Knowledge of Ancient Chinese

Ancient Chinese as a real study began in the Han Dynasty. China's traditional linguistics includes philology, phonetics, and exegesis, collectively known as "elementary school". The study of ancient Chinese is also divided into three stages: the semantic study stage, the phonological study stage, and the comprehensive development stage. From the beginning of the Han Dynasty to the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was the stage of semantic study, i.e., the study of textual exegesis was emphasized, and the representative works were the Book of Songs and the Book of Rites. From the Northern and Southern Dynasties to the end of the Ming Dynasty was the stage of phonetic research, represented by Shen Yao's "Four Sound Spectrum" in the Southern Dynasty, Lu Fayan's "Cutting Rhymes" in the Sui Dynasty, and Zhou Deqing's "Central Plains Phonetic Rhyme" in the Yuan Dynasty. From the 17th to 19th century is the stage of comprehensive development of the study of ancient Chinese, Chinese ancient sound and ancient meaning of the study of many inventions, at this time, the ancient sound, especially the ancient rhyme study, get unprecedented development, also appeared a number of Chinese scholar.

There is a boundary between ancient Chinese and modern Chinese. Generally speaking, the "May 4th" period is regarded as the boundary between ancient Chinese and modern Chinese. The ancient Chinese language has a long history, until the May Fourth Movement, the literary language gradually withdrew from the stage of history, was replaced by the modern vernacular language. There is a clear difference between ancient Chinese and modern Chinese. In the past, it was only considered as the difference between traditional and simplified Chinese characters, but after studying, the difference between ancient Chinese and modern Chinese is not only reflected in the writing style, but also in the pronunciation. The writing style of ancient Chinese is more clear. For example, the word "Han" was written as "汉", which is the name of water. Mountain is the birthplace of Yangshui, and the water flows eastward to Hanzhong City, which is Hanshui. In the historical process of the development of the ancient Chinese language, a large number of outstanding literary works emerged. The pre-Qin Poetry Classic and Chu Rhetoric, and the Tang Poetry and Song Lyrics and Yuan Qu Quotations promoted and reflected the development of the ancient Chinese language. The grammatical structure of ancient Chinese is also different from that of modern Chinese. These differences we discovered when we studied the literary language in secondary school.

In fact, the penetration of ancient literature in life can be seen everywhere. To take the most common example, the singer Jay Chou, whom we are familiar with, has Chinese-style songs that are invariably filled with the flavor of ancient literature. "The sky is green waiting for the smoke and rain, while I'm waiting for you. Cooking smoke rises, ten million miles across the river?" It is like a misty rain, and in the breeze it is like a mountain spring and stream quietly flowing on the stone, clear and bright and winding back and forth. Water and clouds sprouting between the vaguely visible Yi Yi white dresses and skirts flying. Just like that "self-care beautiful" celadon superb, washed out, simple and elegant, fresh and smooth.

This is the ancient literature to give it a timeless charm. There is also the recent rise of the national hot, in fact, is also the ancient Chinese literature hot. The well-known Hundred Schools of Lecture Theatre, Yu Dan's Analects of Confucius, Yi Zhongtian's Three Kingdoms, and Liu Xinwu's Red Mansions are not only about a single literary work, but also about our ancient literature.

Every ancient Chinese character carries an interesting meaning. For the simplification of Chinese characters, some say it is because it is conducive to the better preservation and transmission of traditional culture; the simplification of Chinese characters reduces the difficulty of learning Chinese characters, which is a great contribution to the understanding and transmission of traditional culture. But on the other hand, we have lost the original meaning of Chinese characters. As part of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, Chinese characters are a culture in themselves, carrying an important carrier of China's profound classical culture, which is both a culture in itself and a way of spreading culture. Therefore, I think it is very necessary to learn and pass on ancient Chinese characters.