what chinese emperor established a standardized written language
Written Chinese
Chinese characters do not reliably indicate their pronunciation , even for one dialect . It is therefore useful to be able to transliterate a dialect of Chinese into the Latin alphabet or the Perso - Arabic script Xiao'erjing for those who can not read Chinese characters . However , transliteration was not always considered merely a way to record the sounds of any particular dialect of Chinese ; it was once also considered a potential replacement for the Chinese characters . This was first prominently proposed during the May Fourth Movement , and it gained further support with the victory of the Communists in 1949 . Immediately afterward , the mainland government began two parallel programs relating to written Chinese . One was the development of an alphabetic script for Mandarin , which was spoken by about two - thirds of the Chinese population ; the other was the simplification of the traditional characters -- a process that would eventually lead to simplified Chinese . The latter was not viewed as an impediment to the former ; rather , it would ease the transition toward the exclusive use of an alphabetic ( or at least phonetic ) script .
Chinese characters do not reliably indicate their pronunciation , even for one dialect . It is therefore useful to be able to transliterate a dialect of Chinese into the Latin alphabet or the Perso - Arabic script Xiao'erjing for those who can not read Chinese characters . However , transliteration was not always considered merely a way to record the sounds of any particular dialect of Chinese ; it was once also considered a potential replacement for the Chinese characters . This was first prominently proposed during the May Fourth Movement , and it gained further support with the victory of the Communists in 1949 . Immediately afterward , the mainland government began two parallel programs relating to written Chinese . One was the development of an alphabetic script for Mandarin , which was spoken by about two - thirds of the Chinese population ; the other was the simplification of the traditional characters -- a process that would eventually lead to simplified Chinese . The latter was not viewed as an impediment to the former ; rather , it would ease the transition toward the exclusive use of an alphabetic ( or at least phonetic ) script .