The term "Classical Chinese" refers to the written language of the classical period of Chinese literature, from the end of the Spring and Autumn period (early 5th century BC) to the founding of the Qin dynasty in 221 BC[1]—or in a broader sense to the end of the Han dynasty in 220 AD.[2] "Classical Chinese" is also often used for the higher language register used in writing during most of the following centuries, a register generally referred to as "Literary Chinese"; this article focuses on the grammar used during the classical period.
This article uses modern Standard Chinese readings of characters, following the common practice among scholars, even though it is also possible to read Classical Chinese using the literary readings of other modern Chinese varieties—for example, Cantonese readings are common in Hong Kong—or even a historical reconstruction of character readings used in previous centuries.
Classical Chinese's most obvious contrast with modern written vernacular Chinese is that the former rarely uses words of more than one character; nearly all Classical words are one character in length. This stands directly in contrast with vernacular Chinese, in which two-character words are extremely common. This phenomenon exists in part because compounding was used to resolve ambiguities as sound changes created homophones among words.