中国古代汉字是竖行书写的。到了清朝末年，一些知识分子学习西洋文化，出现了汉文里经常引用外文、书写阿拉伯数字、使用新标点符号等情况，汉字竖写就显得很不方便了。于是，知识界开始提倡汉字改革，提倡拼音文字，力主改变传统的竖行书写方式，改用从左到右的横写排列。１ Ancient Chinese characters are written vertically. In the late Qing dynasty, some intellectuals learned Western culture. There have been frequent references to foreign languages, Arabic numerals, and the use of new punctuation marks in the Chinese language. The vertical writing of Chinese characters is inconvenient. As a result, the intellectual community began to promote the reform of Chinese characters, advocated phonetic transcriptions, and advocated changes in the traditional vertical writing method, using the horizontal arrangement from left to right. 1