Why did the Vietnamese use Chinese characters for 3,000 years, and it took only 30 years to abolish them in the last century?

Where did it come from? Since Qin Shihuang established the Qin Dynasty to conquer Lingnan, Chinese characters have only been introduced to Vietnam for two thousand years, not to mention that most people in Vietnam don't know Chinese characters at all.

Vietnam is the only country in Southeast Asia with a cultural circle of Chinese characters. In ancient times, Chinese characters were also used as official characters.

But unlike us, although Vietnam uses Chinese characters, the language spoken by Vietnamese is Vietnamese. Although Vietnamese has borrowed many Chinese words, it is different from Chinese and belongs to another language, which is interesting.

In fact, Chinese characters were first introduced into Vietnam not in the Qin Dynasty. It was not until the Han dynasty that Chinese characters were introduced into northern Vietnam on a large scale with Confucianism. At that time, it was very fashionable and belonged to a wild and remote place.

It is said that it was imported, but in ancient times, this was not something that ordinary people could do. Even in the Central Plains, the home conditions of scholars will not be so bad, because reading is a very expensive thing.

Even though people in the Central Plains don't know Chinese characters, they still speak Chinese, so it's easier to learn Chinese characters. But in Vietnam, the situation is completely different, because Vietnamese speak Vietnamese, not Chinese.

Because the Central Plains Dynasty was powerful and far-reaching, ancient Vietnamese aristocrats and people with status could speak Chinese and write Chinese characters, while ordinary Vietnamese people could not read or speak Chinese at all.

From Qin and Han Dynasties to Tang Dynasty, northern Vietnam belonged to the counties in the Central Plains. However, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Vietnam broke away, its sense of autonomy was constantly strengthened, and its attitude towards Chinese characters also changed. Vietnam also wants to create its own role.

In order to have their own characters and increase their autonomy, the Vietnamese once created a Vietnamese character called "Zi Nan". In fact, to put it bluntly, it is formed by adding and subtracting various Chinese characters, and the principle is similar to that of Japanese creating Japanese.

However, the word Twitter is more complicated than Chinese characters, and Chinese characters are inherently difficult to learn, which is terrible. The Vietnamese-made word twittering is even weirder and more difficult to understand than Chinese characters, from which the word twittering originated. To learn the word twittering, you must first learn Chinese characters.

Because of its obvious natural defects, it was abandoned not long after it was invented. Chinese characters are still the main official characters of ancient Vietnamese dynasties, and they are used in various documents, classics and formal occasions.

Because of the use of Chinese characters, Vietnamese scholars enjoy absolute advantages in cultural and other fields, so they also support the status of Chinese characters in Vietnam, making Chinese characters the mainstream in Vietnam for thousands of years.

However, the Vietnamese dream of having their own characters never disappeared until17th century, when Alexandre Rhodes, a missionary from France and France, helped the Vietnamese realize this dream for thousands of years.

At that time, the French came to Vietnam and thought it would be more convenient to preach. As a result, they found that most local Vietnamese could not read at all, so these missionaries spelled Vietnamese with Latin letters and created "Mandarin characters", that is, Vietnamese.

Because it is a phonetic symbol, after you know the letters, you can spell and write, so it quickly spread in Vietnam, but Vietnamese nobles and scholars still use Chinese characters for their own interests, rejecting the status of Putonghua characters.

After the Sino-French War, Vietnam became a colony of France, and the French abolished the use of Chinese characters in Vietnam on a large scale. In order to further remove the influence of Chinese characters, France vigorously promoted the application of Putonghua, thinking of popularizing French in the future and deepening its colonization of Vietnam.

In the colonial struggle against France, many people with lofty ideals in Vietnam thought the spread of culture was very important, but Chinese characters were too difficult to learn, and most people didn't know Chinese characters at all, so Mandarin characters were better.

At that time, both colonists and progressives in Vietnam abandoned Chinese characters and switched to Mandarin Chinese characters. After World War II, both South Vietnam and North Vietnam abolished the status of Chinese characters and used Mandarin characters as the official language of Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh, the father of Vietnam, was born into a scholar family. He was proficient in Chinese characters and could write poems in Chinese, but when he led the Vietnamese to freedom, he abolished the status of Chinese characters and popularized Vietnamese and Mandarin Chinese characters on a large scale.

For Vietnam, development is the last word. Although Chinese characters have been introduced to Vietnam for many years, they can only be circulated among a very small number of nobles and scholars, and they are more difficult to learn and master, which is very unfavorable to the cultural spread and development of Vietnam.

Compared with Chinese characters, Vietnamese civilization is much easier to learn. In less than ten years, Vietnam's literacy rate rose rapidly, reaching over 90% in the 1970s, far higher than most other countries in the world at that time.

The popularization of Chinese characters also promotes the spread of knowledge, which is very beneficial and necessary for the development of Vietnamese culture and other fields. Anyway, most people were illiterate before, and it doesn't matter whether Chinese characters are abolished or not.

For Vietnam, they are deeply influenced by China culture in history, but China is too big and too strong, so it is normal for Vietnam to be afraid and take precautions. Strengthening cultural autonomy and getting rid of the influence of Chinese culture is also the reason why Vietnam abolished Chinese characters.

In fact, Vietnamese Chinese characters, like classical Chinese, have a great influence on us. It has been used for thousands of years, but it has nothing to do with most people, and it is very difficult to learn. In reality, if it is not necessary, there is no big problem if you don't learn.

In the past, the official language of Vietnam was Chinese characters, so all kinds of ancient historical materials and ancient buildings were written in Chinese characters. Now ordinary Vietnamese don't know them at all, so some people in China think that this has caused a cultural and historical fault in Vietnam.

This may not be true, because no one in Vietnam understands Chinese characters at all, and professional related people can also translate past Chinese characters into Vietnamese and spread them, which has no great influence.

In Vietnamese, a considerable number of words come from Chinese, and the understanding of Chinese is still very profound, which western languages can't do, so many China's poems and songs can be appreciated by Vietnamese.

Chinese characters have been introduced into Vietnam for thousands of years, but it has nothing to do with the vast majority of ordinary Vietnamese, who have spoken Vietnamese for generations and do not know Chinese characters. The abolition of Chinese characters has nothing to do with them, and it is more beneficial for them to promote Mandarin Chinese characters.

Although Vietnamese is a phonetic symbol, it is easy to produce many ambiguities when it is used in peacetime, which is the same as Korean in South Korea. This is also the shortcoming of all phonetic symbols, which is difficult to get rid of.

But unlike many Koreans who began to regret abolishing Chinese characters, almost no one in Vietnam mentioned restoring Chinese characters. In Viet Nam, people who are interested in China culture seldom learn Chinese characters, except those who are going to China.

Vietnamese Spring Festival couplets, calligraphy and the like are almost all Vietnamese websites. Only the elderly and specialized scholars can use China's calligraphy and master Chinese characters.

It can be said that it is easy to abolish Chinese characters in Vietnam, just like in South Korea, because Chinese characters have not been widely accepted by the people in the past few thousand years, and they are only the special characters of Vietnamese ethnic minorities.