Chapter 3 Chapter 3 How to Form Classical Chinese

3.1 Conditions for the Formation of Classical Chinese Classical Chinese, like other things, must meet certain conditions after it grows or is made, otherwise it has no shape.Classical Chinese grows and takes shape mainly on three conditions: first, there is a fairly strict and unified lexical and syntactic system; second, this system basically does not change over time; third, this system basically does not change with regions. 3.1.1 The important condition is the lexical-syntax system Regarding the lexical-syntax system, as already mentioned in Section 2.3.3 above, this is a set of expression habits that can almost be said to be deeply rooted.Expressing a certain meaning, what words to use, and what kind of sentence patterns to form, although a certain degree of flexibility is allowed, but this is like the costumes of Peking Opera female characters. You can wear green clothes, red and green, but you are never allowed to wear raw horns, Robe with clean horns.Flexibility can only be the flexibility within the system, or the flexibility of choosing one of the old expression habits.Even if an outline of this system or habit is introduced in terms of form and main points, it must be a dedicated book, so I will omit it here.

3.1.2 The system does not change over time Shapeless, we can compare it to a solid; indeterminate, we can compare it to a liquid.Liquid, poured into a square vessel to form a square shape, and poured into a round vessel to form a circle; solid is not the case, and it remains the same in another place.In Section 2.3.2 above, we said that the situation of "Shiji" quoting "Shangshu" changed characters, which changed with time, which means that during the "Shangshu" period, classical Chinese had not yet been finalized.This was not the case during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Almost all quotations from "Historical Records" were copied.This is largely seen in "The Family of Confucius" and "Biography of Zhongni's Disciples".As seen in "The Family of Confucius":

(1) Duke Jing asked Confucius about politics, and Confucius said: "The ruler is the ruler, the ministers are the ministers, the father is the father, and the son is the son." Duke Jing said: "That's good! If the king is not the king, the ministers are not the ministers, the father is not the father, and the son is not the son, Although there is millet, how can I get it and eat it?" (2) Confucius said: "Since the king of Wen is gone, why is the text not here? The general of heaven will lose his Wen, and the deceased will not be able to share his Wen with him; the Zhu of the sky will lose his Wen, so what should Kuang people do?"

Seen in "Biography of Zhongni's Disciples": (3) Virtue, Dianyuan, Min Ziqian, Ran Boniu, Zhonggong; political affairs, Ran You, Jilu; speech, Zaiwo, Zigong; literature, Ziyou, Zixia.The teacher is also secluded, the participation is also Lu, the firewood is also stupid, the reason is also poor, and the return is often empty. (4) Confucius said: "It's wise to return! A sack of food and a ladle of drink, in the alleys, people can't bear their worries, and they don't change their joy when they return. Returning is like a fool. It is enough to retreat and think about one's selfishness. It is not foolish to return. Use it to do it, and discard it to hide it. I am the only one with you.”

Those who are familiar with the "Four Books" will feel familiar when they see it. This is because they wore the same set of clothes in the two eras.In addition, "Historical Records" copied more places such as "Zuo Zhuan" and "Warring States Policy". The reason is the same, because the times have changed but the system of vocabulary and syntax has not changed.After the Han Dynasty, the situation is still the same. For example, Fan Zhongyan’s "Yueyang Tower", which is familiar to everyone, says at the end "Weisi people, who am I to return?"衽修” uses a similar pattern.It was still like this in the late Qing Dynasty. Zheng Banqiao wrote a letter to his family. He was very excited when he thought that the scholar had a field, and said, "I will never live as a farmer if I grow up." eh” uses the same pattern.All these situations can prove that classical Chinese is fixed and becomes a system, so it can not change with time.

