Everything about Classical Chinese totally explained
Classical Chinese or
Literary Chinese is a traditional style of
written Chinese based on the
grammar and
vocabulary of ancient Chinese, making it different from any
modern spoken form of Chinese. However, the distinction between Literary Classical and Literary Vernacular Chinese is blurry. Classical Chinese was once used for almost all formal correspondence before and during the beginning of the
20th century, not only in
China but also (during various different periods) in
Korea, and
Japan. Among Chinese speakers, Classical Chinese has been largely replaced by
Vernacular Chinese (
báihuà), a style of writing that's similar to modern spoken Mandarin Chinese, while speakers of non-Chinese languages have largely abandoned Classical Chinese in favor of local vernaculars.
Literary Chinese is known as
Hanmun ("Han writing") in Korean; as
Kanbun (and "Han writing") in Japanese.
Definitions
While the terms Classical Chinese and Literary Chinese are commonly used interchangeably, this might not be strictly accurate.
Sinologists generally agree that they're in fact different things. By most academic definitions, Classical Chinese (
Pinyin Gǔwén, "Ancient Writing"; or more literally
Gǔdiǎn Hànyǔ "Classical Chinese") refers to the written language of China from the
Zhou Dynasty, and especially the
Spring and Autumn Period, through to the end of the
Han Dynasty. Classical Chinese is therefore the language used in many of China's most influential books, such as the
Analects of Confucius, the
Mencius and the
Daodejing. (The language of even older texts, such as the
Shijing, is sometimes called
Old Chinese.)
Literary Chinese (Wényánwén, "Literary Writing", or more colloquially just Wényán) is the form of written Chinese used from the end of the
Han Dynasty to the early 20th century when it was replaced by vernacular written Chinese (
Baihua). Literary Chinese diverged more and more from Classical Chinese as the dialects of China became more and more disparate and as the Classical written language became less and less representative of the
spoken language. At the same time, Literary Chinese was based largely upon the Classical language, and writers frequently borrowed Classical language into their Literary writings. Literary Chinese therefore shows a great deal of similarity to Classical Chinese, even though the similarity decreased over the centuries.
This situation, usage of Literary Chinese throughout the Chinese cultural sphere despite the existence of disparate regional vernaculars, can be compared to the coexistence of the universal
Latin language and the more local Latin-derived
Romance languages in
Europe, as well as the position of
Classical Arabic relative to the various
regional vernaculars in Arab lands. The Romance languages continued to evolve, influencing Latin texts of the same period, so that by the
Middle Ages, Latin included many usages that would have baffled the
Romans. The coexistence of Classical Chinese and the native languages of Korea, Japan, and Vietnam can be compared to the use of Latin in countries that natively speak non-Latin-derived
Germanic languages or
Slavic languages, or to the position of Arabic in
Persia and
India.
Pronunciation
Chinese characters are not
alphabetic and don't reflect
sound changes, and the tentative reconstruction of
Old Chinese is an endeavor only a few centuries old. As a result, Classical Chinese isn't read with a reconstruction of Old Chinese pronunciation; instead, it's either read with the pronunciations of different varieties of Chinese, such as modern
standard Chinese (Mandarin) or regional varieties such as
Cantonese; or, in some varieties of Chinese (for example
Southern Min), with a special set of pronunciation used for Classical Chinese or vocabulary and usage borrowed from Classical Chinese usage. (In practice, all varieties of Chinese combine these two extremes; Mandarin and Cantonese, for example, also have words that are pronounced one way in colloquial usage and another way when used in Classical Chinese or in specialized terms coming from Classical Chinese, though the system isn't as extensive as that of Southern Min.)
Korean,
Japanese, or
Vietnamese readers of Classical Chinese use systems of pronunciation specific to their own languages. For example, Japanese speakers use
On'yomi and (more rarely)
Kun'yomi, which are the ways
kanji, or Chinese characters, are read when they're used to write in Japanese.
Kunten, a system that aids Japanese speakers with Classical Chinese word order, was also used.
Since the pronunciation of all modern varieties of Chinese are different from Old Chinese or other forms of historical Chinese (such as
Middle Chinese), characters which once
rhymed in poetry may no longer do so (for example rhyming occurring sometimes in Min, Cantonese and rarely in Mandarin), or vice versa. Poetry and other rhyme-based writing thus becomes less coherent than the original reading must have been. However, some modern
Chinese dialects have certain phonological characteristics that are closer to the older pronunciations than others, as shown by the preservation of certain rhyme structures. Some believe
wenyan literature, especially poetry, sounds better when read in certain dialects believed to be closer to older pronunciations, such as Cantonese or Southern Min.
