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Classical Chinese
Sign in to saveAlso known as Wenyan, zh-classical, lzh, Literary Chinese, Wen yan wen
language of the Sino-Tibetan language family in written form (ISO 639-3: lzh) as opposed to the spoken, known as Old Chinese (ISO 639-3: och) or Middle Chinese (ISO 639-3: ltc)
Classical Chinese is the written form of Chinese from the Sino-Tibetan language family, distinct from its earlier spoken varieties known as Old Chinese and Middle Chinese. It matters because it represents a major literary and intellectual tradition that shaped East Asian culture and continues to be studied for understanding Chinese history, philosophy, and literature.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
~20 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Alternative Chinese name Chinese古文 Literal meaningancient writing
Vietnamese name Vietnamese alphabet Hán văn văn ngôn
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Classical Chinese” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.