3.1.3 The system does not vary with regions The geographical situation is more complicated. We can focus on the period of the Warring States Period and the Han Dynasty.Speaking of "China" at that time was equivalent to later talking about the Central Plains area, which was the area where the Han nationality was active.The Han nationality naturally uses Chinese; the other four barbarians, such as the dog army and the Xiongnu, naturally use their own languages.As far as Chinese is concerned, there must be large or small differences in different regions, from the present to the past.Regardless of the size of the difference, if one of them has the advantages of vast land, large population, political power, rich economy, and high culture, it will produce a common language (the ancients called it "common language", "common language" or "fanyu") and dialect differences.This difference is clearly reflected in ancient literature.Give a little example. "The Analects of Confucius Shuer": "Zi's elegant words, poems and books with etiquette, are all elegant words." Kong Zhu, elegant words are "right words"; Zheng's notes are more specific, "right words have their sounds".We can infer that the so-called Yayan is read in the common pronunciation, not in Qufu's hometown dialect, which is equivalent to the way Suzhou people use Putonghua to teach Chinese. "Mencius" said that the son of a doctor of Chu wanted to learn the Qi language. As mentioned in Section 2.4.1 above, we can also infer from this that this is because Qi belongs to "China" and Chu is "a man of the southern barbarians with a tongue" (" Mencius Teng Wengong 1"), the pronunciation is not elegant and correct, so it is necessary to "abandon what you have learned and learn."The state of Chu is far south of "China", and it speaks in the Chu dialect, and there are still many traces in the "Chu Ci" (which has inevitably been revised and polished in the common language) (see Wang Siyuan's "Lisao Language Explanation").In addition, a large number of such language differences are still preserved in calligraphy books.For example, at the beginning of "Erya", "Shi Gu" said: "Chu, Zai, Shou, Ji, Zhao, Zu, Yuan, Tai, Chu, Luo, Quanyu, the beginning." Guo Pu's note: "...that's why Interpret ancient and modern idioms, master the special idioms of local customs." Also: "To, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to hang, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to." Guo Pu's note: "...Zhan and Cui are all Chu dialects." Legend has it that Yang Xiong also paid attention to this situation. He wrote "Dialect" to record the differences in languages ​​​​in different places. For example, the first two sentences say: "Dang, Xiao, Zhe, Zhiye. Chu calls it The party, or Xiao, is called philosophy between Qi and Song." "Qian, Yan, Hui also. Qin called it 谩, Jin called it raccoon, Song and Chu called it 倢, Chu called it 嫷, Ziguan and Eastern Zhao Weizhi It’s called a sly, or a ghost.” These documents all show that the ancient spoken language is “many”.But the system of classical Chinese is "one", at least the same "one" with minor differences.The reason why this "one" can be achieved is that the common language is the main body, some dialects are absorbed, and some dialects are abandoned, so as to build a city of written language, which is now called "classical Chinese".In this classical Chinese, it is inevitable that the four generations live under the same roof, and it is inevitable that the five directions are mixed, but since it has become one, we can hardly see any disharmony and instability in it.And that's exactly what happened.For example, the "Wind" is classified by region, Qi is located in the east, and Qin is located in the west, but it is expressed in words as if it came from one family.Later, the same was true in the Han Dynasty. Sima Xiangru was from Sichuan, and Ban Gu was from Shaanxi. When writing Fu, they used a tune.Further on, Wang Shizhen is from Shandong, and Zhu Yizun is from Zhejiang, so the spoken language must be very different, but they also use the same tone when writing articles and poems.This is the case with the system of classical Chinese. Once it has a fixed shape, it does not change with different regions.

3.2 Factors in the Formation of Classical Chinese It is a process for classical Chinese to change from indeterminate to definite, and this process is a process in which written language gradually departs from spoken language.Moving along the journey requires drivers, which we can call "factors." 3.2.1 Chinese characters do not change with spoken language The most fundamental or most powerful factor is "Chinese characters".As mentioned in Section 1.2.2 above, words use shapes to express sounds, and language uses sounds to express meaning.Taking modern Chinese as an example, the word "goodbye" directly expresses the sound zaijian, and indirectly expresses the meaning of saying goodbye to someone.However, the relationship between text and sound varies from text to text.For example, English has pinyin, and the relationship between words and sounds is single-minded, or it is inevitable to say that a certain shape expresses a certain sound, so you can know the sound when you see the character (assuming you are familiar with the spelling rules); phonetic spelling.Double characters are not pinyin, and the relationship between words and sounds is half-hearted, or it is probable that a certain shape represents a certain sound.This characteristic manifests itself in different ways.The most prominent thing is that you can't know its sound when you see its characters (the same is true for phonetic characters, such as "Yi" instead of "Yi" and "Jiang" instead of "gong").Second, with Chinese characters, it is often possible to skip the sound or at least ignore the sound and get right to the meaning.For example, when we see characters, especially those with a large number of homophones (some as many as hundreds), we usually distinguish their meanings based on their shapes.Third, there are more extreme cases.One is to mispronounce the pronunciation, such as reading "symmetrical chen" as "symmetrical cheng" and "冶wo贴chuo" as "wucu", but the understanding is not bad.The other is the one who doesn't know it. For example, everyone has this experience. For some words, they just can't remember what to say, but the meaning is clear.Fourth, because shape and sound are not closely related, the same character can be pronounced with different sounds at different times and places without affecting the meaning.For example, "one" and "seven" were entering tone characters in the Middle Ages, but we now pronounce them as Yinping; for "funny", the old annotations said that the sound of "hua" is gu, but now they are almost all pronounced as huaju.The same goes for different regions. "Yan's Family Instructions Yinci" says: "If the fallacy is slight, the southerners regard money as salivation, stones as shooting, cheapness as envy, and licking; I am Confucianism, Zi is my elder sister, and Qia is my sex." That is to say, in the later years of the Six Dynasties, the pronunciation of the same word in the north and south could be different.We have personally seen the current situation. For example, if a person from Fujian and a person from Shanxi were asked to read Du Fu's "Eight Poems of Autumn Xing", a Mandarin-speaking Beijinger would feel that the pronunciation of the two people is very different, but both Not in compliance.All of the above shows that the relationship between Chinese characters and sound is very loose, so it relies on the ability to express meaning through shape, so it can sit firmly in place without moving with the spoken language, and establish its own independent kingdom: classical Chinese.

