The origin of classical Chinese and others

Classical Chinese is the written language of ancient Chinese. It is not only the working language used to rule in past dynasties, but also the stepping stone for countless students to change their destiny. Classical Chinese, an unsinkable ship, carries almost all the traditional culture of China and has sailed for thousands of years in the long river of history. However, does anyone know where the ship sets sail?

At present, the mainstream view in the field of linguistics is that classical Chinese originated from the spoken language in the pre-Qin period. "Classical Chinese refers to the written language of ancient Chinese formed on the basis of pre-Qin spoken language, and the language in the antique works of later writers" (Wang Li, Ancient Chinese). "Classical Chinese is the written language of ancient China. In the pre-Qin period, it was basically the same as spoken language. The dialogues recorded in The Analects of Confucius and Mencius are generally said at that time "(Linguistic Outline, Waiting for Ye Feisheng, Peking University Publishing House).

This view is actually transplanting the western singing theory to China. In all countries of the world, except China (Japan is a special case), Japanese is used with Chinese characters and pseudonyms, with Chinese characters expressing meanings and pseudonyms expressing sounds. ) Other countries use phonetic symbols. Phonetic symbols are closely related to spoken language, which directly records the pronunciation of spoken language and is a written symbol of spoken language. Aristotle said that "words are symbols of emotions, and words are symbols of words", which means phonetic symbols in ancient Greek. There is no doubt that phonetic notation originated from spoken language.

But the nature of Chinese characters is completely different from pinyin characters. Chinese characters are the only ideographic characters in the world (some people call them "linguistic signs"), that is to say, Chinese characters also have some phonetic functions, such as pictophonetic characters. But anyway, ideographic function is more important). Ideographic characters, as the name implies, directly express meaning and are directly symbols of "meaning" (concepts, things, ideas, etc.). ), rather than symbols like lyrics. Therefore, the relationship between ideographic characters and spoken language is not as close as that of phonography, and it is not appropriate to apply the theory of the relationship between western phonography and spoken language to Chinese characters and classical Chinese. Saussure, the originator of modern linguistics, once said, "For Chinese speakers, ideographs and spoken words are symbols of concepts; Writing is a second language (except spoken language). " Saussure: A Course in General Linguistics. There is still a distance between Chinese characters and spoken language, and the distance between classical Chinese and spoken language composed of the most refined Chinese characters is even less likely to be formed later.

Read a few pre-Qin passages first:

In the spring of ten years, the army of Qi attacked our country of Lu. Duke Zhuang is going to fight. The king asked to see Lord Zhuang. His fellow countryman said, "People in power will plan this. Why do you want to participate?" ? ""Those in power are short-sighted and unable to think deeply, "Cao Gui said." Then they went to the court to see the duke. "What are you fighting for?" Cao Gui asked. Zhuang Gong said, "I never dared to know what to eat and wear. I must give it to the ministers around me. "Yes, he said," it's not enough to be kind. People are obedient. . . . . . Debate on Zuo Zhuan and Cao Gui

Confucius said, "It's better to keep pace with the times, isn't it? Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters? Ignorance and dissatisfaction are not gentlemen? " The Analects of Confucius, learn and learn.

The way of university is to be moral, to be close to the people and to stop at perfection. Zhi Zhi then has a decision, then he can be quiet, then he can be quiet, then he can be safe, then he can think about it, and then he can get it. Things start and end, and things end. If you know the order, you will find a shortcut. "University"

Are there any traces of spoken language in these words? It is hard to imagine that people in the pre-Qin period would speak like this, not to mention that most people were illiterate and their living conditions were very bad. Based on common sense, the words of unscrupulous traffickers and pawns are unlikely to be so full of words. They will choose words carefully and cherish words like gold.

Judging from the following phenomena, classical Chinese does not represent the spoken language at that time.

Let me give you a simple example. If the pre-Qin classical Chinese recorded the spoken language at that time, it basically reflected the whole picture of spoken language at that time. But why didn't swear words or dirty words appear in the pre-Qin classical Chinese? In spoken language, there are bound to be swearing words that delight in enumerating sexual organs or things, such as "fuck", "day" and "fuck", and so on, without exception. From this perspective, if the pre-Qin classical Chinese was spoken at that time, we need a premise: people in pre-Qin were sages (or civilized citizens) who gave up swearing and indecent assault.

