Classical Chinese

Overview

Classical Chinese (wenyan 文言, or "literary Chinese") designates the literary written language developed on the basis of the spoken Chinese of the late Eastern Zhou period (ca. 6th–3rd century BCE). It constitutes the language of the Confucian "classics" (jing 經), of the philosophical schools of the Hundred Schools of Thought, of the great historical chronicles, and, by prescriptive extension, of nearly all lettered prose of East Asia until the early 20th century. It is a dead language in the strict sense—no one has it as a mother tongue and its oral basis disappeared more than two millennia ago—but it has never ceased to be read, written, and taught: it is a fully deciphered and perfectly documented language of culture. Three strata must be distinguished: (1) the archaic/pre-classical Chinese of the Shang oracle-bone inscriptions (jiaguwen) and the Zhou bronzes; (2) Classical Chinese proper of the Warring States and early Han; (3) post-Han "literary Chinese" (wenyan), a frozen and artificial language, a continuous imitation of the classical norm until 1919. Its major typological characteristic is extreme isolation: virtually no inflectional morphology, dominant radical monosyllabism, high semantic density per character, and a syntax resting on word order and a class of grammatical particles (虛字). Classical Chinese is the common cultural bedrock of China, Japan (kanbun), Korea (hanmun), and Vietnam (Hán văn).

History of the people

The Chinese civilization associated with Classical Chinese unfolds across several dynasties. The Shang (ca. 1600–1046 BCE), established in the central plain of the Yellow River (with a late capital at Anyang, ancient Yin), are the first dynasty historically attested by writing, through oracular divination. The Zhou (1046–256 BCE) overthrew them and founded the ideology of the "Mandate of Heaven" (tianming). The Eastern Zhou period subdivides into the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE) and then the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), an era of political fragmentation but of intellectual ferment of the "Hundred Schools" (Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Legalism). In 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huangdi unified the empire and standardized the script (small seal, xiaozhuan). The Han (206 BCE–220 CE) canonized Confucianism and fixed the classical corpus; it was under the Han that Classical Chinese became a consciously imitated written norm. From the Han onward, the spoken language evolved (toward Middle Chinese and then Mandarin), but the lettered elite continued to write in wenyan, the language of the imperial examinations, of administration, and of high culture, until the May Fourth Movement of 1919 imposed baihua (the vernacular language).

History of the language

The standard linguistic periodization distinguishes: (1) Old Chinese (archaic Chinese), the language of the Zhou and of the classics, reconstructed but not directly attested in its phonetics; (2) Middle Chinese, attested by the rhyme dictionaries from the Qieyun (601 CE) onward; (3) Modern Chinese. Classical Chinese AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE gradually ceased to exist during the Han, when the vernacular language diverged sufficiently from the written norm to render the latter artificial. From that point, wenyan became a diglossia: a high written register, learned at school, radically distinct from the everyday spoken language. This diglossia persisted for nearly two thousand years. Wenyan was therefore not "extinguished" by abrupt disappearance but by fossilization: it froze as a language of prestige, undergoing little internal evolution (authors deliberately imitating the style of the classics). Its institutional "death" dates to the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement (ca. 1915–1919), when reformers such as Hu Shi promoted baihua as the literary and administrative language. Classical Chinese survives today as a school subject, an object of scholarship, and the source of an immense stock of expressions (chengyu) integrated into Modern Chinese.

The script

Classical Chinese is written in sinographs (hanzi 漢字), a logographic system (with the graphic unit = morpheme/syllable) and not an alphabetic one. The paleographic evolution runs from the oracle-bone inscriptions (jiaguwen 甲骨文, Shang) to the bronze inscriptions (jinwen 金文, Zhou), then to the seal scripts (dazhuan/xiaozhuan 篆書, standardized under the Qin), to the clerical script (lishu 隸書, Han) which fixed the "modern" form of the strokes, and finally to the regular script (kaishu 楷書, from the Wei-Jin onward) still in use. Classical texts are traditionally written WITHOUT punctuation, in vertical columns from top to bottom, right to left; sentence segmentation (句讀 judou) is part of reading competence. There is no space between words. The received text is often in unsimplified (traditional) characters. A single graphic root may have several forms (variants, 異體字 yitizi) depending on periods and editions.

