Please refer to the following:
Vernacular Chinese
Vernacular Chinese (also known as vernacular Chinese) refers to the processed written language based on modern spoken Chinese. Vernacular literature also has a long history in ancient times. There were vernacular scripts in the Song Dynasty. There were also some vernacular novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as Plum in the Plum Blossom, Water Margin, Journey to the West, Dream of Red Mansions, etc., but they were only in ancient vernacular, and vernacular works were in the ancient literary world. Only a minority, classical Chinese was still the mainstream at that time. After the May 4th New Culture Movement in 1919, vernacular Chinese replaced classical Chinese and became the mainstream of writing, causing classical Chinese to slowly withdraw from the stage of history.
Vernacular Chinese is relative to classical Chinese. The stylistic reform that began in the late Qing Dynasty can be divided into three stages: "new style", "vernacular style" and "popular language".
"Diary of a Madman" is China's first vernacular novel; the Union Version of the Bible is the first vernacular translation.
Detailed information——
"Vernacular" refers to "a type of written Chinese language. It was formed on the basis of spoken language since the Tang and Song Dynasties, and was initially only used in popular literary works , such as the Bianwen of the Tang Dynasty, the scripts and novels of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and some academic works and official documents after the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it was not until the May 4th New Culture Movement that it was widely used in the whole society. ” ⑴ Vernacular Chinese is a written style based on pre-Qin spoken language, regarding Qin and Han classics as a paradigm, and formed with the continuous strengthening of mainstream feudal ideology. Linguistic writing.
The origin of "vernacular writing" can generally be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. Some researchers of Dunhuang historical materials "basically admit that Bianwen is a kind of (vernacular) literature and agree that Bianwen is the beginning of popular (vernacular) novels." ⑵ Hu Shi said, "From the early Tang Dynasty to the late Tang Dynasty, it was a history that gradually became vernacular. The new historical materials in Dunhuang gave me countless supporting evidence." ⑶ In order to establish the status of "vernacular Chinese" as an authentic written language, he tried his best to find "historical in accordance with". Therefore, in his view, "vernacular literature" is an extremely broad concept. It refers to "folk literature" and "civilian literature" in the form of ballads, quotations, playing and singing, as opposed to "official literature" and "temple literature". A hundred years ago, there were people writing in vernacular; a thousand years ago, there were many poets writing poems and lyrics in vernacular..." ⑷ In a word, in Hu Shi's view, every dynasty has "vernacular literature" "The history of Chinese literature is a vernacular history." Zhou Zuoren believed that "the current ideas of using vernacular Chinese are only endogenous to the ideas of people in the late Ming Dynasty." ⑸ In the first "Gong'an School Literature" discussion, many scholars believed that "the Gong'an School's admiration of vernacular literature can be regarded as the 'Fifth Five-Year Plan'" "Four 'Precursors of New Literature'"⑹ Generally speaking, we believe that the period from the Northern Song Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty is an important stage for the latent, gaining momentum and development of "vernacular literature". His novels include "Water Margin", "Jin Ping Mei" and so on.
The emergence of "vernacular" as a "slogan" and "terminology" is closely related to the vernacular movement in the late Qing Dynasty. Huang Zunxian, the forerunner of the "New Poetry School", proposed that "I write with my hand and speak with my mouth, how can I be restrained by ancient times"; Liang Qichao, Xia Zengyou, and Tan Sitong advocated "revolution in the poetry world"; Liu Yazi, the leader of Nanshe Society, presided over the "Autonomous Vernacular Newspaper", and the articles were written in vernacular. host. During this period, “Qiu Tingliang and others called for the promotion of vernacular literature.” ⑺In 1887, the supplement to Shenbao, the earliest vernacular newspaper in modern times, appeared. “According to the information available today, there were 140 vernacular newspapers and magazines in the last ten years or so of the late Qing Dynasty.” ⑻ The late Qing vernacular movement was the forerunner of the “May 4th” vernacular movement, but its nature was different from that of the “May 4th” vernacular movement. ” vernacular movement. It still belongs to the category of ancient vernacular. "The vernacular literature in the late Qing Dynasty is different from the current vernacular literature. It is not vernacular literature. It is just because of the reform, to make ordinary people recognize some words, read newspapers, and understand the national politics, so I think writing articles in vernacular can get a lot of benefits. "Vernacular Chinese is a style of modern Chinese literature." Category is a literary phenomenon that is different from writing articles in "vernacular". It eventually replaced classical Chinese as the main form of written expression and was the vernacular movement of the "May Fourth Movement". In January 1917, Hu Shi published "A Preliminary Opinion on Literary Reform" in "New Youth", proposing the "Eight Nos" and advocating "living literature", which was the origin of the entire vernacular movement. In December of the same year, Chen Duxiu published "On Literary Revolution" in "New Youth" and proposed the "three major doctrines" to echo it. Subsequently, Hu Shi published articles such as "On the Literary Concept of History" and "On the Literary Revolution of Construction", proposing that "composing poetry is like composing" and "one era has its own literature." During this period, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Liu Bannong, Qian Xuandong all wrote articles to explain their views on the "literary revolution". As the initiator of the vernacular literature movement, Hu Shi was well versed in the relationship between ideological content and literary form. “I also know that vernacular literature cannot be considered new literature, and I also know that new literature must have new ideas and new spirit.”⑾ But this is limited to traditional concepts. Due to the long history and complex objective conditions, he emphasized the opposition and division between vernacular and classical Chinese, and spared no effort to advocate the instrumentality of "vernacular". “‘Vernacular Literary Tools’ is a new invention developed by a few of our young students in America for more than a year.