3.2.2 Text tends to be streamlined The separation of the spoken language is not only the result of time changes; even in the same period, the written language is always simpler than the spoken language. Even in the early days, it cannot be said that they have parted ways.There are many reasons for this.First, spoken language is used by everyone, and many of them are illiterate. They often speak indiscriminately and sloppily, so in terms of expression, they are prone to repetition, procrastination and even confusion.The text is written by a person who is proficient in Chinese and ink, and it is not easy to have problems such as repetition and procrastination. Therefore, even if it is written according to his spoken language, it will not be different from ordinary spoken language, or it will always become a cleaner spoken language.Second, the essays, especially the heavy ones, are mostly carefully thought out or even polished.For example, "The Analects of Confucius·Xianwen" said: "For fate, I will create it with the grass, discuss it with the uncle, modify it with Ziyu, and polish it with Dong Lizi." up.Third, the words that are purely recorded are always simplified.Taking "Historical Records" as an example, Zhou Chang resolutely opposed Han Gaozu's replacement of the prince, saying: "I can't say anything, but I know it is impossible; although your majesty wants to abolish the prince, I will not obey the edict." "Biography") This "period" is to describe stuttering, which could have been omitted; but here Sima Qian wanted to paint a picture, so he kept it.But after all, it was just a coincidence. For example, Fan Kuai is a rough man, and remembering his words will make a lie, "I will not avoid the death of the minister, and the wine will be enough to say goodbye! The king of Qin has the heart of a tiger and a wolf. I am afraid that I will win, and the whole world will rebel against it..." ("Ben Ji of Xiang Yu").In the earlier times, for example, the traces of simplification are more obvious. In the previous section 3.1.2, when answering King Jing’s question about politics, Confucius said: "The emperor, the minister, the father, the son, and the son." And: " Duke Ai asked You Ruo, "You are hungry and you don't use enough. What's the difference?" You Ruo replied, "Is it true?" It won't be so dry, but it will be written dryly until the pen.Fourth, there is another reason that is limited by material conditions and cannot be simplified.Before there was paper, it was said that words should be written on bamboo and wood, and compiled into books or compilations; the same is true for biography.This is very troublesome, and it has to be adjusted by simplifying methods, such as the existing early documents, the hexagrams and lines, "Shangshu", "Spring and Autumn", and even "Zuo Zhuan".But even if it is so concise and concise, it will be extremely cumbersome to write a book. Needless to say, the government's storage, even private schools, are also "beneficial to many parties, and their books are five carts". ("Zhuangzi · Tianxia") This labor-intensive and cumbersome degree has gradually been reduced with the invention and improvement of paper and printing, but even today, writing is not the same as talking about it. simple.One is complex and one is simple, and a distance is naturally formed between them.Fifth, the text should be simplified.Simplification has its advantages, so gradually this advantage will be regarded as a high style, and many literati will strive to realize this style with their pens.There are many examples of this kind in classical works, the most prominent ones are commentaries on history books, miscellaneous postings by Jin people, essays and poetic talks since Tang and Song Dynasties, etc., all of which are lightly dyed, meaning beyond words.In short, it is unavoidable that the text is biased towards simplicity.This inevitability is also a driving force for the text to break away from the spoken language. Even if it relies on it alone, the classical Chinese cannot be built into a self-sufficient lexical-syntax system.

