wang shì zài miáo mó sān qiān nián qián mǒu ge shū lì kè zài gǔ tou shang de xíng zhuàng 。
当你今天写一个字时，你往往是在描摹三千年前某个书吏刻在骨头上的形状。
Understanding where Chinese came from makes the vocabulary, the characters, and even the grammar feel far less arbitrary.
liǎo jiě hàn zì de qǐ yuán huì ràng cí huì 、 zì tǐ ， shèn zhì yǔ fǎ dōu búzài xiǎn de nà me wǔ duàn rèn yì 。
了解汉字的起源会让词汇、字体，甚至语法都不再显得那么武断任意。
The oracle bones: where it all started
jiǎ gǔ wén ： yī qiè de kāi shǐ
甲骨文：一切的开始
The earliest confirmed Chinese writing dates to around 1200 BCE, during the Shang dynasty.
yǒu quèrèn de zuì zǎo zhōng wén wén zì kě yǐ zhuī sù dào gōng yuán qián 1200 nián zuǒ yòu ， nà shì shāng dài de shí qī 。
有确认的最早中文文字可以追溯到公元前1200年左右，那是商代的时期。
Priests would scratch questions onto turtle shells and ox shoulder blades, heat them until they cracked, and then read the cracks as divine answers.
jì sī huì zài guī ke hé niú jiān jiǎ gǔ shang kè xia wèn tí ， jiā rè zhí dào gǔ tou liè kāi ， rán hòu tōng guò liè wén lái jiě dú shén de dá àn 。
祭司会在龟壳和牛肩胛骨上刻下问题，加热直到骨头裂开，然后通过裂纹来解读神的答案。
These inscriptions are called jiǎgǔwén (甲骨文), literally "shell-bone writing." Archaeologists first discovered them in the late 1800s near Anyang, in modern Henan province.
zhè xiē míng wén bèi chēng wéi jiǎ gǔ wén (jiǎgǔwén) ， zì miàn yì si shì 「 gǔ ke wén zì 」 。 kǎo gǔ xué jiā zài 19 shì jì mò zài xiàn dài hé nán shěng ān yáng fù jìn shǒu cì fā xiàn le tā men 。
这些铭文被称为甲骨文 (jiǎgǔwén)，字面意思是 「骨壳文字」。 考古学家在19世纪末在现代河南省安阳附近首次发现了它们。
What is remarkable is how many of those ancient pictographs survived, in evolved form, into the characters you use today.
lìng rén jīng yà de shì ， nà xiē gǔ lǎo de xiàng xíng wén zì zhong yǒu hěn duō yǐ yǎn biàn de xíng shì yī zhí yán xù dào nǐ jīn tiān shǐ yòng de zì zhong 。
令人惊讶的是，那些古老的象形文字中有很多以演变的形式一直延续到你今天使用的字中。
The character for 日 (rì, "sun") started as a simple circle with a dot in the center, a direct sketch of the sun.
rì (rì ， 「 tài yáng 」) zhè ge zì zuì chū shì yī ge zhong jiān yǒu diǎn de jiǎn dān yuán quān ， shì duì tài yáng de zhí jiē miáo huì 。
日 (rì，「太阳」) 这个字最初是一个中间有点的简单圆圈，是对太阳的直接描绘。
The next major shift was practical rather than political.
xià yī gè zhòng dà zhuǎn biàn shì shí jì de, ér bu shì zhèng zhì de.
下一个重大转变是实际的，而不是政治的。
Clerks needed to write faster, so Seal Script gradually smoothed out into a squarer, more angular form called Clerical Script (lìshū, 隸書).
shū lì xū yào xiě de gèng kuài, suǒ yǐ zhuàn shū zhú jiàn yǎn biàn chéng gèng fāng zhèng、gèng léng jiǎo fēn míng de lì shū.
书吏需要写得更快，所以篆书逐渐演变成更方正、更棱角分明的隶书。
From there, the running hand (xíngshū) and cursive script (cǎoshū) developed for everyday writing, while Regular Script (kǎishū, 楷書) became the formal printed standard.
hòu lái, xíng shū hé cǎo shū wèi rì cháng shū xiě ér fā zhǎn, ér kǎi shū chéng wéi le zhèng shì de yìn shuā biāo zhǔn.
