Some of the words in Chinese language were used as early as in the period of using the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty such as天、山、火、人、上, which the foreigners who study Chinese all know. They still belong to the basic vocabulary even in today. However, there is no obvious boundary of this continuation. When you study Chinese in China, you should also know the words appeared in late Qing period are still the basic vocabularies in today‘s life. Even though there is no long history, they have great importance in Chinese language.

However, the stability of the basic vocabulary should be a kind of relative stability. When you learn in Chinese courses in China, you should tell apart the basic vocabulary in ancient Chinese and contemporaryChinese language because the one in ancient Chinese may not the basic one in modern Chinese. For instance, 犬 is a basic word in ancient Chinese, but foreigners who study Chinese all know we use the word狗today. Besides, we should prepare to absorb new basic words as the society is developing like 计算机.