Everything about Baihua totally explained
Vernacular Chinese is a style or
register of the
written Chinese language essentially modeled after the
spoken language and associated with
Standard Mandarin. This term isn't to be confused with the various present-day
vernacular spoken varieties of Chinese. Since the early 1920s, Vernacular Chinese has been the most popular style of writing for speakers of all varieties of
spoken Chinese throughout
China, succeeding
Classical Chinese, the former
written standard used in
China since the time of
Confucius. The term
Standard Written Chinese now often refers to Vernacular Chinese.
History
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 faster than the evolution of written Chinese. 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 and
yulu, and the spoken language was completely distinct from the still-maintained written standard of Classical Chinese. Those not educated in Classical Chinese—almost the entirety of the population—could understand only very little of the language. During the
Ming and
Qing dynasties, vernacular dialects began to be used in novels, but were not generally used in formal writing, which continued to use Classical Chinese.
Literature in Vernacular Chinese
Jin Shengtan, who edited several
novels in vernacular Chinese, is widely regarded as the pioneer of
literature in the vernacular style. However, it wasn't until after the
May Fourth Movement in
1919 and the promotion by
scholars and
intellectuals such as
Columbia University educated libertarian
Hu Shi, Japanese educated leftist
Lu Xun,
Chen Duxiu, and leftist
Qian Xuantong that Vernacular Chinese, or
Bai hua, gained widespread importance. In particular,
The True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun is generally accepted as the first modern work to fully utilize the vernacular language.
Classical Chinese became increasingly viewed as an archaic fossil hindering education and literacy, and, many suggested, social and national progress by the politically left. The works of Lu Xun and other writers of fiction and non-fiction did much to advance this view. Vernacular Chinese soon came to be viewed as mainstream by most people. Along with the growing popularity of vernacular writing in books in this period was the acceptance of
punctuation, modeled after that used in
Western languages (traditional Chinese literature was almost entirely unpunctuated), and the use of
Arabic numerals.
Since the late 1920s, nearly all Chinese
newspapers,
books, and
official and
legal documents have been written in Vernacular Chinese. However, the tone or
register and the choice of
vocabulary may be formal or informal, depending on the context. Generally, the more formal the register of Vernacular Chinese, the greater the resemblance to
Classical Chinese. Since the transition, it has been, however, extremely rare for a text to be written in predominantly Classical Chinese. Only educated speakers have full reading comprehension of Classical texts, and very few are able to write proficiently in Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese is taught throughout mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau although they operate in completely different education systems. However, proficiency differs greatly among these jurisdictions. Proficiency of Classical Chinese is higher among high school graduates in Taiwan (possibly helped by the fact that use of traditional characters has been maintained in Taiwan). Whereas in the case of Hong Kong, the proficiency isn't especially high despite the use of traditional characters, it could be because the general education notion is mainly focused on English primarily.
See
Chinese grammar for the grammar of the modern standard written language, which is Vernacular Chinese.
Other variants
Some other vernacular variants of Chinese, notably
Cantonese,
Shanghainese and
Hokkien / Taiwanese (Min Nan), include additional and adapted
characters for writing texts that reflect the language as spoken. Unlike Vernacular Chinese, these written forms have not been standardized and are used in informal contexts only. They are most commonly used in
commercial advertisements and
legal records to accurately record dialogue and colloquial expressions.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Baihua'.
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