What is the meaning of "literary language"? What are the characteristics of the literary language?

WenYanWen is relative to "vernacular language".

The first word "literature" means written text. The first "Wen" is the meaning of a written text. "Wenyin", that is, written language, "Wenyin" is relative to the "oral language", "oral language" also called "vernacular". The last "文", is the meaning of works, articles, etc., indicating the type of writing.

"Literary language" means "writing in written language". And "vernacular language" means: "written in the commonly used verbal language".

The vernacular language

In ancient China, to express the same thing, the oral language and the written language to express, is different, for example, want to ask someone whether the meal, with the oral language, is "dinner? For example, if you want to ask someone if they have eaten, in oral language, it is "Have you eaten?", and in written language, it is "Have you eaten?". In verbal language, it is "Have you eaten? The word "饭否" is a literary expression. In the ancient times of our country, all articles were written in written language. Therefore, now we generally refer to the ancient language as "literary language"

Chinese literary language is the treasure of Chinese culture, the ancients left us a large number of literary language, in the country, the secondary school language program, the study of the literary language is a large part of the weight.