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64-468: Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from c.  the 5th century BCE . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary Chinese , which was used for almost all formal writing in China until the early 20th century. Each written character corresponds to

128-504: A pro-drop language : its syntax often allows either subjects or objects to be dropped when their reference is understood. Additionally, words are generally not restricted to use as certain parts of speech : many characters may function as either a noun, verb, or adjective. There is no general copula in Classical Chinese akin to how 是 ( shì ) is used in modern Standard Chinese. Characters that can sometimes function as

192-417: A system of honorifics . Many final and interrogative particles are found in Classical Chinese. Beyond differences in grammar and vocabulary, Classical Chinese can be distinguished by its literary qualities: an effort to maintain parallelism and rhythm is typical, even in prose works. Works also make extensive use of literary techniques such as allusion, which contributes to the language's brevity. Prior to

256-428: A copula in specific circumstances include 為 ( wéi ; 'make', 'do') when indicating temporary circumstances, and 曰 ( yuē ; 'say') when used in the sense of 'to be called'. Classical Chinese has more pronouns compared to the modern vernacular. In particular, whereas modern Standard Chinese has one character generally used as a first-person pronoun, Classical Chinese has several—many of which are used as part of

320-438: A description of the language in general use. Such a dictionary is usually called a general dictionary or LGP dictionary (Language for General Purpose). Specialized lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of specialized dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that are devoted to a (relatively restricted) set of linguistic and factual elements of one or more specialist subject fields, e.g. legal lexicography . Such

384-402: A dictionary is usually called a specialized dictionary or Language for specific purposes dictionary and following Nielsen 1994, specialized dictionaries are either multi-field, single-field or sub-field dictionaries. It is now widely accepted that lexicography is a scholarly discipline in its own right and not a sub-branch of applied linguistics , as the chief object of study in lexicography

448-432: A dictionary), 'dictionary use' (or observing the reference acts and skills of dictionary users), and 'dictionary IT' (or applying computer aids to the process of dictionary compilation). One important consideration is the status of 'bilingual lexicography', or the compilation and use of the bilingual dictionary in all its aspects (see e.g. Nielsen 1994). In spite of a relatively long history of this type of dictionary, it

512-658: A dictionary. They are responsible for arranging lexical material (usually alphabetically ) to facilitate understanding and navigation. Coined in English 1680, the word "lexicography" derives from the Greek λεξικογράφος ( lexikographos ), "lexicographer", from λεξικόν ( lexicon ), neut. of λεξικός lexikos , "of or for words", from λέξις ( lexis ), "speech", "word" (in turn from λέγω ( lego ), "to say", "to speak" ) and γράφω ( grapho ), "to scratch, to inscribe, to write". Practical lexicographic work involves several activities, and

576-488: A set collection, and to be called collectively the "Five Classics". Several of the texts were already prominent by the Warring States period , but the literature culture at the time did not lend itself to clear boundaries between works, so a high degree of variance between individual witnesses of the same title was common, as well as considerable intertextuality and cognate chapters between different titles. Mencius ,

640-470: A single spoken syllable, and almost always to a single independent word. As a result, the characteristic style of the language is comparatively terse. Starting in the 2nd century CE, use of Literary Chinese spread to the countries surrounding China, including Vietnam , Korea , Japan , and the Ryukyu Islands , where it represented the only known form of writing. Literary Chinese was adopted as

704-422: A synonym for theoretical lexicography; others use it to mean a branch of linguistics pertaining to the inventory of words in a particular language. A person devoted to lexicography is called a lexicographer and is, according to a jest of Samuel Johnson , a "harmless drudge". Generally, lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of general dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that provide

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768-836: Is far more common in Chinese languages than in English: for example, each of the following words had a distinct Old Chinese pronunciation, but are now perfectly homophones with a pronunciation of yì [î] in Standard Chinese: The poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den was composed during the 1930s by the linguist Yuen Ren Chao to demonstrate this: it contains only words pronounced shi [ʂɻ̩] with various tones in modern Standard Chinese. The poem underlines how language had become impractical for modern speakers: when spoken aloud, Literary Chinese

