Revolution Through Literature:The Inception and Setbacks of Language Planning in Late Qing and Early Republican China
In the last twenty years of the Qing Dynasty,Chinese scholars spontaneously conducted researches on dialects and national languages,and finally in 1911,the Ministry of Education passed the belated"Unified National Language Method",opening the door to language planning in China's modernization process.After the establishment of the Republic of China,students studying abroad in Japan such as Jing Yaoyue,Huang Kan,Liu Wan,and Wang Dong founded the National Pronunciation Unification Discussion Conference to solicit regional pronunciations from all over the country.Although it was short-lived,it was the first attempt by students in Japan to enter the national language system through grassroots activities.At the beginning of 1913,the 97-day pronunciation unification conference came to an end,marking the end of the more than 20-year long folk movement of cutting off pronunciation in the late Qing Dynasty and initiating the"Na-tional Language Movement"of the Republic of China.In 1912-1913,Ma Xiangbo,Zhang Taiyan,and Liang Qichao proposed the establishment of the Hanxia Academy(Hanxia kaowen yuan).In 1913-1915,Zhang Taiyan planned to establish the Hongwen Institute(Hongwen guan)and worked alone on the creation of the Chinese language system.Due to the circumstances in the early Republic of China,not only was the Hanxia Academy plan difficult to implement but the Hongwen Institute also became a mirage.Although the Chinese language movement suffered setbacks in modern China the spontaneous activities of Chinese schol-ars who conducted researches on dialects and Mandarin ultimately shifted such works from folk to official,from individual doctrines to national policy,which became an important part of the modern Chinese lan-guage system.
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