3.2.3 The inertia of text Language is lazy, and it should be.Because it is a tool for exchanging feelings, communication requires at least two people, and the symbols used, which symbols represent what meanings, must be done according to the "convention", otherwise A will change arbitrarily, tantamount to breaking the contract, and B will find it difficult to understand.But under the rule of inertia, it cannot remain unchanged.The reasons for the change are complex.It is easier to say objectively that the times have changed and new things have appeared, so we have to add new words and even sentence patterns to express them.This new thing also includes foreign words and their translations, and most of the new sentence patterns come from this channel.It is difficult to say the subjective reasons.It can be inferred that there are two situations, one is unintentional messing up, and the other is intentional novelty, and both of them use expressions that were not seen or even allowed to express their meaning.Most of these statements will die of their own accord; but some will survive, prosper and be accepted by all.That's it, language is constantly changing.But this kind of change is manifested in the spoken language and the written expression is very different: the expression in the spoken language is faster and more, and the expression in the written language is slower and less.Often, some sayings are popular in spoken language, but according to unwritten laws, they cannot be used in writing. For example, the current description of Hao Shang Jia Hao is "no cure", and it seems that no one who writes the article is willing to use it.There will also be some, and finally no one uses them, so its activity area is limited to spoken language, and it is not seen in writing.It can be proved that the inertia of language is always more and more obvious in writing.There is a reason for this, of course.One is that in the long-term period when there was no recording equipment, spoken language was born and died, and words were written on paper, and it would remain unchanged for a long time.The second is to remain unchanged, and later people will even be willing to write in the old way.The third is that this old way, due to various reasons, will be regarded as elegant and tame by many people, so it goes further and does not allow changes.In this way, the development and change of spoken and written language is like the first part of the tortoise and the hare in the story. Spoken language is like a rabbit, jumping and running forward, while the tortoise crawls slowly behind.The result, of course, is that the distance gradually increases. As far as classical Chinese is concerned, after it takes shape, it stays where it is, and becomes another language that is not like spoken language at all.

3.2.4 Learn written language under the pen of literati Language is learned step by step, as it is with spoken language, as it is with written language.Theoretically, spoken language can be taught by written language, and written language can be taught by spoken language; but in fact, spoken language is always basically taught by spoken language, and written language is always basically taught by written language.Say "basically" because the situation is quite complicated.First, it depends on whether the learner can write or not.If you can't write, you can only use spoken English as your teacher.Second, as for being able to write, it is not certain. How to learn depends on how he views spoken and written language; it is even more difficult to predict how he learns, because it depends on many internal and external conditions.Take the situation in recent years as an example. During the "May 4th" period, the use of vernacular writing was advocated, and many people tried hard to learn spoken language under the pen. However, in the 1930s, the literary revolution had achieved results. This achievement was seen in writing. Quite high, but we can take a look, is that pure vernacular?You only need to read Lu Xun's works to know that they are "vernacular Chinese" that is far from spoken language.

Later, mainly in the 1950s, some people loudly advocated "writing words", the reason is of course that a large amount of written language does not look like "words".Let’s ignore right and wrong here and focus on the facts, that is: the vast majority of people learn to write with written language as their teacher, and the vast majority of written language is not like “words”.It can be seen that learning to write and using spoken language as a teacher is not easy, but difficult.This difficulty, of course, was greater and more obvious in ancient times when classical Chinese was growing, especially after it was formed.We can think about it, Ban Gu wrote "Hanshu", if he was restricted to write in the spoken language of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and not allowed to study "Historical Records", how difficult it would be.This difficulty will also increase with the changes of the times. For example, Sima Guang and others are limited to using vernacular such as "Jingben Popular Novels", and are not allowed to study "Historical Records", "Hanshu", etc., I am afraid that they will be combined into a book. Hope is gone.From the positive point of view, the literati in the old era for two thousand years all learned their writing skills from cats