The Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation was established by the Republic of China in 1913 in order to address several aspects of Chinese language reform—including selecting an official phonetic transcription system for Mandarin Chinese, as well as standardizing pronunciations for basic Chinese characters under what is now Old National Pronunciation. After the failure of Old National Pronunciation, it moved towards what is now Modern Standard Mandarin in 1932, based on the Beijing dialect of the Delegates representing every Chinese province deliberated on the merits of numerous systems, ultimately selecting the design of Zhang Binglin (1869–1936). Zhang's system would serve as the prototype for Bopomofo, and would be officially adopted by the Republican government in 1918.