Abstract:

Dedicated to enlightenment, the late Qing movement of written vernacular Chinese spread both old and new ideas, whereas the May Fourth movement of written vernacular Chinese was an intellectual revolution. Not only did they refuse old ideas, May Fourth literati radically criticized traditional Chinese culture and initiated the modernization of China on both intellectual and social levels. Essentially, the written vernacular Chinese of the late Qing dynasty is a language of instrumentality, whereas that of the May Fourth is a language of thought. The former, mainly including colloquialism and slangs, was an auxiliary language of classical Chinese and unable to articulate ideas as an independent writing system, while the latter, aiming to replace classical Chinese from the outset, eventually developed into a self-sufficient language system known as modern Chinese. This process explains the formation of China's cultural modernity on the linguistic level.

Key words: late Qing written vernacular Chinese, May Fourth written vernacular Chinese, language of instrumentality, language of thought