Sign system

The system rests on roughly 5,000 to 10,000 common characters (the large dictionaries record more than 50,000, many of them rare or variant). The traditional typology of the "six categories" (liushu 六書), derived from Xu Shen's Shuowen jiezi (completed ca. 100 CE, presented to the throne in 121 CE), distinguishes: (1) pictographs (象形 xiangxing: 日 sun, 山 mountain); (2) simple ideographs (指事 zhishi: 上 up, 下 down); (3) compound ideographs / logical aggregates (會意 huiyi: 明 "bright" = 日 sun + 月 moon); (4) phono-semantic compounds (形聲 xingsheng), by far the most numerous (>80% of characters), combining a semantic radical and a phonetic element (河 "river" = 氵water + 可 phonetic); (5) and (6) derivative/usage categories (轉注 zhuanzhu, an ill-defined and disputed category; 假借 jiajie, phonetic loans). Each character breaks down into strokes (bihua) and is classified by "key" or radical (bushou 部首)—the Shuowen used 540 sections, but the standard system inherited from the Kangxi dictionary comprises 214 radicals. The value of a character is at once graphic, semantic, and phonetic: in a xingsheng compound, the phonetic element gives an indication (often imperfect in Modern Chinese, more reliable in Old Chinese) of the pronunciation.

Phonology

The phonology of Classical/Old Chinese is NOT directly attested: it is RECONSTRUCTED from (a) the rhyme categories of the poetry of the Shijing, (b) the phonetic series of the xingsheng compounds, (c) Middle Chinese attested by the rhyme dictionaries (Qieyun 601), (d) the reading strata of conservative dialects (Min, Waxiang), (e) ancient loanwords in Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai, Vietnamese, and foreign transcriptions. The current reference reconstruction is that of Baxter & Sagart (2014), which posits notably: uvular initials, a distinction between "type A" and "type B" syllables, initial consonant clusters, final consonants *-p, *-t, *-k, *-m, *-n, *-ŋ, *-r, *-s, and a system of morphological prefixes/infixes. Old Chinese PROBABLY DID NOT yet have the tonal system of Modern Chinese: according to the widely accepted hypothesis (Haudricourt), the Middle Chinese tones (píng, shǎng, qù, rù) arose in part from the loss of final consonants (the qù tone from a final *-s, the shǎng tone from a final glottal stop). IMPORTANT for a translation engine: the reconstructed pronunciation is uncertain in its details and is debated among schools (Karlgren, Li Fang-Kuei, Baxter-Sagart, Zhengzhang Shangfang); it serves historical linguistics, not practical reading. To read a classical text, one conventionally uses the modern Mandarin pronunciation (pinyin), accepting that this is an anachronism.

