The ancient Mandarin is very different from our current Mandarin, not only in pronunciation, but also in the composition and meaning of words.
Literary works in the pre-Qin period are very concise. For example, the Spring and Autumn Annals recorded the history of Lu for 300 years, but it was only 18,000 words. The skills of classical Chinese are in the hands of literati, and the literacy rate in ancient times was mostly below 10%, which was about 2% in the pre-Qin period. Most ordinary people don't understand classical Chinese at all, and they have to talk and communicate without classical Chinese, using the vernacular at that time.
Later, oral English changed and gradually disappeared from daily life, becoming a style dedicated to writing. In the Tang dynasty, it became popular when the style of writing was mixed, so vernacular Chinese began to gradually enter literary works. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the text in this novel was already relatively white.
From the Western Jin Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, due to the multi-ethnic rule in the north, the southern Han nationality and ethnic minorities lived together, and the accent of China people began to change, especially the language of the northerners began to be Hu Huayu. When the Sui and Tang Dynasties were unified, although their language was still classical Chinese, it was very difficult to learn it.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the pronunciation of ancient Chinese was very small, and there was little difference in grammar. The written language of the literati in this period was still classical Chinese, which was as difficult as it is now, but the literati at the bottom began to write in vernacular Chinese, which is a typical ancient vernacular Chinese.
Extended data:
19 17 1 Hu Shi published "My humble opinion on literary improvement" in New Youth, proposing "eight noes" and advocating "living literature", which is the origin of the whole vernacular movement. In 65438+February of the same year, Chen Duxiu published "On Literary Revolution" in "New Youth" and proposed "Three Cardinals" to echo it.
1920 65438+ 10, according to the decree issued by the Ministry of Education at that time, Chinese classes were also taught in schools all over the country.
Baidu encyclopedia-vernacular Chinese
Baidu encyclopedia-classical Chinese