832-568: Is largely incomprehensible. However, the poem is perfectly comprehensible when read, and also uses homophones that were present even in Old Chinese. Romanizations have been devised to provide distinct spellings for Literary Chinese words, together with pronunciation rules for various modern varieties. The earliest was the Romanisation Interdialectique by French missionaries Henri Lamasse  [ fr ] of

896-597: Is not read with a reconstructed Old Chinese pronunciation; instead, it is read with the pronunciations as categorized and listed in a rime dictionary originally based upon the Middle Chinese pronunciation in Luoyang between the 2nd and 4th centuries. Over time, each dynasty updated and modified the official rime dictionary: by the time of the Yuan and Ming dynasties , its phonology reflected that of early Mandarin. As

960-657: Is often said to be less developed in a number of respects than its unilingual counterpart, especially in cases where one of the languages involved is not a major language. Not all genres of reference works are available in interlingual versions, e.g. LSP , learners' and encyclopedic types, although sometimes these challenges produce new subtypes, e.g. 'semi-bilingual' or 'bilingualised' dictionaries such as Hornby's (Oxford) Advanced Learner's Dictionary English-Chinese , which have been developed by translating existing monolingual dictionaries (see Marello 1998). Traces of lexicography can be identified as early late 4th millennium BCE, with

1024-631: Is the dictionary (see e.g. Bergenholtz/Nielsen/Tarp 2009). Lexicography is the practice of creating books, computer programs, or databases that reflect lexicographical work and are intended for public use. These include dictionaries and thesauri which are widely accessible resources that present various aspects of lexicology, such as spelling, pronunciation, and meaning. Lexicographers are tasked with defining simple words as well as figuring out how compound or complex words or words with many meanings can be clearly explained. They also make decisions regarding which words should be kept, added, or removed from

1088-579: The Biographies of the Immortals , a collection of Taoist hagiographies and hymns. Liu Xiang was also a poet, being credited with the " Nine Laments " that appears in the Chu Ci . The works edited and compiled by Liu Xiang include: This work was continued by his son, Liu Xin , who finally completed the task after his father's death. The transmitted corpus of these classical texts all derives from

1152-530: The Book of Han (111 CE) is the oldest extant bibliography of Classical Chinese, compiled c.  90 CE ; only 6% of its 653 listed works are known to exist in a complete form, with another 6% existing only in fragments. Compared to written vernacular Chinese, Classical Chinese is terse and compact in its style, and uses some different vocabulary. Classical Chinese rarely uses words two or more characters in length. Classical Chinese can be described as

1216-786: The Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents , which meant that these texts would have been exempted, and that the Book of Rites and the Zuo Zhuan did not contain the glorification of defeated feudal states which the First Emperor gave as his reason for destroying them. Nylan further suggests that the story might be based on the fact that the Qin palace was razed in 207 BC and many books were undoubtedly lost at that time. Martin Kern adds that Qin and early Han writings frequently cite

1280-577: The Old Chinese words in the Classical lexicon, many cognates can still be found. There is no universal agreement on the definition of "Classical Chinese". At its core, the term refers to the language used by the classics of Chinese literature roughly from the 5th century BCE to the end of the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE). The form of Chinese used in works written before

1344-490: The Paris Foreign Missions Society and Ernest Jasmin, based on Middle Chinese, followed by linguist Wang Li 's Wényán luómǎzì based on Old Chinese in 1940, and then by Chao's General Chinese romanization in 1975. However, none of these systems have seen extensive use. Chinese classics The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to

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1408-649: The Song dynasty to serve as general introduction to Confucian thought, and they were, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service examinations. They are: The official curriculum of the imperial examination system from the Song dynasty onward are the Thirteen Classics . In total, these works total to more than 600,000 characters that must be memorized in order to pass