and tigers in writing. When writing essays, they must be familiar with classics and history, and when writing poems, they must be familiar with Li and Du.Most people still need to specialize, such as Su Shi, Gui Youguang's "Historical Records", Huang Tingjian's Du Fu, and so on.This study of taking pictures of cats and drawing tigers has even become a school, the most prominent ones are Li Shangyin who studied Xikun style, and the seven masters before and after the Ming Dynasty who "wen must be Qin and Han, and poetry must be prosperous Tang".The result of this learning is that in writing, the descendants are no different or basically the same as the previous generations, while the spoken language moves forward alone, so the distance between the two is getting farther and farther.As far as the written language is concerned, it has its own set, and this set has become more and more powerful and its position has become more and more stable due to repeated learning. This is what is now called "classical Chinese". 3.2.5 Literati strive for elegance In the old days, especially in ancient times, culture was not popular, and only a few upper-class people were proficient in writing and ink.The upper-class people earn more for less work, more power and more benefits, and benefits.The benefit is also an honor.People always like honor.Honor must be expressed in the envy and respect of one's own body by people (as many as possible) outside one's own body.Because it has to come from the outside, the method of "hiding it as if it is empty" will not work. We must try our best to reveal it and ask others to know it.In the way of expression, literati have more "literature" than people who do not understand literature.Being able to write is a kind of honor, and being able to be elegant with writing is a higher honor.Elegance is of course closely related to content. For example, in the eyes of the ancients, "Poetry" and the like are the most elegant.The novel will not be successful. "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi" said: "Novelists flow out of barnyard officials. Street talk and alley talk, the way is created by those who listen to Tu (road). Confucius said: 'Although the way is small, it must be There are people who can be seen, and those who are far away are afraid of mud. It is because a gentleman does not do it.' But it is also impossible. The little knowledgeable people in the village can reach it, and they will never forget it. If a word can be picked up, this is also crazy. Husband's opinion." Although it is not unreasonable, a gentleman will not do it, because it is "street talk" and not elegant.Elegance is also closely related to expression, that is to say, it depends on what language is used.The opposite of street talk is the classics preserved in writing. Using the above language, you can not only show that you are educated (familiar with the classics, this is a high honor), but also that you are refined (able to speak well).The sense of honor in this aspect makes the literati try their best to make the language elegant.The method is very simple. It is to follow the old and avoid the new. As a matter of fact, it is to go around in the classical Chinese system and add bricks and tiles to the barriers of classical Chinese.This trend probably showed its signs very early. For example, "The Analects of Confucius Ji Shi" said: "If you don't study poetry, you can't speak." "Poetry Cloud" quotes poems with grandeur almost everywhere.Later, "Zi Yue" was added.In short, righteousness seeks the past, and words also seek the past.For the sake of exchanging affection, this trend cannot last long, but it is getting stronger and stronger, and the writing tends to the old and avoids the new, and it is almost pervasive.For example, calling the husband's parents "father-in-law" has a clear meaning and is very good, but for the sake of elegance, it is changed to "uncle and aunt", which confuses ordinary people.For example, the title of "Nanjing" is not the old one, but should be changed to "Jinling"; "Brown", after his wife died, he had to write "drum basin".If you are not like this, people will say that you are not educated enough and your speech is not elegant.This kind of ethos has a great influence on future generations of articles, and there are two things worth noting.One is a large number of allusions, especially in parallel style, such as Wang Bo's "Preface to the Pavilion of the King of Teng" that is well known: "He is getting closer to the court, and he is with the carp; Expressing meaning” is “expression” from another perspective.reveal what?But it is old-fashioned and elegant.The other is to vigorously pursue the ancient and Austrian, that is, to use more ancient characters and phrases, and to avoid the usual and use changes in sentence patterns.Doing this intentionally or even with great effort, and becoming a genre, probably began with the ancient prose movement in the Tang Dynasty.Naturally, people are not all the same. If you can regard this as a disease, I think Han Yu seems to be milder than Liu Zongyuan.In the Ming Dynasty, the seven sons became more serious, and it can be said that they were terminally ill.In fact, even those who don't shout "Writing must be Qin and Han", such as Song Lian, Liu Ji, etc., also write very ancient and profound, far inferior to reading "Mencius" and "Han Feizi" in the Warring States Period, but they seem simple and fluent.This kind of atmosphere of seeking ancient and mysterious things has always been lingering, and it is still very strong in Zhang Taiyan. He uses more ancient characters for his writing. If you want to read it, you have to read more "Kangxi Dictionary".Let’s put aside right and wrong here, and just talk about the facts. This situation is that the writing of literati is always ancient, ancient, ancient, which makes classical Chinese not only gain a firm foothold, but also become more and more powerful, until in the eyes of some people (such as Lin Qinnan) Here, if it is not written in this way, it cannot be called a "text". 