后来，行书和草书为日常书写而发展，而楷书成为了正式的印刷标准。
The kǎishū you see in textbooks today is essentially that same Regular Script, settled in the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) and barely changed since.
nǐ zài jiào kē shū shang kàn dào de kǎi shū jī běn shang jiù shì nà zhǒng kǎi shū, zài táng cháo (618-907 nián) jiù yǐ jīng dìng xíng le, cǐ hòu jī hū méi yǒu biàn guò.
你在教科书上看到的楷书基本上就是那种楷书，在唐朝（618-907年）就已经定型了，此后几乎没有变过。
One word worth pausing on here is 书 (shū), which means both "writing" and "book." Its traditional form, 書, shows a brush (聿) over a mouth (曰), capturing the idea of recording what is spoken.
yǒu yī ge zhí de tíng xia lái tǎo lùn de cí shì 「shū」(shū), tā jì biǎo shì 「shū xiě」, yě biǎo shì 「shū jí」. tā de fán tǐ xíng shì 「書」, xiǎn shì le bǐ (yù) zài zuǐ (yuē) shang miàn, bǔ zhuō le jì lù shuō huà nèi róng de yì si.
有一个值得停下来讨论的词是「书」(shū)，它既表示「书写」，也表示「书籍」。它的繁体形式「書」，显示了笔（聿）在嘴（曰）上面，捕捉了记录说话内容的意思。
The simplified form collapsed some of those strokes, but the core radical is still there if you know where to look.
jiǎn tǐ xíng shì shěng lüè le yī xiē bǐ huà, dàn rú guǒ nǐ zhī dào zài nǎ li zhǎo, hé xin bù shǒu háishi cún zài de.
简体形式省略了一些笔画，但如果你知道在哪里找，核心部首还是存在的。
The spoken language: one country, many tongues
kǒu tou yǔ yán: yī ge guó jiā, xǔ duō zhǒng yǔ yán
口头语言：一个国家，许多种语言
Here is something that surprises many learners: "Chinese" is not one spoken language.
zhè shì ràng hěn duō xué xí zhě gǎn dào jīng yà de yī diǎn: 「hàn yǔ」 bìng bu shì yī zhǒng kǒu tou yǔ yán.
这是让很多学习者感到惊讶的一点：「汉语」并不是一种口头语言。
It is a family of languages, including Cantonese, Hokkien, Shanghainese, and dozens of others, that share a writing system but are mutually unintelligible when spoken.
tā shì bāo kuò yuè yǔ、mǐn nán yǔ、shàng hǎi huà děng děng zài nèi de yī ge yǔ yán jiā zú, zhè xiē yǔ yán gòng yòng yī zhǒng shū xiě xì tǒng, dàn kǒu tou shang hù bu xiāng tōng.
它是包括粤语、闽南语、上海话等等在内的一个语言家族，这些语言共用一种书写系统，但口头上互不相通。
A speaker from Guangzhou and a speaker from Beijing could read the same newspaper but not understand each other in conversation.
yī ge lái zì guǎng zhōu de rén hé yī ge lái zì běi jīng de rén kě yǐ dú tóng yī fèn bào zhǐ, dàn zài jiāo tán zhong què wú fǎ xiāng hù lǐ jiě.
一个来自广州的人和一个来自北京的人可以读同一份报纸，但在交谈中却无法相互理解。
The variety you are almost certainly learning is Mandarin, known in Chinese as 普通话 (pǔtōnghuà), meaning "common speech." Putonghua is based on the northern dialects centered around Beijing, and it was promoted as the national standard language throughout the 20th century.
nǐ zhèngzài xuéxí de hěn kěnéng shì pǔtōnghuà. pǔtōnghuà shì yǐ běi jīng wéi zhōngxīn de běifāng fāngyán wéi jīchǔ, zài 20 shìjì bèi tuīguǎng wéi guójiā biāozhǔn yǔyán.
