When Football Speaks in Literary Chinese: The 贺炜 Hè Wěi Phenomenon

 文言文 Wényánwén as an Active Substrate of Modernity

Studies on the evolution of the Chinese language frequently analyze twentieth-century linguistic reform as a drastic rupture between 文言文 wényánwén Literary Chinese and 白话 báihuà the vernacular language. However, in contemporary public oratory, Classical Chinese does not function as a dead language or a mere archaic ornament; rather, it operates as a highly dense semantic code capable of embedding itself into a wide variety of contexts.

The phenomenon of sports commentator 贺炜 Hè Wěi, acclaimed by the China Central Television CCTV audience as the 足球诗人 zúqiú shīrén Football Poet, offers an exceptional laboratory. By narrating global mass culture events—such as the World Cup—through syntactic structures inherited from pre-Qin prose and classical idioms, 贺炜 Hè Wěi demonstrates that the ancient linguistic matrix remains the preferred vehicle for imbuing the contingency of the present with ethical and aesthetic transcendence.

The Architecture of Symmetry

One of the most evident signs of the survival of Classical Chinese in 贺炜 Hè Wěi’s commentary is the spontaneous revival of parallel prose. During the broadcasting of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, while describing the resilience of the Croatian national team and its manager, the commentator delivered a statement that formally emulates classical military and historiographical treatises:

胜，不妄喜；败，不惶馁；胸有激雷而面如平湖者，可拜上将军！

Shèng, bù wàng xǐ; bài, bù huáng neň; xiōng yǒu jī léi ér miàn rú píng hú zhě, kě bài shàng jiāngjūn!  

Triumphant, they do not rejoice with vanity; defeated, they are not dismayed by despair. He who carries a raging thunder in his chest but whose face is as serene as a calm lake is worthy of being appointed Grand General.

The first two segments, 胜，不妄喜 shèng, bù wàng xǐ and 败，不惶馁 bài, bù huáng něi, dispense with any modern connective particles or personal pronouns. Victory and defeat appear as the topics of both expressions, reinforced by the use of a single character in each case.

The second section resorts to the classical use of the particle 者 zhě to encapsulate a complex metaphorical description, 胸有激雷而面如平湖 xiōng yǒu jī léi ér miàn rú píng hú "carrying thunder in one's chest while having a face like a flat lake", transforming it into the subject of the sentence "He who...".

By concluding with 可拜上将军 kě bài shàng jiāngjūn, he not only utilizes the classical auxiliary of possibility 可 kě instead of modern compounds, but the verb 拜 bài also recovers its original meaning of "formally investing an office through a state ritual," thereby linking contemporary football management with the high military strategy of antiquity.

The 成语 chéngyǔ as a Vector of Conceptual Condensation: "The Battle of Lusail"

At the conclusion of the agonizing 2022 Qatar quarter-final match between Argentina and the Netherlands, characterized by extreme physical and emotional friction, 贺炜 Hè Wěi constructed his central commentary by inserting three 成语 chéngyǔ into a matrix of 白话 báihuà. This hybridization demonstrates how the four-character units of Literary Chinese function as cores of condensation that the audience decodes instantaneously:

请不要相信胜利像山坡上的蒲公英一样唾手可得，但请相信世上总有美好值得我们全力以赴，哪怕粉身碎骨。 

Qǐng búyào xiāngxìn shènglì xiàng shānpō shàng de púgōngyīng yíyàng tuòshǒu kě dé, dàn qǐng xiāngxìn shìshàng zǒngyǒu měihǎo zhídé wǒmen quánlì yǐ fù, nǎpà fěnshēn suìgǔ.  

Please do not believe that victory is as easily attainable as dandelions on a hillside; but please believe that there are always beautiful things in this world worth giving our all for, even if it means being broken into pieces. (1)

The value of these rhetorical devices in live broadcasting lies in their textual genealogy and conceptual anchoring capacity:

• 唾手可得 tuò shǒu kě dé: 'To obtain something merely by spitting on one's hands'. Figuratively, it is employed to mean "within easy reach" or something extremely simple to achieve. This idiom originates from the historiographical texts of the 后汉书 Hòu Hàn Shū Book of the Later Han. In its most literal sense, it evokes a popular and deeply pragmatic action: that of a laborer spitting on the palms of their hands to secure a grip on a tool before performing a minor task.