1472-545: The imperial examination system required the candidate to compose poetry in the shi genre, pronunciation in non-Mandarin speaking parts of China such as Zhejiang , Guangdong and Fujian is either based on everyday speech, such as in Standard Cantonese , or is based on a special set of pronunciations borrowed from Classical Chinese, such as in Southern Min . In practice, all varieties of Chinese combine

1536-518: The varieties of Chinese are not reflected in the literary form. Due to millennia of this evolution, Literary Chinese is only partially intelligible when read or spoken aloud for someone only familiar with modern vernacular forms. Literary Chinese has largely been replaced by written vernacular Chinese among Chinese speakers; speakers of non-Chinese languages have similarly abandoned Literary Chinese in favour of their own local vernaculars. Although varieties of Chinese have diverged in various directions from

1600-548: The 15th century, lexicography flourished. Dictionaries became increasingly widespread, and their purpose shifted from a way to store lexical knowledge to a mode of disseminating lexical information. Modern lexicographical practices began taking shape during the 18th and 19th centuries, led by notable lexicographers such as Samuel Johnson , Vladimir Dal , the Brothers Grimm , Noah Webster , James Murray , Peter Mark Roget , Joseph Emerson Worcester , and others. During

1664-452: The 20th century, the invention of computers changed lexicography again. With access to large databases, finding lexical evidence became significantly faster and easier. Corpus research also enables lexicographers to discriminate different senses of a word based on said evidence. Additionally, lexicographers were now able to work nonlinearly, rather than being bound to a traditional lexicographical ordering like alphabetical ordering . In

1728-590: The 4th century BCE, like the Five Classics , is distinct from that found in later works. The term "pre-Classical Chinese" is used to distinguish this earlier form from Classical Chinese proper, as it did not inspire later imitation to a comparable degree despite the works' equal importance in the canon. After the Han dynasty, the divergence of spoken language from the literary form became increasingly apparent. The term "Literary Chinese" has been coined to refer to

1792-652: The Classics, especially the Documents and the Classic of Poetry , which would not have been possible if they had been burned, as reported. The Five Classics ( 五經 ; Wǔjīng ) are five pre-Qin texts that became part of the state-sponsored curriculum during the Western Han dynasty , which adopted Confucianism as its official ideology. It was during this period that the texts first began to be considered together as

1856-556: The Confucian Classics and their secondary literature; history; philosophy; and poetry. There are sub-categories within each branch, but due to the small number of pre-Qin works in the Classics, History and Poetry branches, the sub-categories are only reproduced for the Philosophy branch. The philosophical typology of individual pre-imperial texts has in every case been applied retroactively, rather than consciously within

1920-510: The Japanese readings of Literary Chinese, is part of the high school curriculum in Japan. Japan is the only country that maintains the tradition of creating Literary Chinese poetry based on Tang-era tone patterns . Chinese characters are not phonetic and rarely reflect later sound changes in words. Efforts to reconstruct Old Chinese pronunciation began relatively recently. Literary Chinese

1984-486: The alleged Qin objective of strengthening Legalism, the traditional account is anachronistic in that Legalism was not yet a defined category of thought during the Qin period, and the "schools of thought" model is no longer considered to be an accurate portrayal of the intellectual history of pre-imperial China. Michael Nylan observes that despite its mythic significance, the " burning of books and burying of scholars " legend does not bear close scrutiny. Nylan suggests that

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2048-419: The ancient virtuous rulers. Li Si believed that if the people were to read these works they were likely to invoke the past and become dissatisfied with the present. The reason for opposing various schools of philosophy was that they advocated political ideas often incompatible with the totalitarian regime. Modern historians doubt the details of the story, which first appeared more than a century later. Regarding

