When Hu Shi talked about the glory of vernacular Chinese, a classmate disagreed and asked, Mr. Hu, do you dare to say that vernacular Chinese is not at all? Hu Shi replied with a smile: No, the students remembered Huang Kan's teasing of Hu Shi and retorted: Why not? The vernacular language is complicated, and there are too many words in the telegram, which is not practical.

Hu Shi said: This may not be true. Why don't we do an experiment? Some time ago, a friend of the Executive Yuan wrote to me and invited me to be a secretary in the Executive Yuan. I didn't like politics, so I sent a telegram and refused. The reply is written in vernacular, which is very affordable. Students might as well have a try. You can help me write a message in classical Chinese to see which one saves money.

As expected, the students took an active part in drafting the draft. Finally, Hu Shi picked out a manuscript with the least words and the most complete expression. It says, "I'm afraid I can't do it. I won't do it." After reading it, Hu Shi said with a smile: "This telegram is only twelve words, simple and clear, but I think it is still too long. I only used five words in the vernacular: I can't do it, thank you. "

Later, Hu Shi explained: "I can't do it" means that I am ignorant and afraid of being competent. "Thank you" means both thanking my friends for their painstaking introduction and declining. It can be seen that the conciseness of language does not lie in using vernacular or classical Chinese. As long as the words are used properly, vernacular Chinese can be more concise than classical Chinese.

Extended data:

The vernacular has long been freely used, ignoring people today. But more than 100 years ago, it was a completely new thing and one of the basic contents of the new cultural movement advocating democracy and science.

Today is the 55th anniversary of the death of Mr. Hu Shi, one of the advocates of the New Culture Movement. Looking back at the popularity of vernacular Chinese at the moment, let us once again realize the great changes that vernacular Chinese has brought to China instead of classical Chinese.

Vernacular Chinese is a kind of written language based on spoken Chinese and processed. Generally speaking, it means "I write my mouth by hand", and the vernacular is based on the spoken language of modern China people.

There are four main types of modern vernacular, namely, Mandarin (Beijing vernacular), Wu vernacular (Su vernacular), Cantonese vernacular () and (Ming vernacular-Zhongzhou vernacular). In addition to these four kinds, there are many vernacular Chinese with local characteristics, which are collectively called "vernacular". The vernacular Chinese used in our daily life refers to the vernacular Chinese of Putonghua.

In fact, vernacular Chinese is not a product of modern times, and its appearance can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty at the earliest. In order to promote Buddhism and Zen Buddhism, monks in the Tang Dynasty performed stories in Buddhist scriptures to the public through music, painting and singing. Among them, the picture is called "disguised form" and the original version of the rap story is called "variant text".

"Bianwen" is a combination of rhyme and white, easy to understand, close to spoken language, widely welcomed by the people, and gave birth to early vernacular literature. In the flourishing age of Song Renzong, storytelling, a vernacular performing art form, was born, leaving many scripts, such as The Water Margin, which was adapted from the scripts of the Song Dynasty.

There are also many vernacular sentences in the zaju and Yuanqu of the Yuan Dynasty. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many vernacular novels were widely popular in the society, and they were "literary but not literary, vulgar but not vulgar", and they could be appreciated even if they were illiterate. Among them, The Journey to the West, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and Dream of Red Mansions are Four Great Classical Novels, China.

During the Republic of China, a large number of vernacular versions of ancient books were compiled and published, vernacular novels, vernacular poems and other vernacular literary works flourished, and primary and secondary school textbooks began to use vernacular. The implementation of these measures has gradually made vernacular Chinese become the mainstream style of social culture.

People's Network-Vernacular Past Life