• 全力以赴 quán lì yǐ fù: 'To mobilize all forces to head toward a goal'. Figuratively, it means "to devote oneself entirely" or to exert the ultimate effort. The moral value does not reside in the trophy obtained, but in the absolute mobilization of the individual's will toward the fulfillment of duty.

• 粉身碎骨 fěn shēn suì gǔ: 'To pulverize the body and shatter the bones'. Figuratively, it expresses the idea of "being broken into pieces" or undergoing absolute self-sacrifice for a cause. Its most celebrated written record comes from the text 谢封甄城王表 Xiè fēng Zhēnchéng wáng biǎo "Memorial of Gratitude for the Appointment as King of Zhencheng", composed by the renowned poet 曹植 Cáo Zhí.

The Aesthetic Reception: 美文 měiwén in the Digital Era

The most relevant aspect for contemporary sociolinguistics is the reception of this discourse. On digital video platforms that are highly secularized and dominated by internet slang, 网络语言 wǎngluò yǔyán, such as 哔哩哔哩 Bìlībìlī, 贺炜 Hè Wěi's monologues are not perceived as anachronistic; instead, they become viral phenomena and are categorized under the label of 美文 měiwén beautiful or aesthetic prose.

This demonstrates that the contemporary Chinese audience possesses a passive competence in the classical register that becomes activated during moments of emotional climax. When faced with the epic nature of sports, the audience demands an elevation of the linguistic code. The tools of Modern Chinese often prove insufficient or overly colloquial to contain the magnitude of the event, forcing the broadcaster to rely on the compact density, implicit allusion, and tonal symmetry of Literary Chinese.

At the moment of the trophy presentation, in order to endow Lionel Messi's career and Kylian Mbappé's efforts with an ontological meaning, 贺炜 Hè Wěi surprised the Chinese audience by explicitly quoting Jorge Luis Borges from his short story "Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz":

阿根廷著名的作家博尔赫斯曾经说过：任何命运，无论多么漫长和复杂，实际上只反映了唯一的瞬间——那就是人知道他是谁的瞬间。在今天晚上，卢赛尔体育场，梅西和他的队友们，姆巴佩和法国队员们，他们都经历了这个瞬间，他们知道了自己是谁，世界也知道了他们是谁。 

Āgēntíng zhùmíng de zuòjiā Bó'ěrhèsī céngjīng shuōguò: rènhé mìngyùn, wúlùn duōme màncháng hé fùzá, shíjìshàng zhǐ fǎnyìngle wéiyī de shùnjiān——nà jiùshì rén zhīdào tā shì shéi de shùnjiān. Zài jīntiān wǎnshàng, Lúsài'ěr tǐyùchǎng, Méixī hé tā de duìyǒumen, Mǔbāpèi hé Fǎguó duìyuánmen, tāmen dōu jīnglìle zhège shùnjiān, tāmen zhīdàole zìjǐ shì shéi, shìjiè yě zhīdàole tāmen shì shéi.  

The famous Argentine writer Borges once said: 'Any destiny, however long and complicated, consists in reality of a single moment: the moment in which a man knows forever who he is.' Tonight, at the Lusail Stadium, Messi and his teammates, alongside Mbappé and the French players, all experienced that moment; they discovered who they were, and the world discovered who they were as well.

Within the Chinese philosophical tradition, understanding one's own destiny, 命 mìng, is the task of a lifetime. By applying Borges's quote to football, 贺炜 Hè Wěi equates the conclusion of the World Cup with an act of Confucian self-actualization.

The Transfiguration of the Career: 功德圆满 gōngdé yuánmǎn

To describe Messi securing the title after five World Cup attempts, the broadcaster resorted to a concept carrying deep mystical and philosophical weight:

这也是梅西职业生涯的功德圆满。 

Zhè yěshì Méixī zhíyè shēngyá de gōngdé yuánmǎn.  

