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Vernacular Chinese (白话 [白話]; in pinyin: báihuà, literal meaning: "Plain Language") is a style of written Chinese which is based on Standard Mandarin. Vernacular Chinese stands in contrast with Classical Chinese (文言 wényán), which is based on Old Chinese, the language used in texts such as The Mencius , Analects of Confucius, and the Tao Te Ching. Although Vernacular Chinese is based on Mandarin, it has been the written standard for speakers of all varieties of Chinese spoken language since the early twentieth century.During the Zhou Dynasty, Old Chinese was the spoken and written form of Chinese, and was used to write classical Chinese texts. Starting from the Qin Dynasty, however, spoken Chinese began to evolve away from the written standard, and the written standard, still based on the language of the Zhou Dynasty, was codified and fossilized into Classical Chinese, even while spoken Chinese evolved further and further away. The difference gradually grew larger with the passage of time. By the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, people began to write in their vernacular dialects in the form of bianwen (变文 [變文] biànwén, "altered language") and yulu (语录 [語錄] yǔlù, "language record"). During the Ming and Qing dynasties, vernacular dialects began to be used in novels, but was not generally used in formal writing, which continued to use Classical Chinese.
Jin ShengtanJin Shengtan (, pinyin: Jin Shengtan) ( 1608- 1661) was a Chinese editor, writer and critic, who has been called the champion of the bai hua (vernacular) Chinese literature. He was considered an eccentric and fixed what he called the Six Works of Genius :, who edited several novels in vernacular Chinese, is widely regarded as the champion of literature in the vernacular style. However, it was not until after the May Fourth MovementThe May Fourth Movement ( W-si Yundong) was one of the famous anti-foreign movements in China. Some scholars call it "the Chinese Enlightenment. Taking place on May 4, 1919, it marked the beginning of the upsurge of nationalist feeling, with unity of purp in 1919Events January January 1 Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company January 5 Spartacist uprising Socialist demonstrations in Berlin turn into attempted communist revolution with Spartacist League in the forefront January 9 Spartacus and the promotion by scholars such as Hu Shi, Lu XunLu Xun ( Chinese: , pinyin: L Xun) or Lu Hsun ( September 25, 1881 October 19, 1936), is often considered the founder of modern baihua (, "vernacular") Chinese literature. He was also a noted translator. Born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, Lu Xun was bor, Chen Duxiu, and Qian Xuantong that Vernacular Chinese gained importance. Classical Chinese became increasingly viewed as an archaic fossil that hindered education and literacy, and Vernacular Chinese became viewed as mainstream by most people. Along with the popularity of the vernacular language in books are the addition of punctuations (traditional Chinese literature was entirely unpunctuated) and writing numbers in the Arabic style.
Since the late 1920s, all Chinese newspapers, books, and official and legal documents have been written in Vernacular Chinese. However, the tone and the choice of vocabulary may be formal or informal, depending on the context. The more formal the Vernacular Chinese is, the greater resemblance it bears to Classical Chinese. It is however very rare for a text to be written in predominantly Classical Chinese.
See Chinese grammar for the grammar of the modern standard written language, which is Vernacular Chinese.
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