The ancient Chinese characters in China were written vertically, probably related to the early writing materials. Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the earliest writing material, is long and narrow. It is obviously much more convenient to engrave it vertically than horizontally. Before the invention of paper, it was very convenient to write on long and narrow wooden slips and bamboo slips with a brush. Thus, an ancient Chinese font was formed from top to bottom and from right to left. Although paper was invented after the Han Dynasty, the habit of writing Chinese characters still exists. The emergence of Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties
After the invention, they were all arranged vertically.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, some intellectuals were studying western culture, so it was inconvenient to write Chinese characters vertically, because they often quoted foreign languages, wrote Arabic numerals and used new punctuation marks. As a result, the intelligentsia began to advocate pinyin characters and urged them to change the traditional vertical writing method and adopt horizontal writing arrangement from left to right. 1909, a book with the word "horizontal" appeared in China, which is Liu's Phonological Standard. Liu explained the pinyin scheme in the book, saying that it is "self-learning without a teacher and knowing Chinese characters at the same time". The first issue of Science published by 19 15 also arranged Chinese characters horizontally.
Qian, the pioneer of China's new culture movement and editor-in-chief of New Youth magazine, published his open letter to Chen Duxiu in the third issue of New Youth (19 19), expressing his views on the practice of changing Chinese characters from vertical to horizontal. He said: "People's eyes are left and right, not up and down. It is very labor-saving to look left and right in the examination room. If you look up and down, it's quite hard. Take this as an example, it is easier to look at the horizontal line vertically. Moreover, writing with the right hand must be from left to right, regardless of Chinese characters and the west, and writing from right to left is rare. China people write correctly, but their methods are clumsy. If you write from the west, it will be inconvenient to come out from left to right. " Later, Qian published four open letters in New Youth, and actively advocated the idea of "changing vertical into horizontal". With the gradual rise of the New Culture Movement, Chinese characters are gradually accepted by Chinese people.