2112-460: The command of the emperor, Liu Xiang (77–6 BC ) compiled the first catalogue of the imperial library, the Abstracts ( 別錄 ; 别录 ; Bielu ), and is the first known editor of the Classic of Mountains and Seas , which was finished by his son. Liu also edited collections of stories and biographies, the Biographies of Exemplary Women . He has long erroneously been credited with compiling

2176-466: The compilation of well-crafted dictionaries requires careful consideration of all or some of the following aspects: One important goal of lexicography is to keep the lexicographic information costs incurred by dictionary users as low as possible. Nielsen (2008) suggests relevant aspects for lexicographers to consider when making dictionaries as they all affect the users' impression and actual use of specific dictionaries. Theoretical lexicography concerns

2240-465: The cultivation of jing , 'essence' in Chinese medicine. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Four Books and Five Classics were the subjects of mandatory study by those Confucian scholars who wished to take the imperial examination and needed to pass them in order to become scholar-officials . Any political discussion was full of references to this background, and one could not become part of

2304-505: The discipline begins to develop more steadily. Lengthier glosses started to emerge in the literary cultures of antiquity, including Greece, Rome , China, India, Sasanian Persia , and the Middle East. In 636, Isidore of Seville published the first formal etymological compendium. The word dictionarium was first applied to this type of text by the late 14th century. With the invention and spread of Gutenberg's printing press in

2368-565: The establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian tradition, themselves an abridgment of the Thirteen Classics . The Chinese classics used a form of written Chinese consciously imitated by later authors, now known as Classical Chinese . A common Chinese word for "classic" ( 經 ; 经 ; jīng ) literally means ' warp thread ', in reference to

2432-413: The examination. Moreover, these works are accompanied by extensive commentary and annotation, containing approximately 300 million characters by some estimates. It is often difficult or impossible to precisely date pre-Qin works beyond their being "pre-Qin", a period of 1000 years. Information in ancient China was often by oral tradition and passed down from generations before so was rarely written down, so

2496-772: The extremely laconic style. Presently, pure Literary Chinese is occasionally used in formal or ceremonial contexts. For example, the National Anthem of the Republic of China is in Literary Chinese. Buddhist texts in Literary Chinese are still preserved from the time they were composed or translated from Sanskrit. In practice there is a socially accepted continuum between vernacular and Literary Chinese. For example, most official notices and formal letters use stock literary expressions within vernacular prose. Personal use of Classical phrases depends on factors such as

2560-760: The first emperor of China , unified China in 221 BC, his chancellor Li Si suggested suppressing intellectual discourse to unify thought and political opinion. This was alleged to have destroyed philosophical treatises of the Hundred Schools of Thought , with the goal of strengthening the official Qin governing philosophy of Legalism . According to the Shiji , three categories of books were viewed by Li Si to be most dangerous politically. These were poetry, history (especially historical records of other states than Qin), and philosophy. The ancient collection of poetry and historical records contained many stories concerning

2624-577: The first known examples being Sumerian cuneiform texts uncovered in the city of Uruk . Ancient lexicography usually consisted of word lists documenting a language's lexicon . Other early word lists have been discovered in Egyptian , Akkadian , Sanskrit , and Eblaite , and take the shape of mono- and bilingual word lists. They were organized in different ways including by subject and part of speech. The first extensive glosses , or word lists with accompanying definitions, began to appear around 300 BCE, and

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2688-632: The historical literary use of Latin in Europe, that of Arabic in Persia , or that of Sanskrit in South and Southeast Asia. However, unlike these examples, written Chinese uses a logography of Chinese characters that are not directly tied to their pronunciation. This lack of a fixed correspondence between writing and reading created a situation where later readings of Classical Chinese texts were able to diverge much further from their originals than occurred in

2752-477: The historical records of all non- Qin states to be burned, along with any literature associated with the Hundred Schools of Thought . The imperial library was destroyed upon the dynasty's collapse in 206 BCE, resulting in a potentially greater loss. Even works from the Classical period that have survived are not known to exist in their original forms, and are attested only in manuscripts copied centuries after their original composition. The " Yiwenzhi " section of

