This "revolution" directly "revolutionized" the hard work of "classical Chinese" rooted in China for thousands of years, and the vernacular Chinese washed away the long-term "mistress status" of culture, and black powder appeared. At this point, the whole Chinese nation seems to be immersed in a carefree state of getting rid of the shackles of feudal culture. In fact, the dispute between classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese has a long history. New Youth is just one of the battles to rewrite the situation. What happened before New Youth? Why should New Youth be rewritten? How did it evolve afterwards? We might as well start from the beginning-1,the historical dispute between classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese, both of which are written in different ways.
Vernacular, white is spoken, and Chinese is spoken, which roughly means spoken language. "[1] The only difference between them is their closeness to spoken English.
In fact, both classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese are based on spoken language, but the so-called spoken language standards are different. Classical Chinese is the written language of ancient Chinese based on spoken language in the pre-Qin period, while vernacular Chinese is based on northern dialects since the Tang and Song Dynasties. What we are talking about now is developed on the basis of northern dialects since the Tang and Song Dynasties. No wonder we find vernacular Chinese easier to understand.
An important reason why "classical Chinese" was overthrown 90 years ago was that "the separation of language and writing hindered social progress". Here we need to discuss the emergence of this phenomenon from a historical perspective.
In the initial stage of the development of Chinese, language and writing were integrated, and those ancient Chinese classics that now make people feel abstruse and obscure were actually vernacular works at that time. For example, in the Book of Songs, we know that "wind" is mostly folk songs, and it is certain that many of them are written directly with the mouth.
Another example is the Analects of Confucius, which is a quotation of Confucius, and its relationship with spoken language is self-evident. Due to the historical changes, people's spoken language has changed in daily communication, but the written language has remained unchanged, so that since the Six Dynasties, there have been obvious signs of separation between classical Chinese and spoken language.
However, because Chinese characters belong to ideographic characters, the difference in pronunciation does not hinder people's understanding in reading, so the inconsistency between language and writing has not attracted enough attention. At the same time, because the ancient books of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties were written in classical Chinese, and these works were the source of China culture, later generations of scholars consciously insisted on an archaized writing method, which artificially aggravated the inconsistency between words and characters, and finally formed the long-term inconsistency between China words and characters.
During this period, vernacular Chinese actually showed its existence everywhere. From Shi Shuo Xin Yu and Yan Jia Xun to Dunhuang Bianwen, Tang and Song quotations, Song and Yuan plays, Ming and Qing novels, a large number of vernacular works have been produced in every dynasty and generation. Unfortunately, it failed to shake the dominant position of classical Chinese, and most of them can only be seen in the folk. Although aggrieved, they can't escape the fate of Fannie and Freddie.
[2] All this was not reversed until the late Qing Dynasty. At that time, the national situation was not good, and China people first wavered in their cultural self-confidence, which was the premise and fundamental reason for the cultural changes in China in the future.
It is this mentality that makes China people put tradition in the dock for the first time and count its crimes. As the main carrier of traditional culture, classical Chinese is bound to bear the brunt of the impact [3]. So Huang Zunxian wanted to "write my mouth by hand", while Qiu advocated "respecting vernacular Chinese and abandoning classical Chinese", which started the vernacular movement.
19 17 the new culture movement and the vernacular movement were pushed to the extreme. In June, 5438+in the same year 10, Hu Shi published "My humble opinion on literary improvement" in New Youth, arguing that "vernacular literature is the authentic literature of China", advocating the use of vernacular instead of classical Chinese, and proposing that writing articles should be fluent, free from allusions, rhetoric, antithesis and common sayings, pay attention to grammar, and have substance in words.
Chen Duxiu also published "On Literary Revolution" in February, echoing Hu Shi's "Eight Propositions" with "Three Principles". This tandem can be said to have really opened the curtain of this vigorous Cultural Revolution.
19 18 all the articles in "new youth" were written in vernacular Chinese, and then various vernacular magazines such as trendy and weekly review were published like mushrooms after rain, and vernacular Chinese became a common practice. 1920 In September, the Ministry of Education ordered schools across the country to use Putonghua for one or two years from this fall.
At this point, the vernacular Chinese has achieved an officially recognized legal status. Looking back on this period of history, I always feel that the situation of the thousand-year dispute between classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese has suddenly turned around. For thousands of years, the authentic status of classical Chinese seems to be subverted overnight, and the classical Chinese, once a status symbol, seems to be a remnant of feudal culture overnight, which is the chief culprit hindering national progress.
The vernacular Chinese, honed for thousands of years, finally got rid of the shadow of "Fannie and Freddie" and stood in the center of China cultural stage. Although the pace of going to this center is a little hasty and lost, it is a positive result after all. What caused the Millennium Campaign to rewrite the situation in a hurry? 2. In the New Culture Movement, classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese were defeated in the New Culture Movement. The reasons are as follows: (1) China people's sense of crisis. The reason why classical Chinese can last for thousands of years is, to some extent, because the Chinese nation has flourished in the world for thousands of years.
This prosperity has created China people's admiration and trust for China traditional culture with classical Chinese as the carrier. However, after the late Qing Dynasty, the national strength gradually declined, and the self-confidence of the once proud China people was shaken, the first of which was the cultural self-confidence.
I couldn't figure out the reason of "sudden weakness", so I put all my grievances on tradition. Driven by this mentality, tradition is no longer regarded as a treasure, but has become the object of attack. As the main carrier of traditional culture, classical Chinese is bound to bear the brunt of the impact.
It can be said that the darkness of society, the peril of the nation and the weakness of the country have created the crisis consciousness of that generation, and the irrationalization of this crisis consciousness has formed the so-called concept, that is, "cultural backwardness." The formation of this concept inspired Huang Zunxian to "write my mouth by hand", while Qiu claimed to "worship vernacular Chinese".