All the major ancient civilizations in the world have epics handed down from generation to generation, but the Han nationality does not. Epic, as a national collective memory passed down by rappers, must have happened in our long history. Just can't. There is no record. The reason should be that classical Chinese, the only written language at the beginning, was out of touch with oral English and could not record the folk oral literature at that time. Apart from epics, oral literature such as ancient dramas, myths and folk stories are not systematically recorded. Perhaps Guo Feng in The Book of Songs is an exception. "National Style" originated from folk songs, but it will not be original folk songs. In the Zhou Dynasty, there was a poetry collector who collected folk songs from all over the country for the rulers to understand the people's feelings and used them as teaching materials for aristocratic education. The position of The Book of Songs at that time was far from the general folk literature. As one of the Six Classics, it is regarded as a code of conduct and moral norms, with subtle meaning and sacred status. For example, Zuo Zhuan always quotes the Book of Songs to judge whether some people and things are correct or not, which is comparable to later religious classics. Since the status is so important, the folk songs in The Book of Songs (namely "Feng") will not be original folk songs, but should be sorted out, refined and rewritten to conform to the norms of classical Chinese and deserve the lofty status of classics.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty proved that Chinese characters originated from divination. (Maybe there are other origins. Maybe the writing materials are not as durable as those in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and have not been preserved. It's hard to guess without evidence. ) was created by fortune tellers to communicate with God and record God's will. No matter what kind of words are used, they are used to carry information and communicate. But we should also distinguish between communicating with people and communicating with ghosts and gods. If you communicate with people, you must use words that communicate with human language so that others can understand them. But to communicate with ghosts and gods, characters can only be understood by professionals (soothsayers and wizards) who communicate with them. They think ghosts and gods can also understand. This kind of writing has no direct connection with human language.

The ancient people's enthusiasm for the worship of gods is unimaginable today. When food and clothing are unsustainable, they will invest amazing manpower and material resources in religion. For example, the great buildings left by the ancients are mostly religious buildings such as temples, churches, mosques and statues. The great pyramids in Egypt and South America should also be classified as religious buildings. Many cultures in the world originated from religion. It is not surprising that Chinese characters originated from religion.

Judging from the written materials, it also shows that the earliest Chinese characters can only be used for religious purposes. The characters of ancient Babylon and ancient Egypt discovered by later generations are all carved on clay tablets or stone pillars, with a clear purpose, for recording or communication, in short, for the present or future generations to read. Oracle Bone Inscriptions, as its name implies, is carved on the shoulder blades of tortoise shells or cattle and sheep. The material is expensive, which is not convenient for secular recording and dissemination, and can only be used for divination. If the writing at that time also had secular uses, it was not only the use of these two rare and inconvenient materials, but also the easy-to-obtain clay tablets or stones, as in ancient Babylon and ancient Egypt (these two materials were easier to preserve than in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and if they ever existed, they would not be found. The earliest stone carving discovered so far is the Shi Guwen of Qin State. Large-scale stone tablet culture originated in Han Dynasty. )

"Cang Xie used to write books, but it rained, and the ghosts cried at night." With words, you can communicate with the gods, which is an earth-shattering event. Since Chinese characters are originally used to deal with gods, the writing style should naturally be solemn and concise, not ordinary vernacular Chinese. As a religious language (also known as "sacred language"), only a few fortune tellers can master it. This must be a very professional language, and no professional language can be spoken. Those powerful fortune tellers, even if they want to show their professionalism and mystery, will not communicate with God in ordinary vernacular. The Oracle they dedicated to the dialogue between ghosts and gods is the ancestor of classical Chinese, which can also be said to be the origin of classical Chinese.

Besides, we can also take the telegram as an example. A few decades ago, mobile phones did not appear, and wired phones were rare. At that time, the fastest and most popular means of communication was telegraph. Telegrams are charged by the word, and you have to pay for every extra word. Although each word is only 30 cents, although it is not expensive, in the year when most people earn only tens of dollars a month, if there are more words, it will add up to a considerable expenditure. Because to calculate the cost, except for the official telegrams of government agencies, people who send telegrams try to be concise in order to save money. Therefore, no one will write a telegram in his usual spoken language. The following are the common telegrams of that year: "Mother will return soon after her serious illness", "K589 will pick up the car tomorrow" and "Payment has been paid and delivery will be quick". Concise, not a word is redundant.

Similarly, from the perspective of economics, classical Chinese has no choice but to decouple from spoken Chinese. The earliest writing material of Chinese characters is Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and then bamboo slips. The lack of materials (turtles are not produced in Yin, and tortoise shells come from the far south to pay tribute, which is very expensive) and the difficulty of writing (ancient characters are far more complicated than now, and they were carved with a knife, and then there was a brush), so the cost of writing is very high. In order to save costs, writing must be very concise and try to express the most content with the least number of words. Only classical Chinese can meet this requirement: conciseness and concentration, high information density and high cost performance. "There are mountains in the Chu River" is a famous example. If everyone had written articles in vernacular, the cost would have been too high. I guess no one can afford it. Can afford materials but can't afford time, can afford materials and time, and can't afford warehousing and logistics. It is said that Confucius "learned to be rich in five cars", that is to say, he read five cars of books, that is, five cars of classical Chinese bamboo slips. If you change it to the vernacular, the same content may not be enough for ten ox carts. The freight alone will increase greatly. Confucius, who is often a "dog with a lot of money", probably won't be too rich and may not be able to afford it. Although classical Chinese is difficult to understand, popularizing culture was not an important task at that time. As long as the educated elites, who account for a very small population, can understand and use it, it is enough in the relatively simple social environment at that time.

