Characters Which Underwent The Greatest Simplification...

[xianhua]

Having spent a bit of time recently practising and then singing in KTV bars I became more exposed to the traditional characters. I noted that 几 was considerably simpler than it's traditional source (幾). This got my pondering on the question: which character/s underwent the greatest reduction in strokes? The above example reduced from 12 to 2.

This may well have been discussed elsewhere, or there may be a list somewhere, but I couldn't find anything.

[Don_Horhe]

讓 to 让 - from 24 to 5 strokes

[doraemon]

鬱 to 郁- 29 to 8 strokes.

靈 to 灵- 24 to 7 strokes.

[trien27]

Most of the so called "simplifications" as you know it were made by Mao and they used up many different methods.

If you go back to the oracle bone scripts, and then take a look at what we call Kaishu script today, and compare their differences, it's already went though a lot of simplifications. There's no need for more.

Some of those propose by Mao are actually confusing, especially many of them based on pronunciation via Mandarin. Many of them already has a form, using the same character for different things are confusing.

I noted that 几 was considerably simpler than it's traditional source (幾).

几, jī = a small table.

几, jī, is only used phonetically, for 幾, jī, meaning "almost" or jǐ meaning "several". so there. Many of the characters proposed by Mao were this way: using a character of the same or similar pronunciation & fewer stokes to replace the one with more strokes.

Later, Mao combined them and now the original meaning is unclear.

[Shi Tong]

龍 to 龙 is the best one I know, but it's not that great- just 15 down to 5.

[anonymoose]

廳 (25) → 厅 (4)

義 (13) → 义 (3)

麽 (14) → 么 (3)

[roddy]

So how do we define 'greatest'. Number of strokes cut, or ratio of before to after strokes (gets image of diet advert with Before: 廳 and After: 厅)

[jbradfor]

壹 -> 一

12:1 ratio. Beat that!

And whoever tells me that doesn't count, I'm going to give that post a red minus.

[renzhe]

Most of the so called "simplifications" as you know it were made by Mao and they used up many different methods.

Really? Mao personally?

Anyway, I vote for 聽 (听).

[roddy]

壹 -> 一

Doesn't count, even if Mao did personally rub out the other eleven strokes with his red eraser. Bring on the negative rep . . .

[Shi Tong]

haha I gave you a red minus for yours jbradfor ;)

[jbradfor]

haha I gave you a red minus for yours jbradfor ;)

OUCH! The pain! The pain!

[Hofmann]

And whoever tells me that doesn't count, I'm going to give that post a red minus.

It doesn't count. And for threatening me, take this!

[anonymoose]

壹 -> 一

12:1 ratio. Beat that!

零 → 〇

13:1 ratio. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

[Shi Tong]

Nobody writes 零 as 0, at least, not as a Chinese character.

Right, that's a minus for you too anonymoose.. You watch me, I'm going to give you ALL minuses!!!

*cough* maybe we should get back on topic.. :blink:

[anonymoose]

Nobody writes 零 as 0, at least, not as a Chinese character.

Is that so? Explain this then:

[Hofmann]

Actually, you probably were. 〇 isn't a variant for 零, although 日 has been written that way in seal script.

[jbradfor]

無 -> 无. It's not one of the greatest in terms of stroke count (16 strokes to 4), but to me it's one of the biggest in terms of changing the "feel".

The other categories of "big changes" to me are the couple that changed which radical is used.

[xianhua]

I had meant 'greatest simplification' in terms of stroke reduction. That's not to say that taking the ratio factor isn't a fair measure too. In terms of stroke reduction, the best I've found so far is 籲 to 吁. A mere drop from 32 to 6. Any advances on 26?

Disclaimer: I did have to do some research on characters with high stroke content whereas many of the other suggestions were probably off the cuff.

[liuzhou]

 It has also amused me that Cantopop star Janice Vidal is 衛蘭 in Hong Kong, but 卫兰 on the mainland.

15:3

20:5