3.2.6 Classical Chinese has the advantage of not being restricted by time and space Sections 3.2.4 and 3.2.5 above mentioned the formation factors of classical Chinese, part of which is that the literati drifted with the tide.It is superfluous to go with the flow, that is to say, after the formation of classical Chinese, it is not necessary to learn classical Chinese or seek elegance when writing to express ideas.From this point of view, we have not touched the positive value of classical Chinese.Calm down and not hide our merits, we should admit that classical Chinese can grow and endure for a long time because it still has positive value.What is positive value? "Zuo Zhuan" quoted Confucius in the twenty-fifth year of Duke Xiang's saying: "Words without writing can travel far." Classical Chinese has writing, so it can travel far.This "far" probably referred to space at that time, and now we have to add another content to it, time. Let's talk about space first.As mentioned in Section 3.1.3 above, in the same period, there were differences in the languages ​​of different regions. Among them, the most influential became the lingua franca, and the less influential ones became dialects; written by the subject.General use has superiority, and this superiority must be compelled to be used by people.Take the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period as an example. If the scholar class wanted to get ahead, they had to go to various countries to earn a salary. Confucius was like this, and so was Mencius.The range of activities of these two is not large enough, let us give one outstanding one, that is Zhang Yi.He is from the state of Wei, and his activities are not only in the eastern countries, but also in Qin and Chu.Presumably he also had to write something. If he wrote it, he could only use classical Chinese like "Warring States Policy", otherwise, the king of Qin or Chu would not be able to understand it, and the purpose of Qianlu would be in vain.Han Fei had a book, but his country didn't pay much attention to it, and it was passed on to Qin State, where he was favored by Qin Shihuang.Qin Shihuang was able to look at it effortlessly, that's because the chapters such as "Lonely Wrath" and "Five Beetles" were written in classical Chinese like "Han Feizi".This compulsion to use is more obvious in later generations. One reason is that the area of ​​Chinese has expanded, and the other reason is that classical Chinese has long been a time-honored brand.For example, Wang Anshi in the Middle Ages was from Jiangxi, and Kang Youwei in modern times was from Cantonese. Both of them wrote ten-thousand-character books. If classical Chinese was not allowed, it would be very difficult, because the emperor could not understand it due to space constraints (differences in dialects).The above is speaking from the human side, and it cannot be avoided.From the perspective of writing, the superiority is even more obvious. It is written in classical Chinese, and everyone who understands the writing can be happy.Over the past two thousand years, there have been no classics in classical Chinese, and even a little bit is enough to make a fortune. However, it is amazing that no matter how many types of dialects there are and how big the differences are, as long as you understand the language, you can learn from it.The general use of classical Chinese, which breaks the geographical restrictions, is not available in any dialect. Let's talk about time.The movement of space can go far, sometimes it may not be very obvious. For example, people in the Central Plains can't feel it because they use the common language.Time travels and distance is different, but everyone can feel it.In this respect, classical Chinese is like a rare monster, which has been operating almost unchanged for three thousand years or so.I remember the French philosopher Descartes said: "Reading a good book is like talking to a noble ancient man." This kind of enjoyment is obviously the easiest for people who use Chinese, because we have classical Chinese that runs through ancient and modern times.This superiority of classical Chinese can also be divided into two aspects.One is "reading".For example, the first "Guanju", of course Confucius read it.Afterwards, the Confucian classics teachers of the Han Dynasty, the Confucianists of the Song Dynasty, the Sinologists of the Qing Dynasty, as well as the poets of all dynasties, Mr. Dong Hong and Meng Tong, etc., of course all read it.Reading, understanding will not be the same, for example, teachers of scriptures can see "virtue of concubine" from it, gifted scholars and beautiful women can see "whatever you want" and "tossing and turning".What is worth noting here is not that the benevolent sees benevolence and the wise see wisdom, but that understanding can be achieved without effort.That's right, a large number of classics that followed were compiled into classics, histories, sons, and collections. As long as you want to read and are willing to read, it is not difficult to understand.In short, it is time that will not give any trouble.The same is true for reading, and the same is true for "writing". As long as the words used do not exceed the lexical and syntactic system of classical Chinese, you don't have to worry about not being able to pass on.As Sima Qian said in "Bao Ren An Shu": "I also want to study the changes of the past and the present by studying the heaven and man, and become a family statement....The famous mountain in Tibet is passed on to its people." "The famous mountain in Tibet" can also be passed down, It is because the essence is entrusted to classical Chinese, and classical Chinese has the magic power to break the time limit. It is precisely because classical Chinese has the magical power of breaking the constraints of time and space, so a large number of people who can write in the past are willing to use it, but cannot do without it.As a result, in the initial stage, it is easy to prosper and grow; after it is formed, its power becomes stronger and stronger, and its position becomes stronger and stronger. 3.2.7 Classical Chinese has the power to make people like Some things are useful, we cannot use them, but we may not be willing to use them.For example, medicine is like this. "Good medicine tastes bitter and is good for the disease". Although it is beneficial, it is bitter after all, so we have to eat it with a frown.Classical Chinese is not like this. Although it is not easy to learn, but after learning, you can open the door of classics, and there is much joy in it.It's gratifying, it's inevitable that you can't bear it, so you will actively or at least unconsciously force it to add fuel and vinegar.This is also a factor for the prosperity of classical Chinese, and it is a very important factor.There is much to be desired in classical Chinese, but this point of view needs to be explained first.One is to say that there are all things that are gratifying, but not all of them are gratifying; but we must admit that there are indeed many things that are gratifying.The second is to say a lot, because many things that are not gratifying and not valued by others have been eliminated by the sieve of time one after another, and most of what remains is the essence.Rich in essence, this is another positive value of classical Chinese. Generally speaking, the cuteness of the text should come from literary works. The concept of "literature" is foreign, and it is not compatible with our language.For example, the so-called "classical literature" can be seen everywhere. If you look at what it refers to, "Zuo Zhuan" and the philosophers are at the top of the list. This may seem strange to Westerners.Their so-called literature refers to those purely lyrical creations, which are usually divided into prose, poetry, novels, and dramas.Here, in order to convince them, we give examples to prove cuteness, and we also use these four as the outline.Let me talk about "prose" first.Many people feel that in this regard, Chinese and Western traditions are different.We seldom write works that focus on feeling in the air like Montaigne in France and Lamu in England;Writing in this way is not a small achievement, and there are quite a few works worth reading.The more prominent ones are the small fus of the Six Dynasties (it can also be said to be between prose and poetry), the miscellaneous posts of Jin people and the small slips of later generations, and essays with various names such as "Dongpo Zhilin" and "Valley Inscriptions". Classes, a large number of poems, words, etc., are all simple in language and long in meaning, with overtones and flavors, which should be said to be the top grade of Chinese prose.Next is "Poetry".Everyone knows that in this regard, the number of authors, the wealth of production, and the high level of achievement are simply difficult to express in words.Of course, the most time-honored ones are the three hundred and five articles, all of which are full of style and most of the elegant ones, all of which are written with deep emotion and beautiful words.It was followed by "Chu Ci", such as "Li Sao" and "Nine Songs", which have been read repeatedly by literati for two thousand years, and each time they read it, they sing and sigh three times.After that, the development of poetry became more and more prosperous. The Han Yuefu system compiled as many as one hundred volumes, and the poetry collection of Tang people was "Full Tang Poetry", with as many as nine hundred volumes.There are more other collections besides the general collection, so I can't mention more, but only one, "Tao Yuanming Collection", almost everyone can't bear to release it, and Su Shi even reconciled it as it is.After the Tang Dynasty, the style of poetry also branched out and became Ci. It is difficult to express the soft and gentle feelings in poetry, and the achievements are also very remarkable. According to the compiled books, there is old "Sixty Famous Poems of the Song Dynasty", and the new one is "All Poems". Song Ci".The