Second round of simplified Chinese characters
The second round of Chinese character simplification, according to the official document, Second Chinese Character Simplification Scheme (Draft) ("Second Scheme" or "Second Round" for short) to introduce a second round of simplified Chinese characters, was an aborted orthography reform promulgated on 20 December 1977 by the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was intended to replace the existing (first-round) simplified Chinese characters that were already in use. The complete proposal contained two lists. The first list consisting of 248 characters that were to be simplified, and the second list consisting of 605 characters for evaluation and discussion. Of these, 21 from the first list and 40 from the second served as components of other characters, amplifying the impact on written Chinese.
| Second Chinese Character Simplification Scheme (Draft) | |||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 第二次汉字简化方案（草案） | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 第二次漢字簡化方案（草案） | ||||||||||
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| Second round of simplified Chinese characters (abbr. in Chinese) | |||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 二简字 (二𫈉字) | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 二簡字 | ||||||||||
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Following widespread confusion and opposition, the second round of simplification was officially rescinded on 24 June 1986 by the State Council. Since then, the PRC has used the first-round simplified characters as its official script. Rather than ruling out further simplification, however, the retraction declared that further reform of the Chinese characters should be done with caution. Today, some second-round simplified characters, while considered nonstandard, continue to survive in informal usage. The issue of whether and how simplification should proceed remains a matter of debate.