The phonetic elements of many characters no longer accurately represent their pronunciations , when the People 's Republic of China simplified characters .
They often substituted a phonetic that was not only simpler to write , but more accurate for a modern reading in Mandarin as well .
Since the phonetic elements of many characters no longer accurately represent their pronunciations , when the People 's Republic of China simplified characters , they often substituted a phonetic that was not only simpler to write , but more accurate for a modern reading in Mandarin as well .