Did ancient people communicate in classical Chinese? How did vernacular Chinese rise?

Classical Chinese is spoken in the way of classical Chinese at the beginning of mankind. With the development, classical Chinese has gradually replaced vernacular Chinese, and this course is very difficult.

pre-Qin period

In the pre-Qin period, people's spoken language was basically consistent with classical Chinese, which was different from the disyllabic words that people say now. At that time, monosyllabic words accounted for a large proportion, such as The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and Chunqiu, which were almost all records of people's spoken language at that time. Isn't it fun to study from time to time? ? Fish, what I want; Bear's paw, what do I want? People at that time all spoke in such a tone.

What was written at that time was very conservative, and the records in classical Chinese represented the beginning of Confucian culture. If Confucianism wants to determine its position and the significance of writing to cultural records, classical Chinese and spoken Chinese begin to enter a dual-track development period, and classical Chinese and spoken Chinese coexist.

The gap between Han Dynasty and Han Dynasty widened.

In the Han dynasty, there was an obvious gap between spoken vernacular and classical Chinese. China's first dialect book is Yang Xiong's Xuan Di Shi Bie Dialect.

Although classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese developed at the same time. However, the development speed of classical Chinese will never be comparable to that of vernacular Chinese. However, what is recorded in the book is still classical Chinese, so the research on ancient historical vernacular is still very few.

The vernacular Chinese appeared in the Tang Dynasty and was thoroughly used in the Song Dynasty.

In the Tang dynasty, most people in the Tang dynasty used vernacular Chinese. Thanks to Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty. After all, Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty was believed by those who had no culture. In order to spread Buddhism, they can only use vernacular Chinese.

In the Song Dynasty, it almost directly derailed from classical Chinese. Even great poets and people with literary talent cannot express their words in classical Chinese.

Lu Song's Xuan Qu Lu describes such a story:

Chen, who lives in Yanzhou, never returns. My nephew went to America. Aunt Chen ordered her son to send a letter on her behalf, because she dictated a cloud: If you are not as good as your son, make good use of it and buy a pair of scissors to cut the bones on your feet. ?

Buy a pair of scissors for your child and cut off the crusts and calluses on your feet. ) Da Cong hesitated to write. Aunt Xiaoyun:? Yuan lai, this fellow can't read either!

The May 4th Movement of the Republic of China completely replaced classical Chinese.

The dual-track development of written language and spoken language, and the opposition between classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese did not end until the May 4th New Culture Movement.

What does Hu Shi advocate in the Improvement of Literature? Do not imitate the ancients? Don't avoid common sayings? Wait, blow? The vernacular movement? Horn, finally let the vernacular instead of classical Chinese, has become the written language of the Chinese nation.

In fact, classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese have been developing. Only in the first human beings were events described in classical Chinese. After all, language needs to be cultivated, and it can't be done overnight. After thousands of years of development, the vernacular we are using now has finally replaced the classical Chinese, which is easier for everyone to understand and remember.