fact that the series is "Complete" does not mean that it has been completed. For example, people in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties still wrote poems, and people in the Qing Dynasty still liked to write lyrics, and both of them produced many famous writers.In short, in terms of poetry, there are too many lovely works. Until today, everyone still can't leave "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty".The third is "fiction".Novels come out of street talk, and there are more vernacular, and the achievements are far beyond what classical Chinese can match.But classical Chinese is not without sight.Most of the ancient ones are collected in "Taiping Guangji", because the purpose is to collect widely, and it is inevitable that flaws and good ones will be mixed.Among them are the legends of Tang people, which can be found in Mr. Lu Xun's "Legends of Tang and Song Dynasties". Although most of the contents are stories about the separation and reunion of gifted scholars and beautiful women, they are written with lingering emotions and beautiful words.Although the number of classical Chinese novels after that was not many, their achievements should not be underestimated.It is worth mentioning that there are more than 400 short stories, most of which are written with novel plots and beautiful artistic conceptions. Compared with famous Western short stories such as Maupassant and Chekhov, they are probably even worse.The fourth is "drama", which is called "qu" in the local area.The scripts handed down from the Yuan Dynasty began in the Yuan Dynasty, and the content includes two parts: the lyrics and the words.Composers wrote music with the intention of being popular, so they basically used the "language" of the time; but they also wanted to seek beauty and elegance, so they had to absorb elements of classical Chinese, especially the lyrics. Because it follows the beautiful technique of poetry.For example, "Flowers fall into the river and the water is red, with all kinds of worries, and no words to complain about the east wind", "Who is the best place to enjoy the beautiful scenery on a good day", and the long section of "Peach Blossom Fan: Aftertaste", all of which are familiar and well-known to everyone. Love to read. Check our literature collection, besides the above four categories of works, there are many more that everyone loves to read.Taking the early days as an example, "Mencius" is reasoning, "Zuo Zhuan" and "Historical Records" are about events. No matter how Westerners look at them, we always feel that they are full of literary meaning, and we want to read them again after reading them.From the Han and Wei Dynasties to the end of the Qing Dynasty, there are at least a thousand or eight hundred species that can be selected and incorporated into this pile, right?I remember a friend who was good at reading once said that once his living conditions improved, he would like to build a never-ending study room and put all his favorite books in it.Mainly works in classical Chinese.So he thought about the bibliography first, after thinking about it, the bibliography was almost done, and then he thought about the bookshelf and the house, but he smiled and gave up, because there are many books that are all cute, and more books are partly cute, and there are too many books. Can't do it.This is the case with classical Chinese classics. Needless to say, poems, songs, etc., even if you look at the subject matter and infer that it is boring, such as "Shui Jing Zhu", when you open the book, you will find it very interesting and you are willing to read it. The cuteness of classical Chinese works also comes from the fact that it has more and more ingenious rhetorical techniques.The so-called rhetoric is the use of language to do more with less.It is easy to say that it is easy to spend less money, and it is simple in language.It’s not easy to say how to do more, because the content of the matter is too complicated. There are things, things, reasons, etc. on the outside, and emotions, ideas, and environments on the inside. Different content has different requirements and expression methods.Generally speaking, it is one who knows and feels something and tells others. Because of rhetoric, what others get can be the same as oneself or even more real.In this regard, there is a lot of wealth in classical Chinese, which cannot be introduced in a few pages. If you are interested, you can read "Compilation of Ancient Chinese Rhetoric Materials" by Zheng Dian et al. Chen Wangdao's "Rhetoric" (all tend to give examples) and other books.Rhetoric, perhaps bordering on rhetoric, why is it endearing?It's because on the one hand, it's like watching a performance, when we are so good at it, we can't help but be overwhelmed.这也是一种享受，诗话、词话中推举的“春风又'绿'江南岸”，“红杏枝头春意'闹'”等都是此类。另一方面是学以致用，或说记以备用。俗语说，“千古文章一大抄”，后来的妙言妙语大多是由前人的妙言妙语中化出来的。还常常是来自照抄。如措辞委婉，文言有不少招数，这就可以记住，比如碰到接受礼貌的馈赠，要表示不好意思，就可以照抄《左传》，说“敢不拜嘉”（襄公四年），碰到接受重大的任务，要表示不好意思，就可以照抄，说“非曰能之，愿学焉”（《先进》），这样一来，自己的作为就不像是爱小和自大，而是相当典雅。读，享受，用，有利，其结果当然是爱而好之。 爱好还必然要表现在“写”的方面。喜欢足球会成为球迷，学梅兰芳会成为梅派。爱好文言也是这样，读，觉得好，到自己拿笔，不知不觉地就会用那个调调。从魏晋到“五四”以前，时间将近两千年，舞文弄墨的多到数不清，拿起笔总是之乎者也；就是大力写白话作品的，如曹雪芹，写《葬花词》，写《芙蓉诔》，以及大量的诗，还是用文言。好古的如韩、柳、欧、苏以及桐城、阳湖等，就更不用说了。更值得注意的是“五四”以后，林琴南之流可以不提，就是大声疾呼提倡用白话写的人，因为会文言，有时还不免技痒，与老友往还，书札用文言，以至发表，有时还是来几首律绝。这方面的表现都可以证明，文言形成之后，脱离口语，脱离群众，而且不很容易学会，可是有大量的人就是爱它，并用读和写的方式支持它。