Classical Chinese is so difficult to understand, why did it appear and exist in ancient times?

We must know that the appearance of every thing has its own unique reasons, and the appearance and reasonableness of the classical Chinese, which is very difficult for us to understand, is also timely so, and the emergence of classical Chinese can be said to be an inevitable product, and its existence has both subjective and objective reasons.

The objective reason is that in ancient times, when papermaking was not invented, all the secretaries and articles were engraved on bamboo slips, which was much less efficient than writing on paper, and it was very difficult.

In the long-term development of classical Chinese, concise paragraphs and majestic poems have become a tool for literati to show off their skills, and it is also a manifestation of their own cultural cultivation.

We will find that in ancient times, whether it was a history book or a poetry article, it was all written in classical Chinese, and we all know that classical Chinese is very obscure, why did the ancients use classical Chinese? It seems so strenuous, so let's analyze the reasons below.

First, it is determined by objective facts.

According to historical records, papermaking only appeared in China in the Han Dynasty, and paper was applied in a small area throughout the Han Dynasty. Therefore, this determined that before the Han Dynasty, only writing on silk or bamboo slips could be written. Silk is a very precious thing, and it is impossible to use silk for writing on a large scale.

The second option is the book slip, which is made of bamboo, which is also very expensive and difficult to store, either by engraving or writing on the book, and the efficiency of both writing and engraving is relatively low. Therefore, as a result, the words written or engraved must be extremely concise, and each word has a clear meaning and contains praise and disapproval. Hence the emergence of classical Chinese.

Second: path dependence.

What is path dependence? It's that you used to use an iPhone 7 mobile phone, and the charger is broken, then you can't buy an Android phone charger, because it doesn't match, so you can only buy an Apple charger. The same is true of classical Chinese.

Before the invention of papermaking, the text had to be refined, and after the advent of papermaking, the previous history books, poems, articles, etc. were written by classical Chinese, so they continued to use classical Chinese in the same way as before.

Third: classical Chinese has become a means.

In fact, with paper, I can write a lot of words, but classical Chinese is still relatively concise compared to vernacular Chinese, and one thing can be explained clearly in a few short sentences. Another is that classical Chinese pays attention to allusions, neatness and neatness, and also pays attention to music. And different styles or words are either impassioned or pathetic and indignant.

Poems and articles written in classical Chinese are catchy to read, while articles written in vernacular are much less imposing. For example, I smiled at the sky with a horizontal knife and left the liver and gallbladder two Kunlun. Moreover, classical Chinese also has a lot of modal words, which can better express feelings, such as Liu Bang's "Song of the Great Wind" The wind is blowing and the clouds are flying.

Wega Hai Nei Xi returned to his hometown. Ande warriors guard all sides. Doesn't it read like an emperor?

The most important thing is that because of the various allusions of classical Chinese, the pronunciation and rhythm of classical Chinese have also prompted ancient literati to write articles in classical Chinese to compete whose articles have momentum, or more allusions, or rhythm, or grace, etc., and classical Chinese has become a means of competition.

Therefore, objective reasons have created classical Chinese, while historical reasons have preserved classical Chinese.