Grammar — essentials

Classical Chinese is an isolating language with virtually no morphology: no grammaticalized conjugation, declension, gender, or number. Meaning depends on word order (basic SVO: Subject-Verb-Object) and on grammatical particles (虛字 xuzi, "empty words"). Essential points: (1) A single character may function as noun, verb, or adjective according to position (categorial flexibility); 王 = "king" (noun) or "to reign" (verb). (2) Specialized negatives: 不 bù (general negation of verb/adjective), 無/无 wú ("not to have, there is not"), 非 fēi (negation of nominal identity, "it is not"), 未 wèi ("not yet"), 莫 mò ("no one / nothing," indefinite negative), 勿 wù (prohibitive). (3) Final particles: 也 yě (assertion/definition, final copula), 矣 yǐ (perfective aspect, change of state), 乎 hū (interrogation, exclamation), 哉 zāi (exclamation), 焉 yān (locative final "therein, in it"), 耳 ěr ("only"). (4) Pronouns: 吾 wú / 我 wǒ (I/me), 汝/女 rǔ, 爾 ěr, 若 ruò (you), 其 qí (his/their, genitive; subject of a subordinate clause), 之 zhī (pronominal object "it/him/her"; genitival subordination particle "of"). (5) 者 zhě (nominalizer, "the one who / that which") and 所 suǒ (object nominalizer, "that which"). (6) Coverbs/prepositions: 於/于 yú ("to, in, toward, than"—locative, dative, comparative), 以 yǐ ("with, by means of, because"), 為 wéi ("to do, to be, for, by"; marks the passive 為…所…). (7) Coordinators: 而 ér ("and, but"—links clauses/verbs), 則 zé ("then, in that case"), 故 gù ("therefore"). (8) Copula: no ordinary verb "to be"; identity is expressed by the structure "A者, B也." Concision is the rule: subjects and objects are frequently omitted (to be inferred from context).

Reading tips

Operational reading method: (1) Segment the sentence (judou): first locate the final particles (也, 矣, 乎, 焉, 哉) which mark clause endings, in the absence of punctuation. (2) Identify the main verb (often at the head after the subject), bearing in mind that a single character may be verbalized. (3) Reconstitute omitted subjects and objects from context—ellipsis is massive. (4) Process the grammatical words (虛字) before the full words: 之、其、者、所、而、以、於、則 structure the sentence. Note: 之 has three major values (object pronoun "it"; genitival particle "of"; verb "to go toward"), and 其 marks the genitive/possessive or the subject of a subordinate clause. (5) Beware of false friends with Modern Chinese: monosyllabism dominates (走 = "to run" in Classical, "to walk" in Modern; 妻 can be a verb "to give in marriage"). (6) Systematically consult the traditional commentaries (zhu 注, shu 疏) and the established philological translations, since many passages are disputed. (7) Render the concision without over-translating: add in English the implicit logical links, but flag the inferences. (8) Check the phonetic loans (jiajie): a character may, by homophony, note a word different from its graphic sense.

Pitfalls

Major pitfalls: (1) Projecting the grammar of Modern Chinese (Mandarin): the particles 的、了、嗎、呢 do NOT exist in Classical; their functional equivalents are 之、矣、乎 with different values. (2) Confusing the multiple values of 之 (pronoun/genitive/verb) and of 其. (3) Believing in a "known" classical pronunciation: it is reconstructed and uncertain; never present a reconstruction *X as the attested pronunciation. (4) Ignoring ellipsis: translating an absent subject as a mistranslation. (5) Negatives: treating 非 (nominal negation) like 不 (verbal negation) is an error. (6) Homophony and loans (jiajie): the graphic sense is not always the sense of the word. (7) Punctuation: a faulty segmentation (judou) radically changes the meaning; some divisions are themselves objects of scholarly debate. (8) Textual variants: the received text sometimes differs from the excavated manuscripts (Mawangdui, Guodian); do not present one reading as unique. (9) Chengyu: the fixed four-character expressions preserve a tricky classical grammar. Honesty required: flag the disputed passages rather than arbitrarily deciding.

Decipherment history

Classical Chinese was never "lost": its reading tradition has been continuous since antiquity, transmitted through philological scholarship (訓詁學 xungu, exegesis) and commentaries. It has therefore not been the object of a "decipherment" in the sense of a lost script such as the hieroglyphs. On the other hand, the ANCIENT strata of the script had to be rediscovered: the bronze inscriptions (jinwen) were studied as early as Song epigraphy (11th–12th c.). Above all, the oracle-bone inscriptions (jiaguwen), the oldest stratum, were not identified as writing until 1899 by Wang Yirong (1845–1900), who recognized characters on "dragon bones" (longgu) sold as a remedy; he acquired more than 1,500 pieces of them. Liu E published the first rubbings (Tieyun canggui, 1903), then Luo Zhenyu located the Anyang site and Wang Guowei correlated the inscriptions with the Shang royal genealogy of Sima Qian's Shiji, confirming the historicity of the Shang. The decipherment of the jiaguwen remains PARTIAL: of ca. 4,000 distinct graphs recorded, only about 1,500–2,000 are securely identified (a 2012 count gives 1,682 deciphered characters out of 4,378). The PHONETIC reconstruction of Old Chinese is a distinct scholarly undertaking, opened by Karlgren (1920s–1950s) and pursued through to Baxter-Sagart (2014).

