Word.ws English Dictionary

Literary Chinese

Literary Chinese proper noun: the written Chinese language used from the end of the Han Dynasty (220 C.E.) to the early 20th century. In Chinese, 文言 (wényán, “literary writing”).

Proper noun

Literary Chinese

  1. The written Chinese language used from the end of the Han Dynasty (220 C.E.) to the early 20th century. In Chinese, 文言 (wényán, “literary writing”).
  2. The written Chinese language used from the Zhou Dynasty (1045 B.C.E.) (especially the Spring and Autumn Period), through to the end of the Han Dynasty (220 C.E.). In Chinese, 古文 (gǔwén, “Ancient Writing”). The language of many classics of Chinese literature.
  3. Written Chinese for this entire period, without distinction.

Synonyms of Literary Chinese

Questions about Literary Chinese

What does Literary Chinese mean?
Literary Chinese means the written Chinese language used from the end of the Han Dynasty (220 C.E.) to the early 20th century. In Chinese, 文言 (wényán, “literary writing”).
What part of speech is Literary Chinese?
Literary Chinese is a proper noun.

Words near Literary Chinese in the dictionary

  1. literarist
  2. literarists
  3. literary
  4. literary agent
  5. literary agents
  6. Literary Chinese
  7. literary criticism
  8. literary device
  9. literary devices
  10. literary executor
  11. literary executors

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Literary Chinese (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Literary Chinese.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/literary_chinese. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.