Final answer:
The Chinese system of writing, based on characters and not an alphabet, is essential to be literate in China, requiring familiarity with thousands of symbols. Literacy and education historically involved knowledge of Confucian teachings and Classical Chinese, used across East Asia. Modern literacy is defined by knowing a subset of characters sufficient for communication and education.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Chinese system of writing, based on characters rather than an alphabet, is considered the world's oldest continually-used writing system. Classical Chinese was the written language of government across East Asia, used in literature, government records, and philosophical texts like the Confucian classics. Since Chinese characters represent entire words, literacy in China required memorizing thousands of symbols and their meanings. To be considered literate or educated in ancient China, one had to be adept at calligraphy and familiar with Confucian teachings.
Over time, as bureaucratic systems evolved, knowledge of this script allowed for social mobility and was crucial in the fields of government, literature, and the arts. The influence of Chinese writing extended beyond China into Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, becoming a lingua franca among the educated elites of these regions.
Modern Chinese use a vast number of characters; however, proficiency and literacy are measured by knowing a smaller subset essential for effective communication and formal education. For example, the national exam in China, known as the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK), judges foreign proficiency with a vocabulary of about 9,000 words, which corresponds to approximately 2,865 characters.