Classical Chinese

Classical Chinese, also known as Literary

Chinese[a] (文言文, wényánwén or 古文,
gǔwén) is the language of the classic
literature from the end of the Spring and
Autumn period through to the end of the
Han dynasty, a written form of Old Chinese
(上古漢語 or shànɡɡǔ hànyǔ). Classical
Chinese is a traditional style of written
Chinese that evolved from the classical
language, making it different from any
modern spoken form of Chinese. Literary
Chinese was used for almost all formal
writing in China until the early 20th century,
and also, during various periods, in Japan,
Korea and Vietnam. Among Chinese
speakers, Literary Chinese has been
largely replaced by written vernacular
Chinese, a style of writing that is similar to
modern spoken Mandarin Chinese, while
speakers of non-Chinese languages have
largely abandoned Literary Chinese in
favor of local vernaculars.
 Classical Chinese
Literary Chinese

古文 or 文言
Region China, Japan, Korea
and Vietnam
Era 5th century BC to 2nd
century AD; continued
as a literary language
until the 20th century
Language family Sino-Tibetan
Sinitic
Classical
Chinese
Writing system Chinese

Language codes

ISO 639-3 lzh

lite1248 [1]
Glottolog
Linguasphere 79-AAA-aa
 Classical Chinese
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

The Classic of Poetry (詩經 or shījīng), a collection of

Chinese poetry, comprising 305 works dating from the
11th to 7th centuries BC

Literary Chinese is known as kanbun ( 漢⽂)

in Japanese, hanmun in Korean (but see
also gugyeol) and hán văn (漢文), cổ văn
(古文)[2] or văn ngôn (文言)[2] in
Vietnamese.

Definitions
Strictly speaking, Classical Chinese refers
to the written language of the classical
period of Chinese literature, from the end
of the Spring and Autumn period (early 5th
century BC) to the end of the Han dynasty
(AD 220),[3] while Literary Chinese 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. It is often also
referred to as "Classical Chinese", but
sinologists generally distinguish it from
the language of the early period. 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 (cf. Classical Latin, which was
contemporary to the Han Dynasty, and the
Romance languages of Europe). 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.[4]

This situation, the use of Literary Chinese

throughout the Chinese cultural sphere
despite the existence of disparate regional
vernaculars, is called diglossia. It can be
compared to the position of Classical
Arabic relative to the various regional
vernaculars in Arab lands, or of Latin in
medieval Europe. The Romance languages
continued to evolve, influencing Latin texts
of the same period, so that by the Middle
Ages, Medieval Latin included many
usages that would have been foreign to
the Romans. The coexistence of Classical
Chinese and the native languages of
Japan, Korea and Vietnam can be
compared to the use of Latin in nations
that natively speak non-Latin-derived
Germanic languages or Slavic languages,
to the position of Arabic in Persia, or the
position of the Indic language Sanskrit in
South India 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 (and
heterogeneous, depending on the native –
not necessarily Chinese – tongue of the
reader) than in analogous cases,
complicating understanding and study of
Classical Chinese further compared to
other classical languages.

Christian missionaries coined the term

Wen-li (Chinese: 文理; pinyin: wénlǐ; Wade–
Giles: wen-li) for Literary Chinese. Though
composed from Chinese roots, this term
was never used in that sense in Chinese,[5]
and was rejected by non-missionary
sinologues.[6]

Pronunciation
The shape of the Oracle bone script character for
"person" may have influenced that for "harvest" (which
later came to mean "year"). Today, they are
pronounced rén and nián in Mandarin, but their
hypothesized pronunciations in Old Chinese were very
similar, which may explain the resemblance. For
example, in the recent Baxter-Sagart reconstruction,[7]
they were /niŋ/ and /nˤiŋ/, respectively, becoming
/nʲin/ and /nin/ in Early Middle Chinese.

