The origin of the Westernized vernacular Chinese baihuawen: A re-evaluation of the influence of Western missionaries on Chinese literature

Abstract

The New Literature (xin wenxue 新文学), can be dated to modern China of the 19^th century, when missionaries from the West wrote their own poems, essays and stories in a sort of European-styled vernacular Chinese known as the ouhua baihua 欧化白话 (Europeanized vernacular written language), different from the gu baihua 古白话 (“old” or antique vernacular). Western missionaries were part of the language modernization campaigns during the Late Qing and the May Fourth Movement (1919). They also participated in the New Fiction (xin xiaoshuo 新小说) and National Salvation by Literature (wenxue jiuguo lun 文学救国论) movements and exerted considerable influence upon modern Chinese literature. Their contribution used to be ignored or underestimated by a restricted perspective of inquiry, which should have been corrected by now.

摘要

新文学主要运用的是欧化白话, 它与古白话是不同的, 欧化白话的文学作品早在十九世纪就已经问世, 它是由当时西方传教士书写的, 有诗歌、 散文和小说。 西方传教士还是国语运动的最早推动者, 它与晚清白话文运动和五四白话文运动构成一条国语运动的发展线索。 结合晚清“新小说”运动和“文学救国论”的西方传教士影响, 可以说西方传教士曾经对中国近代的文学变革产生过很大影响, 这一影响以前被我们低估了, 因此受到忽视, 由此需要调整我们的现代文学研究视野。