Full Description
This textbook provides a comprehensive scholarly introduction to Classical Chinese and its texts. Classical Chinese is the language of Confucius and Mencius and their contemporaries, who wrote the seminal texts of Chinese philosophy more than 2,000 years ago. Although it was used as a living language for only a relatively short time, it was the foundation of Chinese education throughout the Imperial age, and formed the basis of a literary tradition that continues to the present day.
This book offers students all the necessary tools to read, understand, and analyse Classical Chinese texts, including: step-by-step clearly illustrated descriptions of syntactic features; core vocabulary lists; introductions to relevant historical and cultural topics; selected readings from classical literature with original commentaries and in-depth explanations; introductions to dictionaries and other reference works on the study of ancient China; and a guide to philological methods used in the critical analysis of Classical Chinese texts. The extensive glossary provides phonological reconstructions, word classes, English translations, and citations to illustrate usage, while the up-to-date bibliography serves as a valuable starting point for further research.
Contents
Preface
List of figures
List of abbreviations
Abbreviated book titles
Introduction
Part I
1: Word Classes and Constituents
2: Noun Phrases 1
3: Nominal Clauses
4: Verbal Clauses
5: Objects and Questions
6: Noun Phrases 2
7: Adverbial Modification
8: Prepositional Phrases I
9: Prepositional Phrases II
10: Reference to Time
11: Complements
12: Nominalization
13: Themes
14: Anteposition and Inversion
15: Complex Sentences 1
16: Complex Sentences 2
Part II
17: Lunyu
18: Mengzi
19: Xunzi
20: Zuozhuan
21: Guoyu
22: Laozi
23: Zhuangzi
24: Mozi
25: Guanzi
26: Military Texts
27: Shangjun shu
28: Han Feizi
29: Lüshi chunqiu
30: Zhanguo ce
31: Shiji
32: Yijing
33: Ritual Texts
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