Chinese characters are not alphabetic and

only rarely reflect sound changes. The
tentative reconstruction of Old Chinese is
an endeavor only a few centuries old. As a
result, Classical Chinese is not read with a
reconstruction of Old Chinese
pronunciation; instead, it is always read
with the pronunciations of characters
categorized and listed in the Phonology
Dictionary (韻書; pinyin: yùnshū, "rhyme
book") officially published by the
Governments, originally based upon the
Middle Chinese pronunciation of Luoyang
in the 2nd to 4th centuries. With the
progress of time, every dynasty has
updated and modified the official
Phonology Dictionary. By the time of the
Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, the
Phonology Dictionary was based on early
Mandarin. But since the Imperial
Examination required the composition of
Shi genre, in non-Mandarin speaking parts
of China such as Zhejiang, Guangdong and
Fujian, pronunciation is either based on
everyday speech as in Cantonese; or, in
some varieties of Chinese (e.g. Southern
Min), with a special set of pronunciations
used for Classical Chinese or "formal"
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
is not as extensive as that of Southern Min
or Wu. (See Literary and colloquial
readings of Chinese characters)

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
the city of Tōkyō (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 Ōsaka (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. Some believe
Classical Chinese literature, especially
poetry, sounds better when read in certain
varieties that are believed to be closer to
older pronunciations, such as Cantonese
or Southern Min, because the rhyming is
often lost due to sound shifts in Mandarin.

Another phenomenon that is common in

reading Classical Chinese is homophony
(words that sound the same). 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.
There is a famous Classical Chinese poem
written in the early 20th century by the
linguist Chao Yuen Ren called the Lion-
Eating Poet in the Stone Den, which
contains only words that are now
pronounced [ʂɨ] with various tones in
Mandarin. It was written to show how
Classical Chinese has become an
impractical language for speakers of
modern Chinese because Classical
Chinese when spoken aloud is largely
incomprehensible. However the poem is
perfectly comprehensible when read
silently because Literary Chinese, by its
very nature as a written language using a
logographic writing system, can often get
away with using homophones that even in
spoken Old Chinese would not have been
distinguishable in any way.

The situation is analogous to that of some

English words that are spelled differently
but sound the same, such as "meet" and
"meat", which were pronounced [meːt] and
[mɛːt] respectively during the time of
Chaucer, as shown by their spelling.
However, 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
"100,000,000", *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".[8]

Romanizations have been devised giving

distinct spellings for the words of
Classical Chinese, 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 (1940) based on Old Chinese, and
Chao's General Chinese Romanization
(1975). However none of these systems
has seen extensive use.[9][10]

Grammar and lexicon

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
lexical items (vocabulary). An essay in
Classical Chinese, for example, might use
half as many Chinese characters as in
vernacular Chinese to relate the same
content.

In terms of conciseness and

compactness, Classical Chinese rarely
uses words composed of two Chinese
characters; nearly all words are of one
syllable only. This stands directly in
contrast with modern Northern Chinese
varieties including Mandarin, in which two-
syllable, three-syllable, and four-syllable
words are extremely common, whilst
although two-syllable words are also quite
common within modern Southern Chinese
varieties, they are still more archaic in that
they use more one-syllable words than
Northern Chinese varieties. This
phenomenon exists, in part, because
polysyllabic words evolved in Chinese to
disambiguate homophones that result
from sound changes. This is similar to
such phenomena in English as the pen–pin
merger of many dialects in the American
south and the caught-cot merger of most
dialects of American English: because the
words "pin" and "pen", as well as "caught"
and "cot", sound alike in such dialects of
English, a certain degree of confusion can
occur unless one adds qualifiers like "ink
pen" and "stick pin." Similarly, Chinese has
acquired many polysyllabic words in order
to disambiguate monosyllabic words that
sounded different in earlier forms of
Chinese but identical in one region or
another during later periods. Because
Classical Chinese is based on the literary
examples of ancient Chinese literature, it
has almost none of the two-syllable words
present in modern Chinese varieties.

Classical Chinese 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 (see Chinese
honorifics).

