Title: Introduction to Chinese Cultural History / The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature / 03.1 Establishing the Language and Forms of Modern Writing

Front: What was the precursor to 白话文?
Back: “The classical or literary language, wenyan (文言), that served as the only written medium for official purposes had changed little over two millennia. It was vastly different from modern spoken Chinese in both structure and vocabulary and very difficult to learn.”

Front: What is meant by the nickname eight-legged essay or bāgǔwén 八股文?
Back: - "many literati decried the artificiality of formal prose, the principal mode of written expression in the late imperial period.",
- "nicknamed [...] for its tight formal constraints",
- continues to be used for "slavish adherence to literary formulas and stereotypes",
- the Wikipedia article says that 八股文 is also a concrete form of essay that sounds shockingly rigid.

Front: Was there any other usage of written vernacular before May Fourth?
Back: - "As early as the medieval period a written vernacular much closer to the language of speech began to appear in popular literature
  - (Buddhist sutras and
  - short stories based on the performances of professional storytellers),"
- "in fiction and drama of the Ming and Qīng dynasties"
- education reformers, end of 19^th century:
  - "baihua journals and
  - primers on practical matters—
  - especially for women and others just learning to rea"

Front: Stylistically, what emerged in poetry in the Late Qīng?
Back: At the same time as the first baihua journals on practical matters:
- "a group of poets emerged who attempted to combine a greatly simplified style with
- lively emotional, political, and social content
- (see “The Late Qing Poetry Revolution”).",
- "still classical idiom".

Front: What was the language of early newspapers like?
Back: Still 文言 wényán, but simplified in structure and vocabulary, even the earliest ones.

Front: What did Liáng Qǐchāo try to do with newspapers?
Back: - Liáng Qǐchāo had a "nationalist mission", wanting to inform citizens to build a "strong, modern China",
- developed "hybrid of wenyan and baihua—called “new style prose,” or 新文体" for his newspapers
  - “became the standard for newspaper Chinese for more than a generation.”

Front: What hampered the modernization of drama in the late Qīng?
Back: The "tradition of performing in regional dialects"

Front: What was the attitude of New Culture intellectuals towards wenyan?
Back: - "Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu advocated the complete abandonment of wenyan
- and set the unification of writing and speech as one of the stylistic goals of modern literature"

Front: May Fourth and New Culture, this time from the perspective of Charles Laughlin and not Denton who wrote the historical overview: are they the same?
Back: "The May Fourth movement merged with the New Culture movement"

Front: What was the first important modern literary organization?
Back: "China’s first important modern literary organization, the Literary Association"

Front: At the time of the founding of the Literary Association, what kind of fiction took on a major role?
Back: - "Within fiction, realism took on the role of an almost ideological norm."
- "the proper form of writing would capture the truth immanent in reality"
- "less as creative expression than as a vehicle for [...] truth"