Classical Chinese
| Classical Chinese | |
|---|---|
| Literary Chinese | |
| 古文 or 文言 | |
| Region | China, Ryukyu, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam |
| Era | 5th century BC to 2nd century AD; continued as a literary language until the 20th century |
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Sino-Tibetan
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| Chinese | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | lite1248 |
| Linguasphere | 79-AAA-aa |
| Classical Chinese | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 文言文 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Literal meaning | "literary language writing" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | wényán wén |
| 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 |
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese, 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. 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.
Literary Chinese is known as kanbun in Japanese, hanmun in Korean (but see also gugyeol), and cổ văn (古文) or văn ngôn (文言) in Vietnamese.
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 (220 AD), 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). 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.
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