Another phenomenon that's common in reading Classical Chinese is
homophony, or words that sound the same. More than 2500 years of sound change separates Classical Chinese from any modern language or dialect, so when reading Classical Chinese in any modern variety of Chinese (especially Mandarin) or in Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese, many characters which originally had different pronunciations have become
homonyms. There is a famous Classical Chinese essay written in the early 20th-century by linguist
Y. R. Chao called the
Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den which was written to show how Classical Chinese was an impractical language for speakers of modern Chinese because Classical Chinese when spoken aloud is largely incomprehensible. However it's perfectly comprehensible when read silently, but contains only words that are now pronounced
shī, shí, shǐ and
shì in
Standard Mandarin (the accents indicate the four
tones). In addition, literary Chinese, by its very nature as a
written language employing a
logographic writing system, can often get away with the use of homophones that even in oral Old Chinese wouldn't have been distinguishable in any way.
The situation is analogous to that of some English words that sound the same, such as "meet" and "meat". These two words were and [mɛːt] respectively during the time of
Chaucer, as evident by spelling. Today they sound the same, but are distinguished by spelling.
Grammar and lexicon
Wenyan is distinguished from
baihua in its style that appears extremely concise and compact to modern Chinese speakers and to some extent the use of different
lexical items (for example, vocabulary). An essay in
wenyan, for example, might use half as many
Chinese characters as in
baihua, even though the general sense of the writing remains the same.
In terms of conciseness and compactness, for example,
wenyan rarely uses words composed of two Chinese characters; nearly all words are of one
syllable only. This stands directly in contrast with modern Chinese dialects where two-syllable words are extremely common. This phenomenon exists, in part, because polysyllabic words evolved in Chinese to disambiguate homophones that result from sound changes. This is similar to phenomena in English like the
pen/pin merger of the American South. Because the two sound alike, a certain degree of confusion can occur unless one adds qualifiers like "writing pen" and "stick pin". Similarly, Chinese has acquired many polysyllabic words in order to disambiguate monosyllabic words that sounded different in Old Chinese but identical today. Since
wenyan is an imitation of Old Chinese, it has almost none of the two-syllable words present in modern Chinese languages.
Wenyan has more
pronouns compared to the modern vernacular. In particular, whereas Mandarin has one general character to refer to the first-person pronoun ("I"/"me"), Literary Chinese has several, many of which are used as part of
honorific language, and several of which have different grammatical uses (first-person collective, first-person possessive, etc.).
For
syntax,
wenyan is always ready to drop subjects, verbs, objects, etc. when their meaning is understood or readily inferred. Also,
parts of speech can change themselves easily: nouns used as verbs, adjective used as nouns, etc. There is no
copula in
wenyan; the copula 是 (
shì) in modern Chinese was originally a near
demonstrative ("this", written 這 (
zhè) in modern Chinese) in Old Chinese.
In addition to grammar and vocabulary differences,
wenyan can be distinguished by literary and cultural differences: an effort to maintain
parallelism and rhythm, even in prose works, and its extensive use of literary and cultural allusions, thereby also contribute to brevity.
Teaching and use
Wenyan was the only form used in Chinese literary works until the
May Fourth Movement, and was also used extensively in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Classical Chinese was used to write the
Hunmin Jeongeum in which the modern Korean alphabet (
hangul) was promulgated and the essay by
Hu Shi in which he argued against using Classical Chinese and in favor of baihua. Exceptions to the use of
wenyan were vernacular novels such as
The Dream of the Red Chamber, which was considered low class at the time.
Today, pure
wenyan is occasionally used in formal or ceremonial occasions. The
National Anthem of the Republic of China, for example, is in
wenyan. In practice there's a socially accepted continuum between
baihua and
wenyan. For example, most notices and formal letters are written with a number of stock
wenyan expressions (for example salutation, closing). Personal letters, on the other hand, are mostly written in
baihua, but with some
wenyan phrases sometimes, depending on the subject matter, the writer's level of education, etc. Letters (and/or essays) written completely in
wenyan today may be considered quaint, old-fashioned, or even pretentious by some, but may seem impressive to others.
Most Chinese people with at least a middle school education are able to read basic
wenyan, because the ability to read (but not write)
wenyan is part of the Chinese
middle school and
high school curricula and is part of the college entrance examination.
Wenyan is taught primarily by presenting a classical Chinese work and including a
baihua gloss that explains the meaning of phrases. Tests on classical Chinese are often essentially translation exercises that ask the student to express the meaning of a paragraph in
baihua, using multiple choice.
In addition, many works of
literature in
wenyan (such as
Tang poetry) have major
cultural influences. However, even with knowledge of grammar and vocabulary,
wenyan can be difficult to understand by native speakers of Chinese, because of its heavy use of literary
references and
allusions as well as its extremely abbreviated style.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Classical Chinese'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://classical_chinese.totallyexplained.com">Classical Chinese Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
