Classical Chinese^[a] is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from c. the 5th century BCE.^[2] For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in the Sinosphere in a form now called Literary Chinese, which was used for almost all formal writing in China until the early 20th century. Its use is roughly comparable to that of Latin across post-Roman Europe. While not static throughout its history, its evolution has traditionally been guided by a conservative impulse: many later changes in the varieties of Chinese are not reflected in the literary form. Due to millennia of this evolution, Literary Chinese is only partially intelligible when read or spoken aloud for someone only familiar with modern vernacular Chinese.

Over time, Literary Chinese began to be used in Japan, Ryukyu, Korea, and Vietnam, where it was originally introduced as the prestige form of the only known writing system, before eventually being adapted to write the local languages, which belonged to completely different language families. Each of these countries have their own reading systems for Chinese texts, in addition to their own Chinese character forms.

Literary Chinese has largely been replaced by written vernacular Chinese among Chinese speakers; speakers of non-Chinese languages have similarly abandoned Literary Chinese in favour of their own local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.

Definition[edit]

There is no universal agreement on the definition of "Classical Chinese". At its core, the term refers to the language used by the classics of Chinese literature roughly from the 5th century BCE until the end of the Han dynasty in the 3rd century CE. The form of Chinese used in works from before the 4th century BCE, like the Five Classics, is notably distinct from what is found in later works. Moreover, this older language did not inspire later imitation to a comparable degree, despite the works' equal importance in the canon. The term "pre-Classical Chinese" is used to refer to this earlier form, as to distinguish it from Classical Chinese proper.^[3]

After the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE), the divergence of spoken language from the literary form became increasingly apparent.^[4] The term "Literary Chinese" has been coined to refer to the forms of written Chinese in conscious imitation of the classics, characterized by the gradual addition of new vocabulary, as well as the erosion of certain points of Classical grammar and syntax as their functions were forgotten. Literary Chinese was used in almost all formal and personal writing in China from the end of the Han dynasty until the early 20th century, when it was largely replaced by written vernacular Chinese.^[5] A distinct, narrower definition of the Classical period begins with the time of Confucius (551–479 BCE) and ends with the founding of the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE.^[6][7]

Sinologists generally emphasize the distinctions between Classical Chinese and the imitative Literary forms that followed. After the 2nd century CE, the Chinese spoken in various areas began to diverge, and Literary Chinese became less representative of ordinary speech. While authors sought to imitate the style of the classics, the likeness decreased over the centuries due to an imperfect understanding of older conventions, as well as influence from the writer's own dialect.^[8]

Function[edit]

The adoption of Chinese literary culture in the Sinosphere despite the existence of numerous regional vernaculars is an example of diglossia. The coexistence of Literary Chinese and native languages throughout China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam can be compared to the historical literary use of Latin in Europe, that of Arabic in Persia, or that of Sanskrit in South and Southeast Asia. However, unlike these examples, written Chinese uses a logography of Chinese characters that are not directly tied to their pronunciation. This lack of a fixed correspondence between writing and reading created a situation where later readings of classical Chinese texts were able to diverge much further from their originals than occurred in the other literary traditions, adding a unique dimension to the study of Literary Chinese.

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.^[9]

Transmission of texts[edit]

According to the traditional account, in 213 BCE Qin Shi Huang ordered the historical records of all non-Qin states to be burned, along with any literature associated with the Hundred Schools of Thought. The imperial library was destroyed shortly thereafter upon the dynasty's collapse in 206 BCE, resulting in a potentially even greater loss. Even those works from the Classical period that have survived catastrophes of this kind are not known to exist in their original forms; they are attested only in manuscripts copied centuries after their original authorship. The "Yiwenzhi" section of the Book of Han is the oldest extant bibliography of Classical Chinese, compiled c. 90 CE—of its 653 listed works, only 6% are known to exist in a complete form, with another 6% existing only in fragments.^[10]

Unlike Latin and Sanskrit, historical Chinese language theory consisted almost exclusively of lexicography, as opposed to the study of grammar and syntax. Such approaches largely arrived with Europeans beginning in the 17th century. Christian missionaries later coined the term 文理 (wénlǐ; 'principles of literature', 'bookish language') to describe Classical Chinese; this term never became widely used among domestic speakers.^[11][12]

Grammar and lexicon[edit]

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. 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. An essay written in Classical Chinese might be half the length of one in vernacular Chinese that relates the same ideas, but may use a much larger number of distinct characters.

