A while ago, Chinese mainland's "Save Chinese Education Alliance" advocated increasing Chinese education (that is, "China people" in), which caused a small discussion in the circle of philosophical netizens. The idea of saving the Chinese education alliance is that students' Chinese ability is getting lower and lower, and there are too many typos and unclear meanings, which makes Chinese education have an unprecedented crisis, especially the reduction of classical Chinese education, which makes students unable to understand the essence of ancient culture, and the literary and cultural quality of modern students also decreases. Opponents believe that the current Chinese education is still dominated by classical Chinese, which is not in line with the trend of the times. Contemporary language is mainly vernacular, and classical Chinese education is of no use value in modern times. Therefore, they think that Chinese education should pay more attention to modern literature such as vernacular Chinese. But really want to compare, which is better, classical Chinese or vernacular Chinese? Which one is not good?

Some people think that people who support modern vernacular education are purely out of political ideology. They thought, "since the text is so vernacular, what should be taught in Chinese class?" But when I saw this problem, I thought for a moment, and felt that it was not necessarily unreasonable to oppose classical Chinese and support modern vernacular education. For example, after reading some essays by modern writers in Taiwan Province Province, I don't know what this article is worth appreciating. I don't know why this passage should be included in the Chinese text. I don't know why I read this. In addition, the novels of Ming and Qing dynasties are also quite vernacular, but I don't know where the value of these novels lies.

Just like appreciating a work of art, we look at Renaissance paintings, which is already realistic, right? But if you want a person without aesthetic education to see this painting, people still don't know what this painting appreciates. However, if a person has received a certain aesthetic education, even modern abstract paintings can still be appreciated by some people.

So I think that if the vernacular Chinese has no educational value, I really underestimate the value and depth of the vernacular Chinese. If vernacular Chinese is so easy to understand, why should it be included in Chinese education?

But then again, since the vernacular has some value, isn't the classical Chinese worthless at all? I can only say that as long as it is a language, it must have its uses. For example, my classical Chinese is only junior high school level. When I thought I could read ancient Chinese, I found that what I saw was just like Bing Xu's gobbledygook. I didn't understand a word, and suddenly I felt very scared, because I felt that today's time and space seemed unable to inherit the knowledge and experience of the past, and I felt a great fear. It seems that I can't know more knowledge and understand the experience and wisdom of the ancients. When I felt my inner desolation, I suddenly felt inexplicable panic. This feeling of panic, just like I spent half my life learning English, still can't understand the abuse and exchange articles of westerners, makes me deeply feel that even if I can read, I am still illiterate.

Which is more important, classical Chinese or vernacular Chinese? We can only know the application and value of these articles by looking at the use of these words. We don't have to deliberately belittle the vernacular Chinese and praise the classical Chinese, because the modern vernacular Chinese also reflects the contemporary literati trend of thought after a hundred years; However, we don't have to criticize classical Chinese and respect vernacular Chinese. After all, we know that classical Chinese can connect the past and the modern. The classical Chinese in the past was the vernacular Chinese at that time, and the modern vernacular Chinese will become the classical Chinese in the future. The argument between classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese is not an important thing. It is more important to understand the knowledge this article has brought us and the richness it has brought us.