Vernacular Chinese is a style of written Chinese associated with Standard Mandarin. This term is not to be confused with the various vernacular spoken varieties of Chinese. Since the early twentieth century, Vernacular Chinese has been the standard of writing for speakers of all varieties of spoken Chinese, succeeding Classical Chinese, the written language used in China since Confucius. The term Standard Written Chinese now often refers to Vernacular Chinese. Traditional Chinese characters are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiǎntǐzì; also called 简化字/簡化字, jiǎnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Pinyin (拼音, pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration to roman script) for Standard Mandarin used in the... The Chinese written language consists of a writing system stretching back nearly 4000 years. ... Standard Mandarin refers to the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. ... This article addresses vernacular language; see also vernacular architecture. ... Spoken Chinese The Chinese spoken language(s) comprise(s) many regional variants. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Spoken Chinese The Chinese spoken language(s) comprise(s) many regional variants. ... Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese (文言, pinyin: wényán, literal meaning: literary language or 古文, literal: ancient written language) is a traditional style of written Chinese prose using grammar and vocabulary very different from any modern spoken form of Chinese. ... The Great Wall of China, stretching over 6,700 km, was erected beginning in the 3rd century BC to guard the north from raids by men on horses. ... Confucius (traditionally September 8? 551 BCE– 479 BCE) was a famous sage and social philosopher of China whose teachings deeply influenced East Asia during twenty centuries. ...

During the Zhou Dynasty, Old Chinese was the spoken and written form of Chinese, and was used to write classical Chinese texts. Starting from the Qin Dynasty, however, spoken Chinese began to evolve away from the written standard, and the written standard, still based on the language of the Zhou Dynasty, was codified and fossilized into Classical Chinese, even while spoken Chinese evolved further and further away. The difference gradually grew larger with the passage of time. By the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, people began to write in their vernacular dialects in the form of bianwen (变文 [變文] biànwén, "altered language") and yulu (语录 [語錄] yǔlù, "language record"). During the Ming and Qing dynasties, vernacular dialects began to be used in novels, but were not generally used in formal writing, which continued to use Classical Chinese. Alternative meaning: Zhou Dynasty (690 CE - 705 CE) The Zhou Dynasty (周朝; Wade-Giles: Chou Dynasty) (late 10th century BC to late 9th century BC - 256 BC) followed the Shang (Yin) Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty in China. ... Old Chinese, or Archaic Chinese (上古汉语), refers to the Chinese spoken during the Zhou Dynasty (10th century BC - 256 BC). ... The Qin Dynasty (Wade-Giles) (秦朝 221 BC - 207 BC) was preceded by the Zhou Dynasty and followed by the Han Dynasty in China. ... Alternative meaning: Zhou Dynasty (690 CE - 705 CE) The Zhou Dynasty (周朝; Wade-Giles: Chou Dynasty) (late 10th century BC to late 9th century BC - 256 BC) followed the Shang (Yin) Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty in China. ... Tang Dynasty (唐朝 618-907) followed the Sui Dynasty and preceded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China. ... Alternative meaning: Song Dynasty (420-479) The Song dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝) was a ruling dynasty in China from 960-1279. ... The Ming Dynasty (Chinese: 明朝; Pinyin: míng cháo) was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, though claims to the Ming throne (now collectively called the Southern Ming) survived until 1662. ... The Qing Dynasty (Manchu: daicing gurun; Chinese: 清朝; pinyin: qīng cháo; Wade-Giles: ching chao), sometimes known as the Manchu Dynasty, was founded by the Manchu clan Aisin Gioro, in what is today northeast China expanded into China proper and the surrounding territories of Inner Asia, establishing the...

Jin Shengtan, who edited several novels in vernacular Chinese, is widely regarded as the champion of literature in the vernacular style. However, it was not until after the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and the promotion by scholars such as Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Chen Duxiu, and Qian Xuantong that Vernacular Chinese gained importance. Classical Chinese became increasingly viewed as an archaic fossil that hindered education and literacy, and Vernacular Chinese became viewed as mainstream by most people. Along with the popularity of the vernacular language in books are the addition of punctuation (traditional Chinese literature was entirely unpunctuated) and writing numbers using Arabic numerals. Jin Shengtan (金聖歎, pinyin: Jīn Shèngtàn) (1608-1661) was a Chinese editor, writer and critic, who has been called the champion of the bai hua (vernacular) Chinese literature. ... Students in Beijing rallied during the May Fourth Movement. ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Hu Shih (Simplified: 胡适, Traditional: 胡適, Pinyin: Hú Shì), (December 17, 1891-February 24, 1962) was a Chinese philosopher and essayist. ... Lu Xun (Chinese: 鲁迅, pinyin: Lǔ Xùn) or Lu Hsün (September 25, 1881 – October 19, 1936), is often considered the founder of modern baihua (白話, vernacular) Chinese literature. ... Chen Duxiu (October 8, 1879 - May 27, 1942) played many different roles in Chinese history. ... Qian Xuantong (錢玄同 in pinyin: Qián Xuántóng) (1887-1939) was a Chinese phonetician who promoted vernacular Chinese (baihua). ... Punctuation marks are written symbols that do not correspond to either phonemes (sounds) of a spoken language nor to lexemes (words and phrases) of a written language, but which serve to organize or clarify written language. ... Arabic numerals (also called Hindu numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals) are by far the most common form of symbolism used to represent numbers. ...

Since the late 1920s, all Chinese newspapers, books, and official and legal documents have been written in Vernacular Chinese. However, the tone and the choice of vocabulary may be formal or informal, depending on the context. The more formal the Vernacular Chinese is, the greater resemblance it bears to Classical Chinese. It is however very rare for a text to be written in predominantly Classical Chinese. Reading the newspaper: Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. ... A book is a collection of leaves of paper, parchment or other material, bound together along one edge within covers. ... This article is about law in society. ... A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ...

See Chinese grammar for the grammar of the modern standard written language, which is Vernacular Chinese. This article or section uses Ruby annotation. ...

Some other forms of spoken Chinese, notably Cantonese, Shanghainese and Hokkien / Taiwanese, have additional characters used for writing vernacular speech in their own languages. Unlike Vernacular Chinese, these written forms have not been standardized and are used in informal contexts only. They are usually used in advertisements and legal records to accurately record dialogue and colloquial expressions. Cantonese (廣東話/广东话, lit. ... Shanghainese (上海話; pinyin: Shànghǎihuà, Shanghainese in SAMPA: [ zA~ hE hE wo ]) is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in the city of Shanghai. ... Mǐn N n (Chinese: 閩南語), also spelt as Minnan or Min-nan; native name B ; literally means Southern Min or Southern Fujian and refers to the local language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China. ... 漢字 in Traditional Chinese and other languages. ...