Vernacular Chinese: The Great Thief and Great Shame of the Nation -- It Must Be Eradicated Before Our Nation Can Truly Rise!

2006/10/9 12:06:27

A poem by Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán:

Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy, in vernacular script they came,
Chinese and foreign teachings and uses contended in tangled strife.
Deeply they struck the nation's pulse and the people's roots,
racing to imitate Britain and Japan.
A few cold words sank into a sea of rage,
a chest of hot blood turned to drifting cloud.
European winds and American rains are loathed to this day, and everywhere one hears hoarse cries from raving voices.

There was vernacular in ancient times too, as in the novels and dramatic songs of the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The distinction between literary Chinese and vernacular is analogous to the difference between written and spoken language. When the Manchu replaced the Ming, Manchu-influenced official speech became widespread, the entering tone was lost, and the national pronunciation perished. The sounds of Han and Tang survive only in fragments in the Southeast. What is called "vernacular Chinese" today is the deluded and nation-wrecking nonsense of ignorant fools from the May Fourth era, who lapped up the leftovers of Japanese pirates and Western bandits. Today's so-called vernacular Chinese is, in truth, the white flag of surrender that our great China has raised before the Japanese pirates and Western bandits.

The scoundrels of the May Fourth movement forgot their ancestors and swallowed Chinese and Western learning whole without chewing. They failed to recognize their own treasures and defiled themselves by consuming others' spittle. Compared to the Qin book-burnings, the Qing literary inquisition, and the Cultural Revolution's destruction, they were even worse. Confucius was limited in his knowledge and insight, yet his knowledge and insight still far exceeded those of the May Fourth scoundrels, for they were at least his own, drawn from his own heart. Lu Xun, Hu Shi, and their ilk had no knowledge or insight of their own. They took the knowledge of Japanese pirates and Western bandits as their own, spreading their poison across the nine provinces -- criminals against the nation, worse than the tyrant of Qin, the traitor Qin Hui, or the castrated eunuch cliques.

To eradicate vernacular Chinese is not merely to eradicate the outward traces of vernacular Chinese -- the very root that produced this vernacular Chinese must be eradicated. The reason this monstrosity of vernacular Chinese could spread so widely through the world is entirely because those without their own knowledge and insight run rampant. A person without their own knowledge and insight is not a person. A nation without its own knowledge and insight is not a nation. Those who claim universal applicability, donning the names of "science," "democracy," and "globalization" -- these are mere labels. No such monsters exist in the real world!

As times change, so do opportunities. Since there was the enterprise of vernacular Chinese destroying literary Chinese, there must also be the retribution of vernacular Chinese being destroyed in turn. Retribution is the human heart. Vernacular Chinese, conceived through violation by Eastern poison and Western poison, born impure and unclean -- to use such a foul and impure thing as the refined and heavenly voice of a great nation is utterly impossible. Vernacular Chinese: the great thief and great shame of the nation -- it must be eradicated before our nation can truly rise!