The second round of Chinese character simplification was an aborted script reform promulgated on 20 December 1977 by the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was intended to replace the first round of simplified characters already in use. The complete proposal contained two lists: the first list consisted of 248 characters to be simplified, and the second list consisted of 605 characters to be evaluated and discussed. Of these characters, 21 from the first list and 40 from the second served as components, which modified some 4,500 characters.