When did the Chinese vernacular appear?

The Chinese Vernacular Movement began in the early 20th century with the aim of making writing easier to understand and promoting cultural revolution and social change. The vernacular was originally used in literary works such as Dream of the Red Chamber and Water Margins. In the 1920s and 1930s, vernacular was gradually applied to the fields of news and science as the main writing style of the time. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the vernacular movement stopped for a while, but with the passage of time, it reappeared in literature and news. Modern Chinese has become the main form of language in our daily life and communication. It has experienced hundreds of years of development and perfection.

Vernacular Chinese was a style of writing that used language that was easy to understand to transform classical Chinese into modern Chinese. It appeared around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, and gradually formed with the popularity and development of printing. The emergence of vernacular greatly promoted the development of literature, news, advertising and other fields, and also made an important contribution to the acceleration of China's modern process.

The classical Chinese appeared earlier than the vernacular because it was a more ancient way of writing. In the early days of human society, people used hieroglyph to express the shape and characteristics of things by drawing symbols. With the development of human society, people began to use ideograms to express the meaning and concept of things through symbols. In contrast, vernacular was a form of written expression that appeared with the development of modern human society. The vernacular was originally evolved from the Beijing dialect and dialect. This kind of written expression expressed ideas in the form of spoken language, which made it possible for it to spread quickly and adapt to the development of society. Therefore, classical Chinese appeared earlier than vernacular Chinese mainly because classical Chinese needed to use symbols to express the appearance and characteristics of things, while vernacular Chinese only needed symbols to express the meaning and concept of things.

Vernacular Chinese refers to the use of language that is easy to understand to express ideas. It is not restricted by traditional grammar, vocabulary, and rhetorical rules. It is a style that pursues concise, bright, and easy to understand language. It originated from the late Qing Dynasty in China and became popular with the rise of the revolutionary movement and the development of modern literature. The characteristics of the vernacular language were spoken, spoken, simplified, and easy to understand. Therefore, it was widely used in literature, news, publicity, advertising, and other fields.

The origin of Chinese teahouses can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, teahouses were a popular place for socializing. People often chatted, played chess, and made friends in teahouses. With the decline of the Tang Dynasty, teahouses gradually became a traditional business model, and teahouses could be seen all over China. Nowadays, Chinese teahouses have become an important part of Chinese culture. It has become a good place for people to communicate, socialize, and taste tea.

The first book in Chinese history can be traced back to the philosophical work of the ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates. This book first appeared around the 6th century B.C. The earliest printed book in China was The Analects of Confucius from the Han Dynasty. It was a book of sayings written around the 1st century B.C. Since then, the production and circulation of books in China gradually developed. In the Tang Dynasty, the production and circulation of books reached a peak, and many famous books appeared, such as "300 Tang poems" and "Song of Everlasting Sorrow".

The earliest characters in China can be traced back to the Xia Dynasty about 5000 years ago. At that time, people began to use characters carved on tortoise shells and animal bones, called oracle bones. The inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells were one of the earliest characters in ancient China. Their unique forms and complex strokes reflected the political, economic, and cultural information of the Xia Dynasty. In oracle bone inscriptions, people began to record divination results, historical events, legends, and so on, which became an important milestone in the history of Chinese characters.

In the Dacheng period, classical Chinese novels appeared instead of vernacular novels because they had advantages in inheritance and development. The advantage of classical Chinese novels in terms of inheritance was that they could retain the classic sentences and plots in the novel so that readers could better understand the thoughts and emotions in the novel. These classic sentences and plots could be repeated and quoted in the process of inheritance, thus continuously developing and growing. The advantage of the vernacular novel in terms of inheritance was that it could better transmit information and exchange ideas. Because vernacular novels are usually spread in oral form, they are more likely to be limited by language and cultural background, resulting in some limitations in the transmission and exchange of information. In contrast, classical Chinese novels could be written in classical Chinese to make them more expressive and persuasive, and to better convey information and exchange ideas. Therefore, in the Dacheng period, classical Chinese novels had more advantages in inheritance and development than vernacular novels, so they were more likely to appear.

Chinese literary criticism appeared in various periods in the history of Chinese literature, the most famous of which was in the pre-Qin period. In the pre-Qin period, literary criticism began to sprout famous writers such as Confucius, Mozi, Xunzi, etc. Through the analysis and evaluation of literary works, they discussed social politics, morality, human nature and other issues, which laid the foundation for the development of Chinese literary criticism. In the Han Dynasty, the literary criticism was further developed by famous writers such as Sima Qian and Ban Gu. Through literary criticism, they conducted in-depth analysis and discussion on the political, social, cultural and other issues at that time. In the Tang Dynasty, literary criticism reached a peak. Famous writers such as Du Fu and Bai Juyi. Through the analysis and evaluation of literary works, they explored the social politics, morality, human nature and other issues at that time, creating a new era of Chinese literary criticism.

The earliest maps in Chinese history appeared during the Warring States Period, around the 4th century B.C. At that time, China had already begun to draw maps, but the earliest maps should be in the Warring States period. At that time, the map drawing technology was not as advanced as it is now. During the Warring States Period, many politicians and military strategists paid great attention to military geography. They drew maps to better understand the surrounding environment and terrain in order to better command the war. Therefore, the map of the Warring States Period should be the earliest map in Chinese history.