First, understand the origin of classical Chinese from the writing of telegrams.
Many of us have had the experience of sending telegrams. When we write telegrams, we will consciously or unconsciously use classical Chinese to write telegrams, because telegrams are charged according to the number of words, and classical Chinese can just meet our needs of expressing the most content with the least number of words. So we chose classical Chinese consciously or unconsciously. Writing in ancient times was a very expensive thing, and it would never be lower than the cost of sending a telegram today. There is a post in the ancient yamen called the history of knives and pens, which is probably equivalent to today's documents. Why is it called knife and pencil history? His job is to scrape off the words on the used bamboo slips with a knife and write something new with a pen, so that the reuse of a bamboo slip is obviously better than the new one. Nevertheless, its cost is still high, and the limited writing area makes it even more concise. If you can lose a word, you can lose a word, resulting in classical Chinese. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's writing is more expensive and more difficult, so it is simpler and more difficult to understand.
Second, look at the progress of classical Chinese from the progress of writing tools.
Since the invention of paper in the Western Han Dynasty and the improvement of Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty, writing has become more convenient and cheaper, but it is still very expensive as a writing tool for the four treasures of the study. Coupled with the continuity of cultural heritage, many classics have been formed, and this style has been maintained by future generations. However, it is not difficult to find that since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the style of writing has changed obviously, not as concise as before, but the rhetorical elements are more obvious. From then on, the expression of words is more auspicious and accurate.
After entering modern times, especially since modern times, due to the improvement of papermaking and the use of pens, the cost of writing is lower and writing is more convenient. People no longer need to worry about the increased cost of writing by writing more words, so after the May 4th Movement, a writing style with vernacular as the main body gradually formed.
After entering modern times, especially the writing method of e-books makes people more convenient, so the writing method is more auspicious, more specific and easier to understand.
Generally speaking, the formation and evolution of classical Chinese is determined by the emergence and progress of writing tools, and there is at least one important reason. The change of style is the result of natural selection from long-term production practice, so as to minimize the cost of writing, transportation and reading.
All those who study literature should study ancient prose, but do you know the origin and the earliest source of the word ancient prose? The word "ancient prose" first appeared in the preface to Historical Records Taishi Gong: "Ten years old, reciting ancient prose." Ancient Chinese here refers to ancient books copied with ancient Chinese characters. In Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi, he said: "The fifteen pieces of Da Zhuan written by Tai Wang are different from or different from ancient Chinese." This refers to ancient Chinese characters. There are two meanings: broadly speaking, it refers to the characters used by various vassal States before Xiao Zhuan. In a narrow sense, it refers to the characters in China's ancient books.
Classical Chinese is also a style name, which refers to prose written in classical Chinese. During the Six Dynasties, beautiful and decadent prose prevailed. In the early Tang Dynasty, Ang advocated carrying forward the style of Han and Wei Dynasties. In the middle Tang Dynasty, Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan strongly opposed the prevailing floating style of writing at that time, calling the prose of Qin and Han Dynasties ancient prose and advocating the "ancient prose movement". Later, ancient prose became a special term for prose, and it also became an opposite concept to current prose (such as stereotyped writing in Tang and Song Dynasties and stereotyped writing in Ming and Qing Dynasties).
Classical Chinese comes from vernacular Chinese and is characterized by writing on the basis of words, so it pays attention to allusions, antithesis and neat melody without punctuation. Before the Vernacular Movement, except for vernacular novels, all articles were written in classical Chinese, including strategies, poems, words, songs, stereotyped writing and parallel prose. The characteristics of classical Chinese are: separation of speech and writing, unchanging for a long time, concise writing, and difficult to understand ancient Austria. Advantages and Disadvantages The advantages of classical Chinese are fine word chain, implicit meaning, beautiful words and beautiful melody. Moreover, the text can be interpreted in different ways, so modern people can also read The Analects of Confucius and so on. The disadvantage of classical Chinese is that it is difficult to understand and popularize. Understanding the meaning of classical Chinese requires proper training, and writing classical Chinese is even more difficult. Therefore, after the May 4th Movement, the vernacular Chinese which emphasized "I write by hand" and "I can understand if I can understand" gradually replaced the classical Chinese. The development of modern China society is mainly based on vernacular Chinese, while classical Chinese still receives considerable attention. Classical Chinese still has a certain influence on vernacular Chinese. Many people still like to quote allusions, poems, words and couplets commonly used in China society when writing vernacular Chinese. For those who are interested in learning China literature, the training of classical Chinese is essential.