你正在学习的很可能是普通话。普通话是以北京为中心的北方方言为基础，在20世纪被推广为国家标准语言。
The People's Republic of China made it the official language after 1949, teaching it in schools across every province and region.
zhōnghuá rénmín gònghéguó zài 1949 nián hòu jiāng qī dìng wéi guāngfāng yǔyán, zài quánguó gège shěngfèn hé dìqū de xuéxiào zhōng jiàoxué.
中华人民共和国在1949年后将其定为官方语言，在全国各个省份和地区的学校中教学。
The effort worked, at least for formal contexts.
zhège nǔlì zhìshǎo zài zhèngshì chǎnghé qǔdéle xiàoguǒ.
这个努力至少在正式场合取得了效果。
Today the vast majority of people in mainland China can speak Pǔtōnghuà, even if a regional dialect is still used at home.
rújīn, zhōngguó dàlù juéda duōshù rén dōu néng shuō pǔtōnghuà, jíshǐ tāmen zài jiālǐ réngránshǐ yònghuò dìfang fāngyán.
如今，中国大陆绝大多数人都能说普通话，即使他们在家里仍然使用地方方言。
Taiwan calls its standard form Guóyǔ (國語), "national language," and uses the same phonological base.
táiwān jiāng qī biāozhǔn xíngshì chēngwéi guóyǔ, shǐyòng xiāngtóng de yīnyùn tǐxì.
台湾将其标准形式称为国语，使用相同的音韵体系。
Internationally, the term "Mandarin" has become the default label in English.
zài guójiè shang, yīngyǔ zhōng 「 hànyǔ 」 yǐ chéngwéi morenhe de biāoqiān.
在国际上，英语中「汉语」已成为默认的标签。
The 20th-century simplification reform
20 shìjì de jiǎnhuà gǎigé
20世纪的简化改革
The most controversial chapter in modern Chinese linguistic history is the simplification of characters.
xiàndài hànyǔ lìshǐ shang zuì yǒu zhēngyì de zhāngjié shì hànzì de jiǎnhuà.
现代汉语历史上最有争议的章节是汉字的简化。
In the early 20th century, China was grappling with very low literacy rates.
zài 20 shìjì chū, zhōngguó miànlín zhe fēicháng dī de shíziìlǜ.
在20世纪初，中国面临着非常低的识字率。
Many reformers argued that the complexity of traditional characters was itself a barrier, and that reducing stroke counts would make reading and writing accessible to more people.
xǔduō gǎigézhě zhǔzhāng, chuántǒng hànzì de fùzáxìng běnshēn jiùshì yīge zhàngài, jiǎnshǎo bǐhuà shù huì ràng gèngduō rén nénggo dúxiě.
许多改革者主张，传统汉字的复杂性本身就是一个障碍，减少笔画数会让更多人能够读写。
The government of the People's Republic of China rolled out Simplified Chinese (简化字, jiǎnhuàzì) in two main waves, in 1956 and 1964.
Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó zhèngfǔ zài 1956 nián hé 1964 nián fēn liǎng ge jiēduàn tuīchūle jiǎnhuàzì。
中华人民共和国政府在1956年和1964年分两个阶段推出了简化字。
Some simplifications followed historical shorthand forms that had existed for centuries.
Yǒuxiē jiǎnhuà yuányú cúnzàile shù bǎi nián de lìshǐ xìng jiǎnxiě xíngshì。
有些简化源自存在了数百年的历史性简写形式。
Others were more radical, merging distinct characters or replacing components wholesale.
Qítā de jiǎnhuà gèngjiā jījìn， hébìngle búkǒng de zì huò dàfú tìhuàn bújiàn。
其他的简化更加激进，合并了不同的字或大幅替换部件。
The character 学 (xué, "to learn/study"), for example, dropped from 16 strokes in its traditional form 學 to 8 strokes.
Lìrú， zì 「学」 cóng chuántǒng xíngshì 「學」 de 16 bǐ jiàngdàole 8 bǐ。
例如，字「学」从传统形式「學」的16笔降到了8笔。
The change is significant but the top component, representing two hands passing something down, is still visible.
