Lu Zhuangzhang (盧戇章, 1854–1928) was the first Chinese scholar to develop a system for the romanization of Chinese, the Qieyin Xinzi (切音新字 "New Phonetic Alphabet") in 1892, which stimulated Chinese interest in script reform from inefficient Chinese characters to basic alphabetic spelling. Lu was an influential and prolific Chinese language reformer in the late Qing dynasty (1644–1911) and early Republic of China (1912–49). Lu's 1892 preface to the Yimu liaoran chujie explains the New Phonetic Alphabet's pragmatic advantages.