History of education
Although there are more than 40,000 Chinese characters in written Chinese, many are rarely used. Studies have shown that full literacy in the Chinese language requires a knowledge of only between three and four thousand characters.
Simplified Chinese characters
Not all new character forms result in simpler characters (i.e. fewer strokes). For instance, the old form , with 11 strokes, now appears as , with 12 strokes, in the new form. However, technically, these new character forms do not constitute simplified characters.