由於文字承載著一個民族與國家的文明,本身既是一種符號,也代表著一種民族思維。漢字發源於中國,蘊藏著濃厚的中原文化與文明,隨著漢字向中原以外地區傳播,而影響周邊國家,如日本、韓國與越南,形成漢字圈國家。本研究聚焦於中國、日本、韓國以及越南的文字政策演變,發現漢字圈國家文字政策呈現幾項特質,包括以漢字為基礎的跨文化學習、對自創文字的鄙視、文字政策的政治化影響、漢字簡化與使用數量減少等。另外,漢字圈國家文字政策也呈現若干差異,包括漢字簡化程度之差異、對漢字依賴程度之差異、民族文字形成之不同、民族文字政策推動之差異等面向。整體而言,漢字圈國家過去雖受到漢字影響,然而現今已進入民族文字興起之時代,漢字圈國家文字政策也從「事大」思維轉向強化其民族文字獨特性的方向。
Characters contain national civilization, symbolizing ethnic thinking. Chinese characters originated in China and contain a deep culture and civilization of China. As Chinese characters were spread from China to neighborhood of China, such as Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, Chinese Character circle has formed. This study focuses on the evolution of the writing system policy in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. It has found that there are several characteristics in Chinese character circle, including cross-cultural learning based on Chinese characters, discrimination against self-created written systems, politicized influence of written-system policies, Simplification of Chinese characters and reduction in the number of Chinese characters used. In addition, the written-system policy of the Chinese character circle also show several differences, including differences in simplification of Chinese characters, differences in dependence on Chinese characters, differences in the formation of ethnic characters, and differences in the promotion of national writing-system policies. In sum, although the Chinese character circle has been influenced by Chinese characters in the past, nowadays it has entered the era of the rise of ethnic characters. The national character policy of the Chinese character circle has also shifted from the thinking of "serving-the-Greatism" to strengthening the uniqueness of its ethnic characters.