The first person to publicly promote the vernacular movement was a famous writer and revolutionary in the late Qing Dynasty. His name was Lu Xun. In 1918, Lu Xun published a novel in vernacular such as A Madman's Diary, which created a precedent for vernacular literature and had a profound impact on modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun was also one of the important drivers of the vernacular movement, and his contributions were widely recognized.
The first person to publicly promote the vernacular movement was Lin Zexu of the Qing Dynasty. In 1839, Lin Zexu published the article " Hai Rui Dismissal ", which used the vernacular language to make more people able to read and understand classical Chinese. This was considered the beginning of the vernacular movement and laid the foundation for the development of vernacular.
The vernacular movement referred to a new literary writing style and reading method that became popular in the mainland of China from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Its characteristic was to use simple, clear, and easy-to-understand language to express ideas. It opposed classical Chinese and old-style literature, which reflected real life as the theme and targeted the masses as readers. The vernacular movement had a profound impact on Chinese literature, culture, and reading methods. It was regarded as the foundation of modern Chinese literature.
The first person to write vernacular Chinese was Sherlock, the inventor of movable type printing during the Song Dynasty.
Vernacular Chinese refers to words that are easy to understand and express simple and clear expressions. Its appearance can be traced back to ancient Chinese literary works such as Dream of the Red Chamber. But the first person to clearly define the vernacular may be difficult to determine.
The one who advocated vernacular writing was Song Yingxing, a writer from the Ming Dynasty. In the early 16th century, he advocated the use of vernacular writing to oppose the traditional classical Chinese writing. This vernacular writing was also known as the "Da Bai Hua". It was an easy to understand language form that laid the foundation for later literary works.
The first person to initiate the vernacular in China was Lang Maoshan of the Ming Dynasty. He created the first vernacular writing, The Madman's Diary, around 1600. This article, which described the story of a crazy man, was regarded as the pioneer of vernacular writing.
In the history of Chinese literature, Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty was the pioneer of vernacular poetry. Bai Juyi was a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. His poetry style was easy to understand and close to reality, which was the first of its kind. His representative works include Song of Everlasting Regret and Song of Pipa.
The vernacular was proposed at the end of the Qing Dynasty with the rise of the New Culture Movement. At that time, many scholars believed that the traditional classical Chinese was outdated and could not adapt to the needs of modern communication, so they advocated the use of vernacular Chinese. The characteristics of vernacular writing were concise, clear, easy to understand, and better able to express thoughts and emotions.
Hu Shi was one of the pioneers of the vernacular movement. In 1913, he published the "Manifest of the Vernacular Literature Movement" and proposed the concept of "literary revolution", advocating the replacement of classical Chinese with vernacular Chinese, laying the foundation for the modern Chinese literature.
Lu Xun wasn't the first person to translate the vernacular works of shakespeare.