The Literary Revolution in China

Abstract

In order to appreciate the full significance of the literary revolution in China, the reader will do well to recall the history of the rise of the national languages of modern Europe. Hardly five centuries have passed since Latin was the recognized literary language of the whole of Europe. Italy was the first to revolt. Dante, Petrarch (in his youthful days) and Boccaccio produced their best works in the dialect of Tuscany, and the popularity of their writings succeeded in finally making the Tuscan dialect the national language of the Italian people. By that time, the dialect of Paris was fast becoming the official language of France. In 1539, Francis I ordered that all public documents should be in the French of Paris; though it was still foreign to nearly half the population of the kingdom. In the middle of the sixteenth century, there arose the group of French poets known as the Pléiade, who consciously advocated the use of the French language as a means of poetic expression. Rabelais and Montaigne achieved an even greater success in prose. Thus by the end of the sixteenth century the French of Paris became the undisputed national language of France.

Chapter Note: The Chinese Social and Political Science Review. Feb., 1922. Vol. 6. No. 2. pp. 91–100.