In syntax, Classical Chinese is always

ready to drop subjects and objects when a
reference to them is understood
(pragmatically inferable). Also, 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" (pinyin: shì) is a copula in modern
Chinese but in old Chinese it was originally
a near demonstrative ("this"); the modern
Chinese for "this" is "這" (pinyin: zhè).

Beyond grammar and vocabulary

differences, Classical Chinese can be
distinguished by literary and cultural
differences: an effort to maintain
parallelism and rhythm, even in prose
works, and extensive use of literary and
cultural allusions, thereby also contributing
to brevity.

Many final particles (歇語字 xiēyǔzì) and

interrogative particles are found in Literary
Chinese.[11][12]
Modern use

Classical Chinese was used in international

communication between the Mongol Empire and
Japan. This letter, dated 1266, was sent to Khubilai
Khan from the "King of Japan" (日本國王) before the
Mongol invasions of Japan; it was written in Classical
Chinese. Now stored in Tōdai-ji, Nara, Japan. There
are some grammar notes on it, which were to help
Japanese speakers better understand it.
Classical Chinese was the main form used
in Chinese literary works until the May
Fourth Movement (1919), and was also
used extensively in Japan, Korea, and
Vietnam. Classical Chinese was used to
write the Hunmin Jeongeum proclamation
in which the modern Korean alphabet
(hangul) was promulgated and the essay
by Hu Shih in which he argued against
using Classical Chinese and in favor of
written vernacular Chinese. (The latter
parallels the essay written by Dante in
Latin in which he expounded the virtues of
the vernacular Italian.) Exceptions to the
use of Classical Chinese were vernacular
novels such as Dream of the Red Chamber.
Most government documents in the
Republic of China were written in Classical
Chinese until reforms in the 1970s, in a
reform movement spearheaded by
President Yen Chia-kan to shift the written
style to vernacular Chinese.[13][14]

Today, pure Classical Chinese is

occasionally used in formal or ceremonial
occasions. The National Anthem of the
Republic of China (中華民國國歌), for
example, is in Classical Chinese. Buddhist
texts, or sutras, are still preserved in
Classical Chinese from the time they were
composed or translated from Sanskrit
sources. 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 (e.g.
salutation, closing). Personal letters, on
the other hand, are mostly written in
vernacular, but with some Classical
phrases, depending on the subject matter,
the writer's level of education, etc. With the
exception of professional scholars and
enthusiasts, most people today cannot
write in full Classical Chinese with ease.

Most Chinese people with at least a

middle school education are able to read
basic Classical Chinese, because the
ability to read (but not write) Classical
Chinese is part of the Chinese middle
school and high school curricula and is
part 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. Tests on classical
Chinese usually ask the student to express
the meaning of a paragraph in vernacular
Chinese. They often take the form of
comprehension questions.

The contemporary use of Classical

Chinese in Japan is mainly in the field of
education and the study of literature.
Learning the Japanese way (kanbun) of
decoding Classical Chinese is part of the
high school curriculum in Japan.[15]

The use of Classical Chinese in these

regions is limited and is mainly in the field
of Classical studies.

In addition, many works of literature in

Classical Chinese (such as Tang poetry)
have been major cultural influences.
However, even with knowledge of
grammar and vocabulary, Classical
Chinese can be difficult to understand by
native speakers of modern Chinese,
because of its heavy use of literary
references and allusions as well as its
extremely abbreviated style.

See also

Classical Chinese edition of Wikipedia,

the free encyclopedia

Classical Chinese grammar

Classical Chinese lexicon
Classical Chinese poetry
Classical Chinese Wikipedia
Classical Chinese writers
Literary Chinese in Vietnam
 Sino-Xenic vocabulary
Sino-Japanese vocabulary
Sino-Korean vocabulary
Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary

Notes
a. Some sources distinguish between
Classical Chinese as strictly the
language of the ancient classics and
Literary Chinese as the classical style
of writing used throughout Chinese
history prior to the May Fourth
Movement (see "Definitions")

References
Citations …

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert;

Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017).
"Literary Chinese" . Glottolog 3.0.
Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute
for the Science of Human History.
2. Nguyễn, Tri Tài (2002). Giáo trình tiếng
Hán. Tập I: Cơ sở. Nhà xuất bản Đại
học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.
p. 5.
3. Jerry Norman (1988). Chinese.
Cambridge University Press. pp. xi, 83.
ISBN 0-521-29653-6.
4. Norman (1988), pp. 83–84, 108–109.
5. Chao, Yuen Ren (1976). Aspects of
Chinese sociolinguistics: essays by
Yuen Ren Chao . Stanford University
Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-8047-0909-5.
6. Jost Oliver Zetzsche (1999). The Bible
in China: the history of the Union
Version or the culmination of
protestant missionary Bible translation
in China . Monumenta Serica Institute.
p. 161. ISBN 3-8050-0433-8. "The term
"Wenli" (文理) was "an English word
derived from Chinese roots but never
used by the Chinese" (Yuen 1976, 25).
The original meaning is "principles of
literature (or: writing)," but by the
missionaries of the last century it was
coined to stand for classical Chinese.
For sinologues outside the missionary
circle, the term "wenli" was not
acceptable ("... what the missionaries
 persist in calling wen li, meaning
thereby the book language as opposed
to the colloquial"— Giles 1881/82,
151)."
7. http://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.
edu/
8. Baxter, William H. (1992). A Handbook
of Old Chinese Phonology. Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 802–803.
ISBN 978-3-11-012324-1.
 9. Branner, David Prager (2006). "Some
composite phonological systems in
Chinese". In Branner, David Prager
(ed.). The Chinese rime tables:
linguistic philosophy and historical-
comparative phonology. Current
Issues in Linguistic Theory. 271.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Publishing Company. pp. 209–232.
ISBN 978-90-272-4785-8.
10. Chen, Ping (1999). Modern Chinese:
history and sociolinguistics .
Cambridge University Press. pp. 173–
174 . ISBN 978-0-521-64572-0.
11. J. J. Brandt (1936). Introduction to
Literary Chinese (2nd ed.). H. Vetch.
p. 169. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
"PART III GRAMMATICAL SECTION
THE FINAL PARTICLES (歇語字
hsieh1-yü3-tzu4) The Wenli-style
abounds with so called final particles."
12. J. J. Brandt (1936). Introduction to
Literary Chinese (2nd ed.). H. Vetch.
p. 184. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
"PART III GRAMMATICAL SECTION
THE INTERROGATIVE PARTICLES The
Wen-li style particularly abounds with
the interrogative particles."
13. Tsao, Feng-fu (2000). "The language
planning situation in Taiwan". In
Baldauf, Richard B.; Kaplan, Robert B.
(eds.). Language planning in Nepal,
Taiwan, and Sweden. 115. Multilingual
Matters. pp. 60–106. ISBN 978-1-
85359-483-0. pages 75–76.
14. Cheong, Ching (2001). Will Taiwan
break away: the rise of Taiwanese
nationalism. World Scientific. p. 187.
ISBN 978-981-02-4486-6.
 15. 文部省 (1951). "第七章 国語科におけ
る漢文の学習指導". 中学校 高等学校
学習指導要領 国語科編（試案） .
Archived from the original on 2009-
12-15.

Sources …

Frederick William Baller (1912). Lessons in

elementary Wen-li . China Inland Mission.
J. J. Brandt (1936). Introduction to Literary
Chinese (2nd ed.). H. Vetch.
J. J. Brandt (1973). Wenli particles . Vetch
and Lee.
Herrlee Glessner Creel, ed. (1952). Literary
Chinese by the inductive method, Volume 2 .
University of Chicago Press.
Raymond Stanley Dawson (1984). A new
introduction to classical Chinese (2nd ed.).
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-
815460-0.
Evan Morgan (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.
Abel Rémusat (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.
External links

Wikibooks has more on the topic of:

Classical Chinese

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of:

zh:文言

Literary Chinese edition of Wikipedia,

the free encyclopedia

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

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