2. The reason why ancient prose is so simple is as follows:
1: There are few ancient characters.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Shuo Wen Jie Zi received 9353 words. There were even fewer loanwords in the pre-Qin period. Now we see a lot of foreign words, that is, borrowing other words without corresponding words (that is, a word "has several functions")
2. Limitations of writing tools.
First of all, there is no paper now, but it is very troublesome to repair bamboo pieces with bamboo slips and knives. Secondly, writing with a brush is far less convenient than the current writing tools.
3. Style restrictions.
The novel, the best long style, has always been regarded as a "path" and a "difficult to appeal to elegance" in feudal society. And our most common poems and songs are short, implicit and restrained.
Personally, I think of these for reference for the time being.
3. The origin of classical Chinese is always difficult for ancient people to cherish words like gold, because ancient Chinese has few words and many rare words, so it is difficult to understand; However, they are always impressed by the short and pithy sentences and profound articles of the ancients, so they often sigh with their friends: the exquisiteness of the ancient words and sentences and the wonderful dialectical theory, including extensive and profound research on astronomical phenomena, geography, mathematics, politics and military affairs, really make people feel that everything in the world is extensive. Today, it seems that we only admire research and explanation.
In particular, classical Chinese, an eloquent ancient poem, is known as "Tang poetry and Song poetry are written in Chinese", which is the common sense of literature in junior high school, that is, the literary achievements in these three periods have reached the highest level in China's history so far. Wave upon wave is the ideological achievement of a hundred schools of thought contending during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which is vividly expressed through the easy-to-understand ancient prose. Looking back, it was Yuan Zaju and novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Without exception, they all belong to the classical Chinese sequence.
So what are the remarkable characteristics of classical Chinese? One is to use simple words; Second, make good use of allusions; Third, there are many function words.
Why are these characteristics formed? As a layman, I think there are several reasons:
First, the ancients did not write on hard objects such as Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bamboo slips, but lettering, which was time-consuming, laborious and material-consuming, so try to be concise, and one word can represent two words or even a sentence. Later, silk and paper were very expensive, so this word has been preserved.
Second, because of this thrifty technique, syllable sentences are often incomplete when narrating lyricism, so function words with no practical significance are used to supplement and form complete sentences. In addition, few people were literate at that time, and scholars exchanged ideas in the language of article genre when they met, which also encouraged and developed the use of function words.
Third, the ancients sang well. Just like today's ethnic minorities still have this specialty, it is the need of cultural inheritance and one of the manifestations of cultural poverty. However, it is this characteristic of singing that makes Song Ci develop greatly. The rhythm of Song Ci is very musical, which can be heard all over the street at that time, just like the popular songs today. In fact, Fu, which is called China's essay, has gorgeous words and a strong sense of rhythm. These articles are one of the reasons why function words can last forever. The same is true of Yuan Zaju, whose function words bear the special imprint of drama. However, in Ming and Qing novels, this kind of function word "even the speaker is also" is relatively rare.
Fourthly, as for the use of allusions, this is a manifestation of the extensive knowledge of the ancients, and it is also an example of demonstrating reasoning and enhancing appeal. Of course, there is no lack of need to show off.
In fact, today's articles, especially red tape articles, should learn from the ancients. In addition to function words, we should also vigorously advocate concise words and appropriate allusions. We might as well launch a campaign of "Retro Classical Chinese" to locate the year of retro classical Chinese in a certain school year of senior high school (suitable for senior two), so that future generations can learn from the rich cultural thoughts of China ancients.
This article is quoted from:
When it comes to classical Chinese, everyone will think of the characteristics of "what" in classical Chinese. Now we have abandoned classical Chinese and used vernacular Chinese. The history of classical Chinese is thousands of years, and the history of vernacular Chinese is only one hundred years. Why classical Chinese has such a long history mainly stems from its advantages.
First, the characteristics:
1. The greatest advantage of classical Chinese is "conciseness". A story can be finished in a few words, but it is different in vernacular Chinese, which requires a lot of words.
2. Separate words from words. Language will change with the changes of the times, so if language and writing are consistent, after hundreds of years, language has changed, and what people wrote in the past, you will definitely not understand. Westerners don't have the tool of classical Chinese. Like Europe, Latin is their ancient script, and it is also Sanskrit in India. Few modern people can understand it. Only a few archaeologists and experts can understand some of them, and they can't fully understand it. After the changes of the times, the disadvantages brought by the synchronization of language and characters have been exposed.
