Classical Chinese

This article is about a written language. For the spoken language contemporaneous with its emergence, see Old Chinese. For the canon of literature written in it, see Chinese classics. For the set of modern Chinese character forms, see Traditional Chinese characters.

"Wenyan" and "Wen Yan" redirect here. For the Tang dynasty Buddhist master, see Yunmen Wenyan. For the film director, see Vivian Qu.

Classical Chinese
Literary Chinese
古文 or 文言
Region	China, Japan, Ryukyu Islands, Korea and Vietnam
Era	Originally written c. 5th century BCE – 2nd century CE Widely used as a literary language until the 20th century
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Classical Chinese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lzh
Glottolog	lite1248
Linguasphere	79-AAA-aa

Classical Chinese
Chinese name
Chinese	文言文
Literal meaning	"literary language writing"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin wényánwén Gwoyeu Romatzyh wenyan wen Wade–Giles wen2-yen2 wen2 Wu Romanization ven yiẽ ven Gan Romanization mun4-ngien4 mun4 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization màhn-yìhn màhn Jyutping man4-jin4 man4 Southern Min Hokkien POJ bûn-giân bûn Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC ùng-ngiòng-ùng Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *mən ŋan mən
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Hán văn cổ văn văn ngôn
Chữ Hán	漢文 古文 文言
Korean name
Hangul	한문
Hanja	漢文
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Hanmun
Japanese name
Kanji	漢文
Hiragana	かんぶん
Transcriptions Romanization Kanbun

Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, starting from the fifth century BCE. The form of written Chinese used in these works was imitated and maintained for millennia thereafter by scholars in the Sinosphere, and used for almost all formal writing in China until the early 20th century. Its usage is roughly comparable to that of Latin across post-Roman Europe. While not static throughout its history, its use has traditionally been guided by a conservative impulse: due to linguistic evolution, Classical Chinese is not intelligible, either spoken aloud or read, for a speaker of any modern variety of Chinese. Use of Classical Chinese notably spread to Japan, Ryukyu, Korea, and Vietnam.

Classical Chinese has largely been replaced by written vernacular Chinese among Chinese speakers; similarly, speakers of non-Chinese languages have largely abandoned Classical Chinese in favor of their respective local vernaculars. Although varieties of Chinese have diverged in various directions from the Old Chinese words in the Classical lexicon, many cognates can be still be found.

The Classic of Poetry, a collection comprising 305 works dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC

Nomenclature

The concept of "Classical Chinese" as such did not originate in China, and there is no universal agreement on its precise definition. At its core, it refers to the written language of classical Chinese literature. These works were written during a period spanning from the Spring and Autumn period to the end of the Han dynasty. "Literary Chinese" has in turn been defined as the form of written Chinese in conscious imitation of this style, used from the end of the Han dynasty to the early 20th century, when it was replaced by vernacular written Chinese. There is also a stricter definition for the Classical period, ranging from the time of Confucius (551–479 BCE) to the foundation of the Qin dynasty.

Literary Chinese is often also referred to as "Classical Chinese", but sinologists generally make a distinction between the language of the early period and that of its learned, imitative descendant. During this period, the dialects of China became more and more disparate and thus the Classical written language became less and less representative of the varieties of Chinese. Although authors sought to write in the style of the Classics, the similarity decreased over the centuries due to their imperfect understanding of the older language, the influence of their own speech, and the addition of new words.

This situation, the use of Classical Chinese throughout the Sinosphere despite the existence of disparate regional vernaculars is called diglossia. The coexistence of Classical Chinese and the native languages of Japan, Korea and Vietnam can be compared to the use of Latin throughout Europe, the use of Arabic in Persia, or that of Sanskrit throughout South and Southeast Asia. However, the non-phonetic Chinese writing system causes a unique situation where the modern pronunciation of the classical language is far more divergent than in these other cases, complicating the study of Classical Chinese in particular.

Christian missionaries coined the term 文理 (wénlǐ; 'principles of literature', ' bookish language') to describe Classical Chinese. This term never gained widespread use by other Chinese speakers.

Phonology

Further information: Old Chinese phonology and Middle Chinese

The shape of the character for 'person' in oracle bone script may have influenced the character for 'harvest', which later came to mean 'year'

Chinese characters are not alphabetic and rarely reflect sound changes. Efforts to reconstruct Old Chinese pronunciation began relatively recently. Classical Chinese is not read with a reconstructed Old Chinese pronunciation; instead, it is read with the pronunciations as categorized and listed in a 韻書; yùnshū; 'rime dictionary', originally based upon the Middle Chinese pronunciation in Luoyang during the 2nd–4th centuries. Over time, each dynasty updated and modified the official rime dictionary: by the time of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, its phonology reflected that of early Mandarin. Since the imperial examination required the composition of poetry in the shi genre, in non-Mandarin speaking parts of China such as Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian, pronunciation is either based on everyday speech as in Standard Cantonese, or with a special set of pronunciations or usage borrowed from Classical Chinese in some varieties, e.g. Southern Min. 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 is not as extensive as that of Southern Min or Wu.

Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese readers of Classical Chinese use systems of pronunciation specific to their own languages. For example, Japanese speakers use on'yomi pronunciation when reading the kanji of words of Chinese origin such as 銀行 (ginkō) or the name for Tokyo (東京), but use kun'yomi when the kanji represents a native word such as the reading of 行 in 行く (iku) or the reading of both characters in the name for the city of Osaka (大阪), and a system that aids Japanese speakers with Classical Chinese word order.

Since the pronunciation of all modern varieties of Chinese is different from Old Chinese or other forms of historical Chinese (such as Middle Chinese), characters that once rhymed in poetry may not rhyme any longer, or vice versa. Poetry and other rhyme-based writing thus becomes less coherent than the original reading must have been. However, some modern Chinese varieties have certain phonological characteristics that are closer to the older pronunciations than others, as shown by the preservation of certain rhyme structures.

Another phenomenon that is common in reading Classical Chinese is homophony. More than 2,500 years of sound change separates Classical Chinese from any modern variety, 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. The famous poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den was written in the early 20th century by the linguist Chao Yuen Ren to demonstrate this; the poem contains only words that are now pronounced [ʂʐ̩] with various tones in modern Standard Chinese. The demonstration underlines how Classical Chinese has become an impractical language for modern Chinese speakers—when spoken aloud, Classical Chinese is largely incomprehensible. However, when read the poem is perfectly comprehensible, and can often get away with using homophones that even in spoken Old Chinese would not have been distinguishable in any way.

Such homophones are far more common in Literary Chinese than in English. For example, the following distinct Old Chinese words are now all pronounced yì in Mandarin: *ŋjajs 議; 'discuss', *ŋjət 仡; 'powerful', *ʔjup 邑; 'city', *ʔjək 億; '100 million', *ʔjəks 意; 'thought', *ʔjek 益; 'increase', *ʔjik 抑; 'press down', *jak 弈; 'Chinese chess', *ljit 逸; 'flee', *ljək 翼; 'wing', *ljek 易; 'change', *ljeks 易; 'easy', and *slek 蜴; 'lizard'.

Romanizations have been devised giving distinct spellings for Classical Chinese words, together with rules for pronunciation in various modern varieties. The earliest was the Romanisation Interdialectique (1931–2) of French missionaries Henri Lamasse, of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, and Ernest Jasmin, based on Middle Chinese, followed by linguist Wang Li's wényán luómǎzì in 1940, based on Old Chinese, and Chao's General Chinese Romanization in 1975. However none of these systems has seen extensive use.

Grammar and lexicon

Main article: Classical Chinese grammar

Classical Chinese is distinguished from written vernacular Chinese in its style, which appears extremely concise and compact to modern Chinese speakers, and to some extent in the use of different vocabulary. For example, an essay written in Classical Chinese might use half as many Chinese characters as in vernacular Chinese to relate the same content.

In terms of concision, Classical Chinese rarely uses words of two or more characters. This stands directly in contrast with modern northern Chinese varieties including Mandarin, in which words two to four characters in length are extremely common. Disyllabic words are also common within southern varieties, but distinctly less so than in northern varieties. Over time, varieties acquired many polysyllabic words in order to disambiguate monosyllabic words with distinct pronunciations that had since converged in a given locale, becoming homophones.

Classical Chinese has more pronouns compared to the modern vernacular. In particular, whereas modern Standard Chinese has one character generally used as a first-person pronoun, Classical Chinese has several—many of which are used as part of a system of honorifics. Many final and interrogative particles are found in Classical Chinese.

Classical Chinese can be described as a pro-drop language: its syntax is always ready to drop subjects and objects when a reference to them is understood. Additionally, words are not restrictively categorized into parts of speech: nouns are commonly used as verbs, adjectives as nouns, and so on. There is no copula in Classical Chinese: 是 (shì) serves this function in modern Standard Chinese, but in Old Chinese it was a near demonstrative ('this').

Beyond grammar and vocabulary differences, Classical Chinese can be distinguished by its literary and cultural qualities: an effort to maintain parallelism and rhythm, even in prose works. Works also make extensive use of literary and cultural allusion, which also contributes to the language's brevity.

