classical Japanese literature; ancient writings
Refers to Japanese literary works from the Edo period and earlier, often studied in school as 'kobun'.
Studying classical Japanese literature in high school is tough.
He wants to become a teacher of classical Japanese literature.
ancient Chinese script; pre-Qin Chinese characters
Historical term for Chinese characters used before the Qin dynasty unification of writing.
Rubbings of ancient Chinese script are displayed in this museum.
I read classical Japanese literature for my summer homework.
We're studying The Tale of Genji in classical Japanese class.
The teacher translated this classical Japanese text into modern Japanese for us.
古文 refers to classical Japanese texts studied in school, while 文語 refers more broadly to the grammatical/stylistic system used in such writing.
古文 broadly means classical Japanese literature, whereas 漢文 specifically denotes classical Chinese texts or kanji-only writing studied in Japan.
古文 is classical Japanese literature, while 漢文 is classical Chinese text as read in Japan; students often study both together and mix up the terms.
古典 is the classic work itself (e.g. a novel or poem), while 古文 refers to the classical Japanese language or writing style used in such works.
古墳 (こふん, an ancient burial mound) and 古文 (こぶん, classical Japanese writing) sound almost identical but refer to completely different things.
Compound of 古 (old, ancient) and 文 (writing, script). The Japanese sense developed from the general meaning of 'old writing' to specifically denote classical Japanese literature.