Zhège biànhuà hěn zhòngyào， dàn dǐngbù de bújiàn —— dàibiǎo liǎng zhī shǒu chuándì dōngxi —— réngránkějiàn。
这个变化很重要，但顶部的部件——代表两只手传递东西——仍然可见。
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and most overseas Chinese communities continued using Traditional characters.
Táiwān、 xiānggǎng hé dàduōshù hǎiwài huárén shèhuì jìxù shǐyòng fántǐ zì。
台湾、香港和大多数海外华人社区继续使用繁体字。
This split is still live today.
Zhè zhǒng fēnliè zhìjīn réngránku cúnzài。
这种分裂至今仍然存在。
If you are learning for travel in mainland China, business with the PRC, or consuming mainland media, Simplified is the practical choice.
Rúguǒ nǐ yào dào Zhōngguó dàlù lǚyóu、 zuò shēngyì huò kàn Zhōngguó méitǐ， jiǎntǐ zì shì shíjì de xuǎnzé。
如果你要到中国大陆旅游、做生意或看中国媒体，简体字是实际的选择。
If your focus is Taiwan, classical texts, or Cantonese media, Traditional is worth the investment.
Rúguǒ nǐ de mùbiāo shì Táiwān、 gǔjí huò Yuèyǔ méitǐ， fántǐ zì zhídé xué。
如果你的目标是台湾、古籍或粤语媒体，繁体字值得学。
Neither is more "correct"; they are two branches of the same tree.
Liǎngzhě dōu búbǐjiào 「正确」， tāmen shì tóngyī kē shù de liǎng ge fēnzhī。
两者都不比较「正确」，它们是同一棵树的两个分枝。
Pinyin and the question of romanization
pīn yīn hé luó mǎ huà de wèn tí
拼音和罗马化的问题
Before the People's Republic settled on Pīnyīn (拼音) in 1958, there were multiple competing systems for writing Chinese sounds in the Latin alphabet.
zài 1958 nián zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó cǎi yòng pīn yīn zhī qián, yǒu duō zhǒng jìng zhēng de xì tǒng yòng lā dīng zì mǔ xiě hàn zì de dú yīn。
在1958年中华人民共和国采用拼音之前，有多种竞争的系统用拉丁字母写汉字的读音。
The most widely used before Pinyin was Wade-Giles, invented by British diplomats in the 19th century.
pīn yīn zhī qián zuì guǎng fàn shǐ yòng de shì wéi shì pīn yīn fǎ, yóu 19 shì jì de yīng guó wài jiāo guān fā míng。
拼音之前最广泛使用的是韦氏拼音法，由19世纪的英国外交官发明。
That is why older books write Mao Tse-tung instead of Máo Zédōng, or Peking instead of Běijīng.
zhè jiù shì wèi shé me lǎo shū shang xiě 「máo zé dōng」 jiào 「máo zé dōng」（Mao Tse-tung），ér búshì 「běi jīng」（Běijīng），ér shì 「běi jīng」。
这就是为什么老书上写「毛泽东」叫「毛泽东」（Mao Tse-tung），而不是「北京」（Běijīng），而是「北京」。
Pinyin is now the global standard.
pīn yīn xiàn zài shì quán qiú biāo zhǔn。
拼音现在是全球标准。
It is the system used on the UN, on signage across China, and, crucially, on every smartphone input method in mainland China.
tā shì lián hé guó shǐ yòng de xì tǒng, yě zài zhōng guó gè dì de biāo zhì shang shǐ yòng, zuì zhòng yào de shì, zài zhōng guó dà lù měi yī bù zhì néng shǒu jī de shū rù fǎ zhōng shǐ yòng。
它是联合国使用的系统，也在中国各地的标志上使用，最重要的是，在中国大陆每一部智能手机的输入法中使用。
When a user types on a Chinese phone, they type Pinyin and the phone converts it to characters.