2816-476: The kanji represents a native word such as the reading of 行 in 行く ( iku ) or the reading of both characters in " Osaka " ( 大阪 ), as well as a system that aids Japanese speakers with a Classical word order. As pronunciation in modern varieties is different from Old Chinese as well as other historical forms such as Middle Chinese , characters that once rhymed may not any longer, or vice versa. Poetry and other rhyme-based writing thus becomes less coherent than

2880-462: The language of civil administration in these countries, creating what is known as the Sinosphere . Each additionally developed systems of readings and annotations that enabled non-Chinese speakers to interpret Literary Chinese texts in terms of the local vernacular. While not static throughout its history, its evolution has traditionally been guided by a conservative impulse: many later changes in

2944-412: The later forms of written Chinese in conscious imitation of the classics, with sinologists generally emphasizing distinctions such as the gradual addition of new vocabulary and the erosion of certain points of Classical grammar as their functions were forgotten. Literary Chinese was used in almost all formal and personal writing in China from the end of the Han dynasty until the early 20th century, when it

3008-565: The laws of Taiwan are still written in a subset of Literary Chinese. As a result, it is necessary for modern Taiwanese lawyers to learn at least a subset of the literary language. Many works of literature in Classical and Literary Chinese have been highly influential in Chinese culture, such as the canon of Tang poetry . However, even with knowledge of its grammar and vocabulary, works in Literary Chinese can be difficult for native vernacular speakers to understand, due to its frequent allusions and references to other historical literature, as well as

3072-600: The leading Confucian scholar of the time, regarded the Spring and Autumn Annals as being equally important as the semi-legendary chronicles of earlier periods. Up to the Western Han, authors would typically list the Classics in the order Poems-Documents-Rituals-Changes-Spring and Autumn. However, from the Eastern Han the default order instead became Changes-Documents-Poems-Rituals-Spring and Autumn. In 26 BCE, at

3136-518: The literary revolution in China that began with the 1919 May Fourth Movement , prominent examples of vernacular Chinese literature include the 18th-century novel Dream of the Red Chamber . Most government documents in the Republic of China were written in Literary Chinese until reforms spearheaded by President Yen Chia-kan in the 1970s to shift to written vernacular Chinese. However, most of

3200-679: The literati—or even a military officer in some periods—without having memorized them. Generally, children first memorized the Chinese characters of the Three Character Classic and Hundred Family Surnames and they then went on to memorize the other classics. The literate elite therefore shared a common culture and set of values. According to Sima Qian 's Records of the Grand Historian , after Qin Shi Huang ,

3264-712: The older the composition of the texts may not be in a chronological order as that which was arranged and presented by their attributed "authors". The below list is therefore organized in the order which is found in the Siku Quanshu ( Complete Library of the Four Treasuries ), the encyclopedic collation of the works found in the imperial library of the Qing dynasty under the Qianlong Emperor . The Siku Quanshu classifies all works into 4 top-level branches:

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3328-546: The original reading must have been. However, some modern Chinese varieties have certain phonological characteristics that are closer to the older pronunciations than others, as shown by the preservation of certain rhyme structures. Another particular characteristic of Literary Chinese is its present homophony . Reading Classical texts with character pronunciations from modern languages results in many homophonous characters that originally had distinct Old Chinese pronunciations, but have since merged to varying degrees. This phenomenon

3392-532: The other literary traditions, adding a unique dimension to the study of Literary Chinese. Literary Chinese was adopted in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature states that this adoption came mainly from diplomatic and cultural ties with China, while conquest, colonization, and migration played smaller roles. Unlike Latin and Sanskrit, historical Chinese language theory consisted almost exclusively of lexicography , as opposed to

