History
During the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC), Old Chinese was the spoken and written form of Chinese, and was used to write classical Chinese texts. Starting from the Qin Dynasty (221 BC), however, spoken Chinese began to evolve faster than the evolution of written Chinese. The difference gradually grew larger with the passage of time. By the time of the Tang and Song dynasties (618–1279), people began to write in their vernacular dialects in the form of bianwen (simplified Chinese: 变文; traditional Chinese: 變文; pinyin: biànwén; literally "altered language") and yulu (simplified Chinese: 语录; traditional Chinese: 語錄; pinyin: yǔlù; literally "language record"), and the spoken language was completely distinct from the still-maintained written standard of classical Chinese. Those not educated in classical Chinese—almost the entirety of the population—could understand only very little of the language. During the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912), vernacular dialects began to be used in novels, but were not generally used in formal writing, which continued to use classical Chinese.
Beijing Mandarin and Jianghuai Mandarin formed the standard for Written vernacular Chinese before and during the Qing dynasty up until its replacement by modern Standard Chinese. This Baihua was used by writers all over China regardless of the dialect they spoke. Chinese writers who spoke other dialects had to use the grammar and vocabulary of Jianghuai and Beijing Mandarin in order for the majority of Chinese to understand their writing; by contrast, Chinese who did not speak southern dialects would not be able to understand a Southern dialect's writing.
Read more about this topic: Written Vernacular Chinese
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