Classical Chinese can be described as a pro-drop language: its syntax often allows either subjects or objects to be dropped when their reference is understood. Additionally, words are generally not restricted to use as certain parts of speech: many characters may function as either a noun, verb, or adjective. 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').

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.^[13]

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

Modern use[edit]

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 Literary Chinese until reforms spearheaded by President Yen Chia-kan in the 1970s to shift to written vernacular Chinese.^[14][15] However, most of the laws of Taiwan are still written in a subset of Literary Chinese. As a result, it is necessary for modern Taiwanese lawyers to learn at least a subset of the literary language.

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

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 Literary Chinese. Even so, most Chinese people with at least a middle school education are able to read basic Literary Chinese, because this ability is part of the Chinese middle school and high school curricula, and is a component of the college entrance examination. Literary Chinese in the school curriculum is taught primarily by presenting a literary work and including a vernacular gloss that explains the meaning of phrases. The examinations usually require the student to read a paragraph in Literary Chinese and then explain its meaning in the vernacular.

Contemporary use of Literary Chinese in Japan is mainly in the field of education and the study of literature. Learning kanbun, the Japanese readings of Literary Chinese, is part of the high school curriculum in Japan.^[16] Japan is the only country that maintains the tradition of creating Classical Chinese poetry based on Tang-era tone patterns.

Phonology[edit]

Chinese characters are not phonetic and rarely reflect later sound changes in words. 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 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 candidate to compose poetry in the shi genre, pronunciation in non-Mandarin speaking parts of China such as Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian is either based on everyday speech, such as in Standard Cantonese, or is based on a special set of pronunciations borrowed from Classical Chinese, such as in Southern Min. In practice, all varieties of Chinese combine the two extremes of pronunciation: that according to a prescribed system, versus that based on everyday speech. 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 Min or Wu.

Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese readers of Classical Chinese each use distinct systems of pronunciation specific to their own languages. Japanese speakers have readings of Chinese origin called on'yomi for many words, such as for "ginko" (銀行) or "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 "Osaka" (大阪), as well as a system that aids Japanese speakers with a Classical word order.

Since pronunciation in modern varieties is different from Old Chinese or other historical forms such as Middle Chinese, characters that once rhymed may not 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 particular characteristic of Literary Chinese is its present homophony. Reading Classical texts with character pronunciations from modern languages results in many homophonous characters that originally had distinct Old Chinese pronunciations, but have since merged to varying degrees. This phenomenon is far more common in Chinese languages than in English: for example, each of the following Old Chinese words originally had distinct pronunciations, but are now all pronounced yì [î] ^ⓘ in Mandarin:

The famous early 20th-century poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den was written by the linguist Yuen Ren Chao to demonstrate this: it contains only words that are now pronounced shi [ʂɻ̩] with various tones in modern Standard Chinese. The poem underlines how the classical language had become impractical for modern speakers: when spoken aloud, Classical Chinese is largely incomprehensible. However, the poem is perfectly comprehensible when read, and also uses homophones that were present even in Old Chinese.

Romanizations have been devised to provide distinct spellings for Classical Chinese words, together with pronunciation rules for various modern varieties. The earliest was the Romanisation Interdialectique by 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 based on Old Chinese in 1940, and then by Chao's General Chinese Romanization in 1975. However, none of these systems has seen extensive use.^[19][20]

See also[edit]

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

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Works cited[edit]

External links[edit]

• 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)