Editing Written vernacular Chinese (section)

== Literature ==
{{See also|Chinese grammar}}
{{New Culture Movement|expanded=Practice}}
The early modern period saw the first significant development of ''baihua'' novels. [[Jin Shengtan]], who edited several vernacular novels in the 17th century, is widely regarded as a pioneer of vernacular Chinese literature. His vernacular edition of the classic novel ''[[Water Margin]]'' greatly raised the status of vernacular novels. During the late Qing, activists like [[Liang Qichao]] argued for the simplicity of ''baihua'' and its utility for increasing literacy rates. However, it was not until after the onset of the [[May Fourth Movement]] in 1919 and the promotion of vernacular writing by public intellectuals—such as reformer [[Hu Shih]], writers [[Chen Hengzhe]], [[Lu Xun]], and [[Qian Xuantong]], and the revolutionary [[Chen Duxiu]]—that vernacular Chinese gained widespread importance. In particular, Lu Xun's ''[[The True Story of Ah Q]]'' is generally accepted as the first modern work to fully utilize vernacular language.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Luo |first=Jing |title=Over a Cup of Tea: An Introduction to Chinese Life and Culture |publisher=University Press of America |year=2004 |isbn=0-7618-2937-7}}</ref>

During this period, ''baihua'' literature is also considered to be ideologically progressive.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Deng |first=Wei |date=March 2009 |script-title=zh:试论晚清白话文运动的文化逻辑 |url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edscoj&AN=edscoj.dylc200903014&site=eds-live |journal=Dongyue Tribune |volume=30 |issue=3 |no-pp=y |via=EBSCO}}</ref> On one hand, reformers aggressively debated over the use of loanwords and the ideology of literature and public acceptance of new genres,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Liu |first=Bannong |date=1 May 1917 |script-title=zh:我之文学改良观 |url=http://img.dachengdata.com/n/dcjour/jour/dacheng/20332915/06b037d46e644fe89b204ce95995b381/8e21af3b7b22294b09815aa578fd2815.shtml?de=141&ds=63&cpage=63&t=5 |language=zh |volume=3 |issue=3 |via=Dacheng Data |script-journal=zh:新青年}}</ref> while the consensus became clear that the imposition of Literary Chinese was a hindrance to education and literacy, and ultimately social progress within China. The work of Lu Xun and others did much to advance this view. Vernacular Chinese soon came to be viewed as mainstream by most people. Along with the growing popularity of vernacular writing in books in this period was the acceptance of punctuation, modelled after what was used in Western languages (traditional Chinese literature used almost no punctuation), and the use of [[Arabic numerals]]. Following the [[1911 Revolution]], successive governments continuously carried out a progressive and national education system to include primary and secondary education. All the curricula were in vernacular Chinese. Prolific writers such as Lu Xun and [[Bing Xin]] published popular works and appeared in literary journals of the day, which also published essays and reviews providing a theoretical background for the vernacular writing, such as Lu's "[[Diary of a Madman (Lu Xun)|Diary of a Madman]]", which provoked a spirited debate in contemporary journals. Systematic education, talented authors and an active scholastic community closely affiliated with the education system all contributed to the establishment of the vernacular written language in a short amount of time.

Since the late 1920s, nearly all Chinese newspapers, books, and official and legal documents have been written in vernacular Standard Chinese. However, the tone or [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]] and the choice of vocabulary may have been formal or informal, depending on the context. Generally, the more formal the register of vernacular Chinese, the greater the resemblance to Literary Chinese; modern writing lies on a continuum between the two. Since the transition, it has been extremely rare for a text to be written predominantly in Literary Chinese. Until the 1970s, the legal code of the Republic of China was written in Literary Chinese, though in a form replete with modern expressions and constructions that would have been foreign to ancient writers. Similarly, until the end of the 20th century, men of letters, especially in Taiwan, exchanged personal letters using literary stock phrases for openings, greetings, and closings, and using vernacular Chinese (albeit heavily influenced by the literary language) for the body. Nevertheless, only well-educated individuals in modern times have full reading comprehension of Literary texts, and very few are able to write proficiently in Literary Chinese. Presently, the ability to read some Literary Chinese is taught using familiar character forms: simplified throughout mainland China, and traditional in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. In the latter, Tang poetry is taught starting from elementary school and classical prose taught throughout lower and upper secondary schools.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Though it is rare to encounter fully Literary texts in modern times, it is just as rare to see texts of a considerable length <em>only</em> employ colloquial Chinese resources and exclude all Literary constructions and vocabulary. Despite initial intentions on the part of reformers to create a written language that closely mirrors the colloquial Mandarin dialects and to expunge classical influences from the language for the sake of modernization, it became clear to users of the new written standard that the admixture of a certain proportion of Literary grammatical constructions and vocabulary into ''baihuawen'' was unavoidable and serves as an important means of conveying tone and register. Thus, for the vernacular language used in official settings like academic and literary works or government communications (e.g. in academic papers, textbooks, political speeches, and legal codes), a small number of stock classical constructions and vocabulary items continue to be employed and are subject to additional related requirements relating to classical prosody and parallelism. The use of these structures is a characteristic of formal registers of ''baihuawen'' and distinguishes the formal modern language from conversational ''baihuawen'' on the one hand and fully Literary on the other hand. Though clearly dependent on context and on the personal preferences of the author, analyses of typical 20th-century essays and speeches have yielded a ratio of formal to informal expressions of around 2:3, or 40%.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Feng |first=Shengli |year=2009 |title=On Modern Written Chinese |script-title=zh:論现代漢語書面語 |journal=Journal of Chinese Linguistics |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=145–162 |issn=0091-3723 |jstor=23753618}}</ref> Even in informal personal communications otherwise composed entirely in the vernacular, classical words and usages may still appear every so often. In particular, ''[[chengyu]]'' are used by writers and speakers of all education levels in a variety of contexts.