The Style Of "Child’s Paper" And Transform Of Literary Language In Late Qing Dynasty(1875-1881)

In recent years,some researchers have begun to explore the foreign resources in modern languages and literature from the perspective of the missionary literature.These studies are more conducive to clarifying the development of the vernacular from ancient times to the present,and to deepen the Understanding of complex formation processes of modern vernacular.The style of missionary periodicals has also become an important object for the study of transform of written language in Late Qing Dynasty.Based on the current research results,most of the studies focus on overview and combing,the study of individual cases is still insufficient and needs to be further deepened and refined.The author found that "Child’s Paper",a children’s journal founded in the 1870 s,pioneered the use of Mandarin as the main style in the Chinese periodicals in Late Qing Dynasty.Therefore,this essay considers the "Child’s Paper" as the research object to analyze the stylistic exploration and its place and significance in the transform of written language in Late Qing Dynasty.The essay is divided into five parts.The introduction section will introduce the meaning of this essay,the relevant research status,research methods and framework,besides,it gives the definition on the concept of "style" used in this article.In Chapter One,this essay specifically positions "Child’s Paper" in the context of the stylistic changes of missionary periodicals in Late Qing Dynasty.In Chapter Two,the essay analyzes the vernacular tendency of "Child’s Paper",It discusses that missionaries intended to bring the written language closer to “Mandarin”—a widely used spoken language.Besides,It presents the use of Mandarin and the transitional characteristics of the style.First of all,the essay shows the background of the new changes in the style of periodical,therefor,the discussion and study of Mandarin by missionaries in the middle and late 19 th century should be introduced.Second,the essay compares the first two issues of "Child’s Paper" with the third issue to analyze the reason why missionaries use Mandarin as written language.Then the essay analyze how the “Summary of the Pilgrim’s Progress” published in the magazine rewrites the William Burns’ s Mandarin version of “the Pilgrim’s Progress”,to highlight the development of written Mandarin in this magazine.Finally,the essay analyze the association of the dilemma of the Mandarin writing and style’s hybrid characteristics.In Chapter Three,the essay analyze how the missionary’s pursuit of "unity between language and speaking" promoted Mandarin more in a written form.Firstly,it analyzes how the Europeanization features in style have enriched the Chinese vocabulary and expanded the expressiveness of Chinese.Secondly,this Europeanized characteristic is manifested in the style of literature works,such as poetry,fables,etc.,to a certain extent,it promotes the development of the written language in magazine to be more rigorous,rich and elegant.In the end,the essay reviews and summarize research results of this article,it discusses the impact of this magazine in the context of Christian literature work in the19 th century.On the one hand,the model provided by "Child’s Paper" is not only followed by other missionaries,but also provides useful practical experience for the development of modern national vernacular periodicals.On the other hand,the style of this magazine also witnessed and promoted the process of the transform of written language in Late Qing Dynasty,besides,it provided some reference for the shaping of the vernacular written language in late Qing Dynasty.