The difference between classical Chinese and telegrams is that telegrams are not widely used, and the time is not long enough, and they have not formed their own system. However, in the pre-Qin period, classical Chinese has developed for hundreds or even thousands of years, forming a grammatical system characterized by concise characters and flexible syntax. Such as verbs, inverted sentences, flexible conversion of parts of speech and so on. Flexible grammar actually serves the refinement of writing. If you save words, you won't pay too much attention to grammar If you use usage, you can obviously save words. For example, "surround Chushan" and "let the elders of Hedong pity me and be king". This kind of sentence is impossible to appear in spoken language, whether now or in the pre-Qin period.

Classical Chinese is characterized by elegance, except for the simplicity mentioned above.

"Gan Yi Gua Shu": Wen refers to Wen Shi. (hence the idiom "whitewash peace")

"Historical Records": the latitude and longitude of heaven and earth, moral knowledge, diligence, being close to the people, courtesy and righteousness, the title of tin man.

In the long classical Chinese era, only a few elites have mastered the ability of reading and writing, and "writing to carry the Tao" is their pursuit. It is impossible to write as you say. In addition to being concise, I cherish words like gold, and I also need to meet the sage Si Qi, putting elegance first. Vulgar and vulgar language and ordinary language are impossible to enter the text. Even if it is used to record spoken English, it will not be recorded directly in words like today's vernacular, but translated into classical Chinese according to certain norms to make it concise and elegant.

Even today, classical Chinese has long since withdrawn from the historical stage, many important words, such as some inscriptions, announcements, sacrificial speeches, etc. , are still written in classical Chinese or semi-written (such as the famous announcement of Zhejiang University 120). The reason is that people recognize that classical Chinese is more elegant and solemn.

Therefore, classical Chinese is independent of spoken language from the beginning, but another independent written language system parallel to spoken language. This phenomenon of classical Chinese accords with the linguist Charlie A. Ferguson's statement of "bilingual system" in 1959:

"Bilingual is a relatively stable language use. In addition to the main dialect of the language (including one or several regional standards), there is a completely different advanced variant of high coding (usually more complicated grammar), which is used by respected groups who use written language a lot and originated from early documents or another speech community. This variant can only be learned through formal education in most cases, and it is mainly used in written language and formal conversation. But it is not used in the daily language of the community. "

Classical Chinese, as an advanced variant of Chinese, is out of touch with spoken Chinese. This statement is more suitable for the historical development of classical Chinese: at the origin stage, it is a sacred language in the hands of a few religious professionals, which is used to communicate with ghosts and gods, and naturally does not need the understanding of the general public. For most of the future, classical Chinese existed as the "imperial language". Most contemporary linguists regard classical Chinese as a typical imperial language together with Latin of Roman Empire, ancient Greek of Byzantium and English of British Empire. Because it is actually a language that dominates communication and management. This empire is controlled by a few elites who can read and write. In China, a country with numerous dialects, because ideographs only carry semantic information without phonetic information, people who speak different dialects or even different languages (such as Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese) in the empire can communicate with each other as long as they can read and write, which is beneficial to the unification of the empire.

Classical Chinese, which transcends spoken language, has maintained its super-stability in the long history and does not change with spoken language. For thousands of years, spoken English has changed and changed. Pronunciation, wording, grammar, etc. It has changed beyond recognition, but the classical Chinese has remained unchanged for thousands of years. It is precisely because of this independence that classical Chinese can be regarded as the only written language when it has nothing to do with local spoken languages in Japan, North Korea and Vietnam, and it has been used for hundreds or even thousands of years.

The disconnect between classical Chinese and spoken Chinese reminds me that the course name "Ancient Chinese" or specialized subject is not accurate, because its research object is mainly the written language in ancient Chinese, that is, the advanced variant of classical Chinese. In this course, apart from the ancient phonology, ancient spoken language is rarely discussed (to be fair, it is really difficult to learn, because the mainstream written language, that is, classical Chinese, is too far away from spoken language to preserve the true face of spoken language at that time. Only novels that appeared after the Ming Dynasty can still retain some spoken language at that time. According to Saussure's theory, "the object of linguistics is not the written form of a word plus its oral form;" Only the oral form itself is the research object of linguistics. "Ancient Chinese doesn't know much about ancient spoken Chinese, so it should be renamed as the study of ancient Chinese or classical Chinese.