What is the difference between classical Chinese novels and vernacular novels, and what is the boundary?

The authors are all intellectuals or officials; The content is not read with classic rumors, chores or folk stories; There are exaggerated, figurative, that is, fictional, and the form is mostly small words, that is, short stories: language is language, that is, classical Chinese.

For example: looking for God, stories about the world, Tang legends, stories about cutting lights and lonely studios.

2. Vernacular novels:

A form of Han literature originated in the Tang Dynasty. China's vernacular novels used to be Han folk stories, so-called "gossip". In the long history of the development of ancient Han literature, novels have experienced constant enrichment and expansion. In the Song Dynasty, this stage was basically mature and stereotyped, and it was not until the Ming Dynasty that it ushered in real prosperity and became a major literary system comparable to lyric literature.

Examples: Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Yu Shiming's words on Journey to the West, words of warning, words of awakening, one-second surprise, The Scholars and A Dream of Red Mansions.

3. Distinguish boundaries:

Classical Chinese novels refer to "articles written in written language"; Vernacular novels are: "articles written in plain spoken language."

4. The relationship between the two:

Classical Chinese novels and vernacular novels, their origins are elegance and vulgarity respectively, but they go in opposite directions. Classical Chinese novels approach vulgarity, while vernacular novels approach elegance. Elegant and popular reached a compromise within the scope of the novel. "Ya" accepted the vernacular and admitted "fiction"; "Custom" undertakes the mission of "education". In other words, "elegance" gives up the principles of "elegance" and "recording", and "vulgarity" gives up the only purpose of entertainment. It is an important milestone for the novel art to mature to appeal to both refined and popular tastes.

The source of China's novels can be divided into refined and popular. The Scholars is a classic novel of China, which degenerated from historical biography. What is popular is the vernacular novel, which is transformed from the folk art of "speaking". In the development of classical Chinese novels and vernacular novels, elegance and vulgarity form two poles, and classical Chinese novels are attracted by vulgarity and constantly absorb vulgar elements, showing a trend of gradual vulgarization; Vernacular novels, on the other hand, are attracted by elegance and vulgarity, constantly absorbing the elements of elegance and vulgarity, showing a trend of gradual elegance. The appeal to both refined and popular tastes is one of the important symbols of the novel's achievements.