The Contestation And Existence:the Modern Fate Of Classical Chinese

In modern times, great changes have taken place in the overall ideology and culture system of China in the double theme of "Dissemination of Western Learning to the Orient" and "the fate of the nation hanging in the balance". Classical Chinese tends to "decline". Vernacular Chinese is used in the society which holds a greatest impact. A transformation on the language carrier and manifestation of Chinese directly influence people’s thought and way of thinking, even decides the transformation of the overall ideology and culture to a certain extent. For nearly a century since vernacular Chinese becomes the mainstream language, Chinese has entered a new era in both connotation and appearance. On the other hand, there have been debates over the process of constructing modern Chinese. Until the contemporary era, we began to think much of the decline of native tongue proficiency and the dilemma of literary creation or Chinese education, there might be dozens of reasons for this, while if we consider the origins and process of the formation of modern Chinese, we can not ignore the significance of Classical Chinese on modern Chinese. If we discuss the status and value of classical Chinese in the context of modern vernacular Chinese, we need review the controversy on classical Chinese in the process of Chinese formation in the past century, meanwhile the actual living condition of classical Chinese should also be investigated.Classical Chinese and "argument on literary and colloquial" formed the focus of the whole society, which actually came to a climax in the May4th Vernacular Movement. In this period, scholars with different views are against classical Chinese and formed a fiction who thought highly of pure vernacular Chinese and another one who try to meliorate based classical Chinese which could be called"classical Chinese defenders". There was a heated argument upon this, which proved to be the most influential one in modern China. The arguments continued in the following century. To a degree, sorting out the argument between classical and vernacular Chinese will clearly see the origin and the thread for the change of modern Chinese, meanwhile we can also seize the tendency of ideology and culture for Chinese society. If we investigate this argument centering on classical Chinese, we should first objectively review and evaluate those notions and cognition those classical-Chinese opponents on the nature and value of classical Chinese. In the May4th Vernacular Movement which called out classical Chinese is passed away, those opponents for classical Chinese were diametrically opposed to those against it. They thought classical Chinese did not pass away, they denied the class attribute of language and thought classical Chinese has particular value and function. This does not mean the defenders are against literature revolution, actually they just tried to change the society through improving Chinese literature, which is unanimous to those opponents, the difference lie in the different cultural logos and ameliorative measures.It used to think the opponents for May4th Vernacular Movement would be actively for vernacular Chinese and call for the end of classical Chinese, however, we relatively lack of those studies that show their understanding on classical Chinese. Through investigation on their diverse views, it can be found that most of them thought highly of the value classical Chinese on the construction of modern Chinese. Analyzing the relationship of the creation of new literature authors and classical Chinese, we can clearly see the understanding of vernacular-Chinese opponents on classical Chinese and their complex thinking towards classical Chinese.Besides May4th Period, the following period until new century and thinking on the features of Chinese were also considered."argument on literary and colloquial" did not come to an end following the end of the May4Vernacular Movement. Discussion on the look and development of Chinese written language lasted for the whole century, new questions appear ed and became the focus. The discussion let people have more chances to think and rethink, which let us be away from those biased opinions and paid close attention to those features of Chinese itself which whole a solid foundation for the study of moder Chinese.It should be noted that classical Chinese never really vanished away though there always arguments towards it. In literary and artistic creation, not only classical Chinese has a great influence on modern Chinese, verse in classical forms were also in use. In social life, classical Chinese played a unique role in both public area and private space. Lastly, the changing process of classical Chinese in Chinese education in also thought-provoking. In modern times, education on classical Chinese declines with the transformation of the whole education system. In recent years, people began to pay more attention to the impact classical Chinese and traditional culture on mother tongue education, recollection and discussion on the portion of literary and colloquial in Chinese education and pedagogics have been getting deeper and more mature.In all, this paper investigated the process that vernacular Chinese became the mainstream and the interaction between classical and vernacular Chinese in the last century; it argues that in the history and reality that taking vernacular Chinese as the mainstream, classical Chinese should also be considered and reviewed which will be helpful for the development of moder Chinese; the actual condition of classical Chinese in the context of modern time is also considered; it considered the development of classical Chinese in Chinese education, the change of Chinese notions and the reformation of Chinese education.