古文
gǔ wén
Pinyin

Definition

古文
 - 
gǔ wén
  1. old language
  2. the Classics
  3. Classical Chinese as a literary model, esp. in Tang and Song prose
  4. Classical Chinese as a school subject

Character Decomposition

Related Words (20)

中文
Zhōng wén
  1. 1 Chinese language
博文
bó wén
  1. 1 blog article
  2. 2 to write a blog article (netspeak)
原文
yuán wén
  1. 1 original text
古
Gǔ
  1. 1 surname Gu
古代
gǔ dài
  1. 1 ancient times
  2. 2 olden times

Idioms (20)

一失足成千古恨
yī shī zú chéng qiān gǔ hèn
  1. 1 a single slip may cause everlasting sorrow (idiom)
一文不值
yī wén bù zhí
  1. 1 worthless (idiom)
  2. 2 no use whatsoever
一纸空文
yī zhǐ kōng wén
  1. 1 a worthless piece of paper (idiom)
不值一文
bù zhí yī wén
  1. 1 worthless (idiom)
  2. 2 no use whatsoever
亘古不变
gèn gǔ bù biàn
  1. 1 unchanging since times immemorial (idiom)
  2. 2 unalterable
  3. 3 unvarying
  4. 4 monotonous

Sample Sentences

最近我才发现，困扰我许久的问题，都可以在古文中找到答案呢，让我豁然开朗。
zuìjìn wǒ cái fāxiàn ，kūnrǎo wǒ xǔjiǔ de wèntí ，dōu kěyǐ zài gǔwén zhōng zhǎodào dá àn ne ，ràng wǒ huòránkāilǎng 。
Recently I discovered that I can find answers to things that have been troubling me for a while in ancient texts, which makes everything suddenly become clear.
Go to Lesson 
古文是古代的书面语。里面有很多“之”“乎”“者”“也”。现代文都不用了。
gǔwén shì gǔdài de shūmiànyǔ 。lǐmiàn yǒu hěn duō “zhī ”“hū ”“zhě ”“yě ”。xiàndàiwén dōu bù yòng le 。
Classical Chinese is ancient written language. There's lots of “zhī”, “hū”, “zhě” and “yě” in it. Modern written language doesn't use them.
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古文是古代人说的话吗？
gǔwén shì gǔdài rén shuō de huà ma ？
Is classical Chinese what people a long time ago spoke?
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我在背古文。
wǒ zài bèi gǔwén 。
I'm memorizing classical Chinese.
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者……也”，比如Tom是外国人，古文就会写“Tom者，外国人也”。
zhě ……yě ”，bǐrú Tom shì wàiguórén ，gǔwén jiù huì xiě “Tom zhě ，wàiguórén yě ”。
As for “Zhě... yě”, for example: Tom is a foreigner. In classical Chinese you would write “Tom zhě, foreigner yě”.
Go to Lesson 
哈哈！有意思。那古文和现代文还有什么不一样的？
hāhā ！yǒu yìsi 。nà gǔwén hé xiàndàiwén hái yǒu shénme bù yīyàng de ？
Haha! That's interesting. Then what else is different about classical Chinese and modern Chinese?
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挺多的。用的词不一样，古文一个字常常有好几种意思。语法也有很多不一样的地方。
tǐng duō de 。yòng de cí bù yīyàng ，gǔwén yī gè zì chángcháng yǒu hǎo jǐ zhǒng yìsi 。yǔfǎ yě yǒu hěn duō bù yīyàng de dìfang 。
There's a lot. Word usage is different. In classical Chinese, one word often has many different meanings. The grammar is also very different in many aspects.
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那你们都要学古文吗？
nà nǐmen dōu yào xué gǔwén ma ？
Then do you have to study classical Chinese?
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学。要翻译成现代文，还要考试。行了，不跟你说了，我要赶快背会这篇古文。快期中考试了！
xué 。yào fānyì chéng xiàndàiwén ，hái yào kǎoshì 。xíng le ，bù gēn nǐ shuō le ，wǒ yào gǎnkuài bèihuì zhè piān gǔwén 。kuài qīzhōngkǎoshì le ！
Yeah. You have to translate it into modern Chinese and take a test. That's enough, I can't talk anymore. I need to memorize this classical Chinese. The mid-terms are coming up soon.
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古文，文言文
gǔwén ，wényánwén
Classical Chinese, classical style of writing.
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