Classical Chinese is an article composed of written Chinese language in ancient China, which was used by Han people before the May 4th Movement. It mainly includes written language based on spoken language in pre-Qin period. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, bamboo slips, silk books and other things were used to record characters. With the change of history and the evolution of spoken language, the difference between classical Chinese and spoken language has gradually expanded, and "classical Chinese" has become the exclusive language of scholars.

Classical Chinese is relative to the vernacular Chinese after the New Culture Movement, and there was no such thing as classical Chinese in ancient times. It is characterized by paying attention to the use of allusions, parallel prose and neat melody, including strategies, poems, words, songs, stereotyped writing, parallel prose and other styles. After the modification of literati in past dynasties, it became more and more flashy. Han Yu, a great writer in the Tang Dynasty, initiated the "ancient prose movement" and advocated returning to popular ancient prose. The classical Chinese in modern books are generally marked with punctuation marks in order to facilitate reading and understanding.