Character Recognition: A New Method of Learning to Read in Late Imperial China

This study traces the development of a method, namely, character recognition, in the history of reading and reading pedagogy in Qing China. In the late 17th century, a new technology of teaching young children to read emerged in the Jiangnan region: putting individual characters on blocks made of wood or paper and having young children aged three or four sui recognize them. This method advanced the beginning age for children to learn to read by approximately two years. Behind this technique was a new understanding about how Chinese literacy should be reached: a stage of character learning (shizi or renzi) should be set apart from and ahead of real reading (dushu). Before the appearance of this method, character learning was merged in the process of reading: whole texts were first memorized through numerous aural/oral repetitions and then students recognized characters by matching their sounds with their shapes. In other words, no formal training or guidance was given about the shape of each individual character. The new theory and practice focusing on character recognition first proposed in works by early Qing teachers such as Tang Biao and Cui Xuegu did not gain wide popularity until the famous philologist and educator Wang Yun (1784-1854) refined and propagated the approach. Wang Yun's theory and practice was in turn advocated by the reformist Liang Qichao (1873-1929) and more recently adopted by the prominent philologist and educator of modern China, Zhang Zhigong (1918-1997), whose advocacy of this method influenced how native Chinese and foreign learners are taught to read today.