Standard Form of National Characters

Chinese characters
Chinese characters
Evolution of script styles
Properties and classification
Collation and standards
Reforms
Homographs and readings
Variants
Derived systems

The Standard Form of National Characters or the Standard Typefaces for Chinese Characters[1] (Chinese: 國字標準字體; pinyin: Guózì Biāozhǔn Zìtǐ) is the standardized form of Chinese characters set by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Lists

There are three lists of the Standard Form of National Characters, promulgated by Taiwan's Ministry of Education:

  • Chart of Standard Forms of Common National Characters (Chinese: 常用國字標準字體表), including 4,808 commonly used Chinese characters.
  • Chart of Standard Forms of Less-Than-Common National Characters (Chinese: 次常用國字標準字體表), including secondary commonly used 6,329 characters.
  • Chart of Rarely-Used National Characters (Chinese: 罕用國字標準字體表), including 18,319 rarely used characters.

Characteristics

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The Standard Form of National Characters tends to adopt orthodox variants for most of its characters, but it still adopts many common vulgar variants. Many have their components rearranged. For example:

  • 群[2] The orthodox form of this character has 君 above 羊, i.e. 羣.
  • 峰[3] The orthodox form of this character has 山 above 夆, i.e. 峯.
  • 裡[4] The orthodox form of this character has 里 inside 衣, i.e. 裏.

Other vulgar variants which are extremely common in handwriting have been adopted. For example:

  • 為[5] The orthodox form of this character is 爲 with the second and fourth strokes pointing out.
  • 令[6] The orthodox form of this character has 亼 above 卩, i.e. 令.

Some forms which were standardized have never been used or are extremely rare. For example:

  • 寺[7] Before this standard was created, the second horizontal stroke was almost always the longest, i.e. 寺.
  • 有[8]青[9]能[10] Whenever there is a radical resembling ⺼ or 月 under other components, most standards write the first stroke as a vertical stroke, e.g. the Mainland Chinese standard writes these characters as 有青能.

Some components are differentiated where most other standards do not differentiate. For example:

  • 朠[11]脈[12] The radical on the left in 朠 is 月 (meaning "moon"), while the radical on the left in 脈 is ⺼ (a form of 肉, meaning "meat"). They are differentiated in that 月 has two horizontal strokes where ⺼ has two dots resembling 冫.
  • 草[13]夢[14] The radical at the top of 草 is 艹, while the radical at the top of 夢 is 卝. They are differentiated in that the horizontal strokes of 卝 do not pass through the vertical strokes.
  • 次冰 The radical on the left in 次 is 二, while the radical on the left in 冰 is 冫.
  • 冬[15]致[16]瓊[17] The radical on the top in 冬 is 夂, the radical on the right in 致 is 夊, and the radical on the bottom right of 瓊 is 攵.

This standard tends to follow a rule of writing regular script where there should be no more than one of ㇏ (called 捺), long horizontal stroke, or hook to the right (e.g. ㇂ ㇃) in a character.

  • 樂[18]業[19]央[20] The first horizontal strokes in these characters are long horizontal strokes. Therefore, long dots are used in place of a regular right falling stroke ㇏ as their last strokes. Other standards use ㇏ as the last stroke, e.g. Mainland China (樂業央) and Japan (樂業央).
  • 七[21] This character has a long horizontal stroke, so it cannot have a hook to the right. Other standards do not follow this rule as closely, e.g. Mainland China (七) and Japan (七).

References

  1. ^ "Standard Typefaces for Chinese Characters: Preparation and Promotion". Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan). 12 September 2014. Archived from the original on 15 September 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  2. ^ 群 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  3. ^ 峰 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  4. ^ 裡 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  5. ^ 為 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  6. ^ 令 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  7. ^ 寺 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  8. ^ 有 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  9. ^ 青 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  10. ^ 能 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  11. ^ 朠 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  12. ^ 脈 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  13. ^ 草 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  14. ^ 夢 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  15. ^ 冬 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  16. ^ 致 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  17. ^ 瓊 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  18. ^ 樂 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  19. ^ 業 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  20. ^ 央 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee
  21. ^ 七 in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants by the National Languages Committee