This is also the perfect consummation of merits and virtues in Messi's professional career.

In this statement, he uses the 成语 chéngyǔ 功德圆满 gōngdé yuánmǎn perfect consummation of merits and virtues, which originally stems from Buddhist vocabulary. In its primary context, it describes the exhaustive accumulation of spiritual merits and ascetic practices that lead to the attainment of Nirvana or the fulfillment of a great sacred vow. By extension, as seen here, it is applied to the realization of monumental achievements.

The Mirror of Time: The Monologue on Aging and the Human Condition

The excerpt most celebrated by netizens on platforms such as 哔哩哔哩 Bìlībìlī was the final closing monologue of the Qatar World Cup broadcast, where 贺炜 Hè Wěi stripped football of its status as mere entertainment to define it as a chronological record of the spectator's own existence:

我们为什么深爱着足球这项运动？因为he不仅展现了球员们的励志故事，更凝聚了我们自己成长岁月的痕迹。当你年轻的时候，你看着一个球员踢球，可能你也正处于人生最意气风发的时候；当你看着he慢慢老去，你可能也正在经历人生的风雨。足球不仅仅是足球，he就是生活本身. 

Wǒmen wèishénme shēn'àizhe zúqiú zhè xiàng yùndòng? Bīnwèi tā bùjǐn zhǎnxiànle qiúyuánmen de lìzhì gùshì, gèng níngjùle wǒmen zìjǐ chéngzhǎng suìyuè de hénjī. Dāng nǐ niánqīng de shíhòu, nǐ kànzhe yī gè qiúyuán tīqiú, kěnéng nǐ yě zhèng chǔyú rénshēng zuì yìqì fēngfā de shíhòu; dāng nǐ kànzhe tā mànmàn lǎoqù, nǐ kěnéng yě zhèngzài jīnglì rénshēng de fēngyǔ. Zúqiú bùjǐnjǐn shì zúqiú, tā jiùshì shēnghuó běnshēn.  

Why do we love the sport of football so deeply? Because it not only displays the inspiring stories of the players, but it also encapsulates the traces of our own growing years. When you are young and watch a player play, you might also be at the most high-spirited moment of your life; as you watch him slowly grow old, you might also be experiencing the storms of life. Football is not just football; it is life itself.

The Elasticity of the Classical Matrix and Collective Catharsis

The phenomenon of the "Football Poet" demonstrates that the boundary between 文言文 wényánwén and 白话 báihuà does not constitute an absolute rupture, but rather a malleable stylistic gradation. Classical Chinese does not operate as a linguistic fossil restricted to the academic sphere, but rather as a vigorous root that continues to bear fruit.

The ease with which 贺炜 Hè Wěi hybridizes concepts from the Buddhist canon, Confucian notions of destiny, Taoist acceptance of temporal becoming, and the Latin American literature of Jorge Luis Borges underscores the extraordinary plasticity of the Chinese cultural fabric. The commentator does not engage in an exercise of archaeological pedantry; conversely, he utilizes the tools of ancient tradition as a universal hermeneutic apparatus capable of absorbing and granting transcendence to a contemporary phenomenon completely foreign to traditional Sinitic heritage, such as international football.

Finally, the reception of these monologues on youth-dominated and predominantly secular digital platforms like 哔哩哔哩 Bìlībìlī refutes the thesis that digitalization and the rise of 网络语言 wǎngluò yǔyán digital language inevitably drag down the aesthetic value of language. The viral success of these chronicles under the rubric of 美文 měiwén beautiful prose shows that contemporary audiences maintain a passive competence in the refined register that is activated during moments of collective epic. In a media landscape saturated with immediacy and triviality, the persistence of Classical Chinese expressions and structures fulfills a deep communal need: that of decoding human chance and suffering through the beauty, symmetry, and memory of the language.

NOTES

(1) This is the original audio where the phrase is contained within a more general commentary.