<p>麟 is actually not simplified. Chinese simplification is an interesting topic but it is usually not regarded as a science, so you might not find scientific and logical answers to many such questions, such as, why are characters simplified in their current way, and why some are not simplified, or why some different characters got merged (as if by mistakes). There indeed are criticisms about them.</p>

<p>Some criticisms include arbitrary changing meaningful radicals (愛->爱 removed heart，聖->圣 changed king to soil), semantically distinct characters got merged (e.g, 后後-->后, 隻只-->只， 發髮-->发), the characters undermine its phonetics (盤-->盘, 廣-->广), and so on. I think personally I stay neutral about these issues, because both have pros and cons.</p>

<p>If you are interested, you can find more information here: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate_on_traditional_and_simplified_Chinese_characters" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate_on_traditional_and_simplified_Chinese_characters</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-02T02:17:45.627Z
2014-06-02T02:17:45.627Z
Danke Xie
<p>麟 is a simplified character if you asked.</p>

<p>You should understand Simplified Chinese is developed from the Traditional Chinese for easier learning. Most of uncommon characters are left same as original.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-07T04:28:16.110Z
2014-06-07T04:28:16.110Z
Allen St.Clair
<p>麟 (lin2) literally means female unicorn-like animal, which is an auspicious mythical Chinese animal and is the product of Chinese dragon and cow. 麟 is actually a very good and meaningful Chinese name. It is not that complicated if we decompose the character: 
麟 (lin2) is a typical Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 鹿 (lu4, meaning “deer”) + phonetic 粦 (lin2)</p>

<p>As for your question, 麟 was not simplified. Please note that not every traditional Chinese characters were simplified.</p>

<p>Quote from Wiki:
" Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. Some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the same pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to one single standardized character, usually the simplest amongst all variants in form. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies."</p>

<p>Source: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Chinese_characters">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Chinese_characters</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-01T21:02:32.280Z
2014-06-01T21:13:59.777Z
2014-06-01T21:13:59.777Z
ChineseHulu.com
<p>麟 is a very complicated word, and the word is in my name. 麟 is a simplified word, but it seems like it didn't even get simplified. Some similar words are: 鳞,磷,璘,嶙,粼,膦,遴,潾 etc. Why are all these word so complicated? Any help is appreciated.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-01T23:56:36.413Z
I've noticed that various people use the term "simplified" in two very different ways: **1)** characters which underwent simplification and were changed from their original traditional form by the PRC government in the 1950s/60s. **2)** characters as used and taught in the PRC, whether or not they ever underwent simplification. To me personally the second usage is strange and unnatural, but it's quite prevalent nonetheless so people should be aware of both.
hippietrail
<traditional-vs-simplified>
Was the word 麟 simplified?
# Was the word 麟 simplified?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-06-01)

麟 is a very complicated word, and the word is in my name. 麟 is a simplified word, but it seems like it didn't even get simplified. Some similar words are: 鳞,磷,璘,嶙,粼,膦,遴,潾 etc. Why are all these word so complicated? Any help is appreciated.

**Tags:** traditional-vs-simplified

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I've noticed that various people use the term "simplified" in two very different ways: **1)** characters which underwent simplification and were changed from their original traditional form by the PRC government in the 1950s/60s. **2)** characters as used and taught in the PRC, whether or not they ever underwent simplification. To me personally the second usage is strange and unnatural, but it's quite prevalent nonetheless so people should be aware of both.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2014-06-01. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

麟 (lin2) literally means female unicorn-like animal, which is an auspicious mythical Chinese animal and is the product of Chinese dragon and cow. 麟 is actually a very good and meaningful Chinese name. It is not that complicated if we decompose the character:
麟 (lin2) is a typical Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 鹿 (lu4, meaning “deer”) + phonetic 粦 (lin2)

As for your question, 麟 was not simplified. Please note that not every traditional Chinese characters were simplified.

Quote from Wiki:
" Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. Some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the same pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to one single standardized character, usually the simplest amongst all variants in form. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies."

Source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Chinese_characters>


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-06-02. Score: 2

麟 is actually not simplified. Chinese simplification is an interesting topic but it is usually not regarded as a science, so you might not find scientific and logical answers to many such questions, such as, why are characters simplified in their current way, and why some are not simplified, or why some different characters got merged (as if by mistakes). There indeed are criticisms about them.

Some criticisms include arbitrary changing meaningful radicals (愛->爱 removed heart，聖->圣 changed king to soil), semantically distinct characters got merged (e.g, 后後-->后, 隻只-->只， 發髮-->发), the characters undermine its phonetics (盤-->盘, 廣-->广), and so on. I think personally I stay neutral about these issues, because both have pros and cons.

If you are interested, you can find more information here: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate_on_traditional_and_simplified_Chinese_characters>


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-06-07. Score: 1

麟 is a simplified character if you asked.

You should understand Simplified Chinese is developed from the Traditional Chinese for easier learning. Most of uncommon characters are left same as original.


---

