Literacy in Ancient China: A Culturally and Socially Situated Role in Historical Times

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the unique social and cultural roles of Chinese written language in ancient China. In adopting a sociocultural perspective, the authors discuss national, cultural, and institutional identities in the context of Chinese written language and accentuate linguistic features that facilitated social and cultural functions of character writing in ancient China. They argue that characteristics of Chinese written language have lent themselves well to the formation of a Chinese cultural identity across a nation with vastly different dialects and an expansive landmass over a long history. In addition, the written language has helped to maintain political, ideological, and dynastic governance throughout history. The authors also discuss Chinese calligraphy practices and calligraphy as an art form, history writing, and verbal taboos in ancient China. The chapter ends with implications of the nature of Chinese script for policy-makers, educators, and general readers.KeywordsChinese CharacterOral LanguageTang DynastyChinese ScriptAlphabetic LanguageThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.