dāng yòng hù zài zhōng wén shǒu jī shang dǎ zì shí, tā men shū rù pīn yīn, shǒu jī jiù bǎ tā zhuǎn huàn chéng hàn zì。
当用户在中文手机上打字时，他们输入拼音，手机就把它转换成汉字。
In that sense, Pinyin is not just a learning tool; it is the backbone of how hundreds of millions of people type every single day.
cóng zhè ge yì yì shang jiǎng, pīn yīn búyjǐnjǐn shì xué xí gōng jù; tā shì shù bǎi wàn rén měi tiān shū rù wén zì de jī chǔ。
从这个意义上讲，拼音不仅仅是学习工具；它是数百万人每天输入文字的基础。
For you as a learner, the most important thing to know is that Pinyin is phonetic but not intuitive for English speakers.
duì nǐ zhè ge xué xí zhě lái shuō, zuì zhòng yào de shì yào zhī dào pīn yīn shì biǎo yīn de, dàn duì yīng yǔ shǐ yòng zhě lái shuō búzhí guān。
对你这个学习者来说，最重要的是要知道拼音是表音的，但对英语使用者来说不直观。
The letter "x" sounds like "sh", "q" sounds like "ch", and "zh" is closer to "j." Spending real time with 发音 (fāyīn, "pronunciation") early on will save you enormous confusion later.
zì mǔ 「x」 fā yīn xiàng 「sh」，「q」 fā yīn xiàng 「ch」，「zh」 gèng jiē jìn 「j」。zǎo qī huā zhēn shí de shí jiān xué xí fā yīn (fāyīn) huì ràng nǐ hòu lái shěng qù hěn duō kùn huò。
字母「x」发音像「sh」，「q」发音像「ch」，「zh」更接近「j」。早期花真实的时间学习发音（fāyīn）会让你后来省去很多困惑。
The tones are part of the phonology too; 妈 (mā), 马 (mǎ), and 骂 (mà) are three completely different words written with the same letters.
shēng tiào yě shì yǔ yán xì tǒng de yī bù fen; mā、mǎ hé mà shì yòng tóng yàng de zì mǔ xiě de sān ge wán quán bù tóng de cí。
声调也是语言系统的一部分；妈（mā）、马（mǎ）和骂（mà）是用同样的字母写的三个完全不同的词。
The takeaway
zǒng jié yī xià
总结一下
Chinese has been reinventing itself for three thousand years, through unification wars, dynastic collapses, literacy campaigns, and digital revolutions, and it is still recognizably itself.
sān qiān nián lái, zhōng wén yī zhí zài chóng sù zì jǐ, jīng lì le tǒng yī zhàn zhēng、wáng cháo shuāi luò、shí zì yùn dòng hé shù zì gé mìng, dàn tā réng rán bǎo chí zhe zì jǐ de tè sè。
三千年来，中文一直在重塑自己，经历了统一战争、王朝衰落、识字运动和数字革命，但它仍然保持着自己的特色。
The character you write for "sun" today carries a visual memory of a Shang dynasty sketch.
nǐ jīn tiān xiě de 「 tài yáng 」 nà ge zì, bǎo liú zhe shāng cháo cǎo tú de shì jué jì yì。
你今天写的「太阳」那个字，保留着商朝草图的视觉记忆。
The standard you speak was a deliberate 20th-century construction that now has over a billion users.
nǐ shuō de biāo zhǔn yǔ yán shì 20 shì jì kè yì gòu jiàn de, xiàn zài yǐ jīng yǒu chāo guò 10 yì shǐ yòng zhě le。
你说的标准语言是20世纪刻意构建的，现在已经有超过10亿使用者了。
None of this makes Chinese harder to learn; if anything, it gives you context for why things are the way they are.
zhè bìng bu huì ràng zhōng wén gèng nán xué; fǎn ér, tā ràng nǐ lǐ jiě wèi shén me shì qing huì shì zhè yàng de。
这并不会让中文更难学；反而，它让你理解为什么事情会是这样的。
A language with this much history behind every stroke is worth the effort.
yī mén yōng yǒu zhè me duō lì shǐ chén diàn de yǔ yán, zhí de fù chū nǔ lì qù xué。
一门拥有这么多历史沉淀的语言，值得付出努力去学。