"Compared with Hu Shi's radical, paranoid, and decisive attitude, Zhou Zuoren was slightly calmer. While emphasizing the reform of writing, he also paid more attention to the reform and transformation of ideas. Otherwise, even though he used vernacular "ideas are still absurd and harmful," There is no strict boundary between ancient Chinese and vernacular, so life and death are indistinguishable. "⒀Liu Bannong also believed that classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese "each have their own strengths, but each has their own differences." "In January 1920, according to an order issued by the Ministry of Education at that time, Chinese language classes in all grades of national schools also uniformly used Chinese language (vernacular Chinese). ). ” ⒁ This marked the initial victory of the “May 4th” vernacular movement, but “vernacular” also faced serious problems internally: the lack of aesthetic connotation; the separation of ideological content and written expression. Hu Shi had long been aware of this, “If in the future Literati cannot create vernacular literature for the May Fourth Movement that can be handed down from generation to generation...it will never be able to convince the ancient writers." ⒂ In this regard, the vernacular novel "Diary of a Madman", the collection of poems "An Attempt Collection", and Zhou Zuoren's "Beautiful Essays" series , "Bing Xin Style" novels all have pioneering or foundational significance. In the first decade of new literature, vernacular written language creation was launched in various genres, and the most controversial one was vernacular poetry (new poetry). ). Hu Shi's creation broke the rhythm of traditional poetry, but brought a "non-poetic" tendency; Guo Moruo's "Goddess" can pay more attention to the rules of poetry itself (especially imagery); the Creation of the Crescent School is the first two The backlash of poetry made poetry "standardized" and established the modern aesthetic principles of vernacular poetry in the connection between "new" and "old".
Looking at the "May 4th" vernacular movement, it widely absorbed it. Taking advantage of Western lexical resources and grammatical structures, this movement spread across multiple levels of language, writing, and thought. This movement was not just a “self-contained change within language,” but was closely linked to the innovation of the entire mindset and the national modernization movement. The competition with "classical Chinese" is, to a large extent, a collision between two different value systems and social ideologies.
"Vernacular Chinese" is closely related to popular spoken language. "Popular Chinese is not a separate language besides vernacular. A special language, "popularization", is the ability to make the vernacular understandable to the greatest number of people. ” ⒃ Lu Xun believed that “the purpose of advocating popular language is to create a ‘more accessible vernacular’” ⒄ Some commentators believe that the vernacular movement is the prelude to the popular movement; in fact, the conceptual connotations of the two are different, and “vernacular literature” cannot be blindly regarded as Movement" is equivalent to "popularization". In addition, the vernacular movement was also the theoretical starting point for "popular literature and art" during the Leftist League in the 1930s and "literature and art serving the public" in the liberated areas in the 1940s. The latter was an extension and highlight of the former, and at the same time it What comes is the narrowing of the conceptual connotation. After "vernacular literature" was established as a category of modern literature, there are still some debates and interpretations to this day, mainly focusing on the "reflection" level, such as Qian Gurong's "Reflections on Vernacular Literature" and so on.
Note:
⑴ "Chinese Dictionary" edited by Luo Zhufeng, Chinese Dictionary Press, first edition, December 1990, Volume 8, page 203.
< p>⑵Sun Buzhong "Vernacular Novels in Dunhuang Scrolls Are the Origin of Chinese Vernacular Novels", "Dunhuang Studies" Issue 3, 1999⑶ Hu Shi "History of Vernacular Literature - Preface" Yuelu Publishing House, 1985. Photocopied in December, page 10.
⑷Hu Shi's "History of Vernacular Literature - Introduction", photocopied by Yuelu Publishing House in December 1985, page 2.
⑸Zhou Zuoren's "New Chinese Literature". "The Origin", first edition published by Shanghai Bookstore in February 1988, page 102
⑹ "Wenhui Daily" (Shanghai) June 18, 1987
⑺Qian. Li Qun, "Thirty Years of Modern Chinese Literature", Peking University Press, 1st edition, July 1998, page 3
⑻ Chen Wanxiong, "The Origin of the May Fourth New Culture", Sanlian Bookstore, 1997. Page 1, Beijing, page 134.
⑼, ⑽ Same as ⑸, pages 96-97
⑾, ⑿ "Chinese New Literature Series - Construction Theory Collection", Photocopied by Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House in September 1981, page 19 of "Introduction"
Same as ⑸ pages 103-104
Same as ⑺ page 11. >
⒂ Same as ⑾ and ⑿, page 58.
⒃, ⒄ See "Hu Shi's Academic Works - General Preface" edited by Jiang Yihua, first edition of Zhonghua Book Company, 1993, page 18.