Historical use

Main article: Adoption of Chinese literary culture

Literary Chinese was adopted in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature argues that this adoption came mainly from diplomatic and cultural ties with China, while conquest, colonization, and migration played smaller roles.

Modern use

A letter written in Classical Chinese sent from Kublai Khan to the "King of Japan" (日本國王) dated 1266, prior to the Mongol invasions of Japan. Grammar notes have been added to aid the understanding of Japanese speakers.

Classical Chinese was the main form used in Sinosphere literature until the 1919 May Fourth Movement. It was used to write the Hunmin Jeongeum proclamation in which the modern hangul alphabet was promulgated, and the essay by Hu Shih in which he argued against using Classical Chinese and in favor of written vernacular Chinese. Exceptions to the historical use of Classical Chinese include the vernacular novel Dream of the Red Chamber. Most government documents in the Republic of China were written in Classical Chinese until reforms in the 1970s, as part of a reform movement spearheaded by President Yen Chia-kan to shift to written vernacular Chinese. However, most of the laws of Taiwan are still written in a subset of Classical Chinese. As a result, it is necessary for modern Taiwanese lawyers to learn.

Many works of literature in Classical Chinese have been highly influential in Chinese culture, such as the canon of Tang poetry. However, even with knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, Classical works can be difficult to understand by native speakers of modern Chinese due to its heavy use of literary reference and allusion, as well as its extremely laconic style. Presently, pure Classical Chinese is occasionally used in formal or ceremonial occasions. For example, the text of the National Anthem of the Republic of China is in Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese Buddhist texts are still preserved from the time they were composed or translated from Sanskrit. In practice there is a socially accepted continuum between vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese. For example, most official notices and formal letters are written with a number of stock Classical Chinese expressions.

Personal use of Classical phrases depends on factors such as the subject matter and the level of education of the writer. Excepting professional scholars and enthusiasts, most modern writers cannot easily write in Classical Chinese. In contrast, the ability to read basic Classical Chinese is part of the Chinese middle school and high school curricula, and is a component of the college entrance examination. Classical Chinese is taught primarily by presenting a classical Chinese work and including a vernacular gloss that explains the meaning of phrases. Examinations on Classical Chinese usually require the student to explain the meaning of a paragraph in vernacular Chinese.

Contemporary use of Classical Chinese in Japan is mainly in the field of education and the study of literature. Learning kanbun, the Japanese readings of Classical Chinese, is part of the high school curriculum in Japan. Japan is the only country that maintains the tradition of creating Classical Chinese poetry based on Tang-era tone patterns.

See also

• Classical Chinese poetry
• Classical Chinese writers
• Gugyeol
• Sino-Xenic vocabulary
  • Sino-Japanese vocabulary
  • Sino-Korean vocabulary
  • Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary
• Brushtalk

References

Works cited

• Baller, Frederick William (1912). Lessons in Elementary Wen-li. China Inland Mission. ISBN 9780524097083.
• Brandt, J. J. (1936). Introduction to Literary Chinese (2nd ed.). H. Vetch.
• Brandt, J. J. (1973). Wenli Particles. Vetch and Lee.
• Creel, Herrlee Glessner, ed. (1952). Literary Chinese by The Inductive Method. Vol. 2. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780608182278.
• Dawson, Raymond Stanley (1984). A New Introduction to Classical Chinese (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-815460-0.
• Norman, Jerry (1988). Chinese. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.
• Morgan, Evan (1931). A Guide to Wenli Styles and Chinese Ideals: Essays, Edicts, Proclamations, Memorials, Letters, Documents, Inscriptions, Commercial Papers, Chinese Text with English Translation and Notes (2nd ed.). Christian Literature Society of China. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
• Rémusat, Abel (1822). Élémens de la grammaire chinoise, ou, Principes généraux du kou-wen ou style antique: et du kouan-hoa c'est-à-dire, de la langue commune généralement usitée dans l'Empire chinois. Paris: Imprimerie Royale.
• Vogelsang, Kai (2021). Introduction to Classical Chinese. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-883497-7.

External links

• Classical Chinese for Everyone, Bryan Van Norden, 2004
• Chinese Notes: Introduction to Classical Chinese, Alex Amies, 2013
• Chinese Texts: A Classical Chinese course, Mark Edward Lewis, 2014
• Literary Chinese, Robert Eno, 2012–2013 (to access the book use provided PDF index file)
• A Primer in Chinese Buddhist Writings, John Kieschnick, 2015
• Classical Chinese Lexicon, John Cikoski, 2011.
• Microsoft Translator releases literary Chinese translation (Microsoft Translator Blog, August 25, 2021)