Common formulae & expressions

子曰 zǐ yuē

"The Master said"—the canonical introductory formula for the sayings of Confucius in the Analects (Lunyu).

A者, B也 (…zhě, …yě)

Structure of nominal definition/predication: "A is B" (the copula is absent; 者 sets the topic, 也 closes the assertion).

…也 (…yě)

Final particle of assertion or definition, marking a static judgment.

…矣 (…yǐ)

Final particle of the perfective / of change of state: "… henceforth, … there it is."

…乎 (…hū)

Final interrogative or exclamatory particle: "… ? / … is it not!"

何…之有 (hé… zhī yǒu)

Rhetorical turn: "what … would there be?", i.e. "there is no … at all."

為…所… (wéi… suǒ…)

Passive construction: "to be …-ed by …."

以 A 為 B (yǐ A wéi B)

"to take A for B / to regard A as B / to make A into a B."

是以 shì yǐ / 是故 shì gù

"therefore, for this reason"—a logical connector of consequence.

然則 rán zé

"that being so, then… / if it is thus…."

Corpora & reference editions

• Chinese Text Project (ctext.org) — reference digital corpus, pre-Qin and Han texts with integrated dictionary
• Kanseki Repository / Kanripo — repository of classical Chinese texts
• CBETA — electronic Chinese Buddhist Canon (Taishō) for literary Buddhist Chinese
• Academia Sinica — Scripta Sinica (Hanji dianzi wenxian), a database of annotated classical texts (Taiwan)
• Baxter-Sagart Old Chinese reconstruction (2014, version 1.1), a list of ca. 5000 reconstructed words in open access (PDF, University of Michigan site)
• Thesaurus Linguae Sericae (TLS) — a lexical and semantic database of Classical Chinese (Christoph Harbsmeier, dir.)

Bibliographic references

• William H. Baxter & Laurent Sagart, Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction, Oxford University Press, 2014 — Current reference phonological reconstruction of Old Chinese (ISBN 978-0-19-994537-5). Verified.
• Bernhard Karlgren, Grammata Serica Recensa, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Stockholm), 1957 — Foundational repertory of the phonetic series and reconstructions of archaic and medieval Chinese; a revision of Grammata Serica (1940). Verified.
• Edwin G. Pulleyblank, Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar, University of British Columbia Press, 1995 — Reference grammar in English, systematic and reliable (192 pp.). Verified.
• Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi 說文解字, completed ca. 100 CE, presented to the throne in 121 CE — The first etymological-graphic dictionary, source of the theory of the liushu and of the 540-section (bushou) system. Verified.
• Kangxi zidian 康熙字典, 1716 — Imperial dictionary establishing the system of 214 radicals and the traditional lexical reference. Verified.
• Michael A. Fuller, An Introduction to Literary Chinese, Harvard University Asia Center, 1999 (rev. ed. 2004; later 2nd ed.) — A pedagogical introductory textbook widely used in Anglophone universities. Verified.
• Paul W. Kroll (ed.), A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, Brill, 2015 (Handbook of Oriental Studies; later revised editions) — A scholarly dictionary, highly reliable for the classical and medieval lexicon (ca. 500 BCE–1000 CE). Verified.
• Qieyun 切韻, Lu Fayan 陸法言, 601 CE — The foundational rhyme dictionary, primary source of Middle Chinese and pivot of the reconstructions. Verified.