Chinese, Classical

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Chinese, Classical

Classical Chinese refers to the language of canonical literature and formal documents in China before the twentieth century. In the early twentieth century, language reforms were instituted so that writing was no longer carried out in the classical language, which was understood only by an educated elite, but instead was rendered in an approximation of the modern northern vernacular.

When trying to give a formal definition of classical Chinese, linguists tend to resort to one of two strategies: the first is to treat classical Chinese as all that is not in the vernacular—definition by default; the second is to try to pinpoint the historical period out of which classical Chinese developed and to state that classical Chinese consists of literary traditions that grew out of the speech habits of a particular time and place.

The Classical/Vernacular Divide

When stating that classical Chinese (wenyanwen) is the logical complement of vernacular Chinese (baihuawen), it is natural to ask where we draw the line and what criteria we are using. Criteria that have traditionally been used to distinguish classical and vernacular Chinese include:

1. Intelligibility: Is it readily understood by the average native speaker? Or is it language that only the educated elite can understand?
2. Spoken versus written mode: Is it more like natural speech or more like stylized writing?
3. Time depth: When we talk about "natural speech" and "average native speaker," are we using contemporary people as a point of reference (modern audience), or are we referring to people at the time the work was written (historical audience)?

Let us first look at the intelligibility criterion.

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