Xiao Hu on July 19, 2015
@tigntaz,

In my opinion, the only option would be 玉鳳 because in the simplification process, anytime there was a difficult form to simplify to try and get each character under their arbitrary "ten strokes or less" goal, they often just got lazy. Beyond that, those simplifying the forms were often incentivized to reduce each form to the MINIMUM possible number of strokes, at ALL COSTS! "Why have ten strokes when you can have nine? Why have five strokes when you can have four?", was the warped thinking of the day!

If they had simplified 鳳 using the simplified form of 鸟, plus the 一 on top of its head, the entire character would be comprised of NINE strokes. One stroke UNDER the proposed goal!

But some bureaucrat is his INFINITE wisdom decided it was better to use a 又 to replace the bird component, since it was an EASY "fix", and took no thought or creativity! Regardless of whether it's 雚 or 丵 or 鳥, in the simplification process, they ALL become 又!

Let's not put any consideration or value whatsoever on things like, etymology, semantic meaning, beauty, grace or the original language system at the foundation of Chinese characters!

So this magnificent, legendary bird of Chinese lore has been reduced to this laughable form of 凤, completely severing the character from its roots, namely that of portraying a stately magnificent avian creature, all in a vain, subjective, arbitrary, egomaniacal, autocratic, narcissistic, hegemonic move to "Westernize" the Chinese language.

Not OK in my book.

Therefore, I believe we should all 對簡體字 say NO!

Rant over.

Peace out!

小虎
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