3456-546: The reason Han dynasty scholars charged the Qin with destroying the Confucian Five Classics was partly to "slander" the state they defeated and partly because Han scholars misunderstood the nature of the texts, for it was only after the founding of the Han that Sima Qian labeled the Five Classics as Confucian. Nylan also points out that the Qin court appointed classical scholars who were specialists on

3520-446: The same aspects as lexicography, but aims to develop principles that can improve the quality of future dictionaries, for instance in terms of access to data and lexicographic information costs. Several perspectives or branches of such academic dictionary research have been distinguished: 'dictionary criticism' (or evaluating the quality of one or more dictionaries, e.g. by means of reviews (see Nielsen 1999), 'dictionary history' (or tracing

3584-412: The school curriculum is taught primarily by presenting a literary work and including a vernacular gloss that explains the meaning of phrases. The examinations usually require the student to read a paragraph in Literary Chinese and then explain its meaning in the vernacular. Contemporary use of Literary Chinese in Japan is mainly in the field of education and the study of literature. Learning kanbun ,

3648-456: The study of grammar and syntax. Such approaches largely arrived with Europeans beginning in the 17th century. Christian missionaries later coined the term 文理 ( wénlǐ ; 'principles of literature', 'bookish language') to describe Classical Chinese; this term never became widely used among domestic speakers. According to the traditional " burning of books and burying of scholars " account, in 213 BCE Qin Shi Huang ordered

3712-445: The subject matter and the level of education of the writer. Excepting professional scholars and enthusiasts, most modern writers cannot easily write in Literary Chinese. Even so, most Chinese people with at least a middle school education are able to read basic Literary Chinese, because this ability is part of the Chinese middle school and high school curricula, and is a component of the college entrance examination. Literary Chinese in

3776-443: The techniques by which works of this period were bound into volumes. Texts may include shi ( 史 , ' histories ') zi ( 子 'master texts'), philosophical treatises usually associated with an individual and later systematized into schools of thought but also including works on agriculture, medicine , mathematics, astronomy , divination, art criticism, and other miscellaneous writings) and ji ( 集 'literary works') as well as

3840-416: The text itself. The categorization of works of these genera has been highly contentious, especially in modern times. Many modern scholars reject the continued usefulness of this model as a heuristic for understanding the shape of the intellectual landscape of the time. Lexicography There is some disagreement on the definition of lexicology , as distinct from lexicography. Some use "lexicology" as

3904-402: The traditions of a type of dictionary or of lexicography in a particular country or language), 'dictionary typology' (or classifying the various genres of reference works, such as dictionary versus encyclopedia, monolingual versus bilingual dictionary, general versus technical or pedagogical dictionary), 'dictionary structure' (or formatting the various ways in which the information is presented in

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3968-676: The two extremes of pronunciation: that according to a prescribed system, versus that based on everyday speech. Mandarin and Cantonese, for example, also have words that are pronounced one way in colloquial usage and another way when used in Literary Chinese or in specialized terms coming from Literary Chinese, though the system is not as extensive as that of Min or Wu . Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese readers of Literary Chinese each use distinct systems of pronunciation specific to their own languages. Japanese speakers have readings of Chinese origin called on'yomi for many words, such as for "ginko" ( 銀行 ) or "Tokyo" ( 東京 ), but use kun'yomi when

4032-528: The versions edited down by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin. Michael Nylan has characterised the scope of the Liu pair's editing as having been so vast that it affects our understanding of China's pre-imperial period to the same degree as the Qin unification does. The Four Books ( 四書 ; Sìshū ) are texts illustrating the core value and belief systems in Confucianism . They were selected by Zhu Xi (1130–1200) during

4096-554: Was largely replaced by written vernacular Chinese . A distinct, narrower definition of the Classical period begins with the life of Confucius (551–479 BCE) and ends with the founding of the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE. The adoption of Chinese literary culture in the Sinosphere amid the existence of various regional vernaculars is an example of diglossia . The coexistence of Literary Chinese and native languages throughout China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam can be compared to

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