Classical Chinese has no punctuation, so we have to use "whatever it is" instead. It's a bit like too many auxiliary words in Japanese.
Second, the reason for brevity is mainly because writing was slow and slow at that time:
1. At that time, it was a traditional Chinese character, and writing was very slow. Writing words slowly will only make sentences shorter.
At that time, writing with a brush or even carving with a knife was far less skilled than using a pen and ballpoint pen now.
3. The original words were mainly written on tortoise shells, shells, metals, stones, fabrics, bamboo slips and other bulky or valuable things. Not too much, or you can't move.
4. The origin of classical Chinese comes from classical Chinese, which is characterized by writing on the basis of words, so it pays attention to the use of allusions, antithesis, neat rhythm and no punctuation. Before the "vernacular movement", all articles except novels were written in classical Chinese, including strategies, poems, words, songs, stereotyped writing and so on.
trait
The characteristics of classical Chinese are: separation of speech and writing, unchanging for a long time, concise writing, and difficult to understand ancient Austria.
merits and demerits
The advantage of classical Chinese lies in its fine word chain, implicit meaning, beautiful words and beautiful melody. Moreover, the text can be interpreted in different ways, so modern people can also read The Analects of Confucius and so on.
The disadvantage of classical Chinese is that it is difficult to understand and popularize. Understanding the meaning of classical Chinese requires proper training, and writing classical Chinese is even more difficult. Therefore, after the May 4th Movement, the vernacular Chinese which emphasized "I write by hand" and "I can understand if I can understand" gradually replaced the classical Chinese.
develop
Modern China society is dominated by vernacular writing, while classical Chinese still receives considerable attention. Classical Chinese still has a certain influence on vernacular Chinese. Many people still like to quote allusions, poems, words and couplets commonly used in China society when writing in vernacular Chinese. For those who are interested in learning China literature, the training of classical Chinese is essential.
5. Simple classical Chinese "shǒu zh daàI tù" Interpretation: Metaphor is clinging to narrow experience, not knowing how to change, or thinking about getting something for nothing by luck.
In Han Fei's Note to Han Fei in the Pre-Qin Dynasty: "There were plowmen in the Song Dynasty, plants in the fields, and rabbits died when they hit the column and broke their necks." Method linkage; As objects and attributes; Feng Menglong's ancient and modern novel "Yangba Lao Yue Guo" Qi Feng: "Is it a good idea for me to keep a house diligently?" Synonym carving a boat for a sword, sticking to the rules and enjoying it; Antonym Tongda contingency lantern riddle Liu Dian Song State-owned farmer was digging the ground.
Suddenly, he saw a rabbit running out of the grass beside him in a panic, hitting a stump by the field and lying there motionless. The farmer went over and saw that the rabbit was dead.
It broke its neck because it ran too fast. The farmer was very happy and picked up a fat and big rabbit effortlessly.
He thought; If rabbits can be found every day, life will be easier. Since then, he has never tried farming again.
He put his hoe beside him every day and lay in front of the stump, waiting for the second and third rabbits to hit the stump by themselves. There are so many cheap things in the world.
Of course, the farmer didn't pick up the killed hare again, but his field was deserted. [Tip] This is a well-known fable.
Rabbit suicide on the stump is an accidental phenomenon in life. However, farmers in Song Dynasty mistakenly thought it was a frequent and inevitable phenomenon, and ended up in a rural wasteland with nothing.
Luck rather than hard work will not lead to good results. We can't be fools waiting for him.
[Original] Song people have plowmen. There was a plant in the field. When the rabbit touched the plant, its neck broke and it died.
Stand by and let the plants out and save the rabbit. Rabbits can't recover, but as Song said.
Once upon a time, there was a farmer in Song State who had a stump in his field. One day, a rabbit running fast ran into a stump, broke its neck and died.
From then on, the farmer gave up farming and waited by the stump every day, hoping to get another rabbit. Of course, the rabbit didn't wait, but he himself became the laughing stock of Song State.
【 Note 】 ① The roots and stems of plants are exposed on the ground. (2) go-run, escape.
(3) class-ancient agricultural tools, similar in shape. (4) Ji-hope.
(5) As a small fruit of the Song people, it was laughed at by the Song people.