Plain and Simple: A View of the End of Ancient Chinese Classics

Author: Lu Xichu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The White-Handed Classic interprets ancient classical prose in easy-to-understand modern language, resolving your difficulties in learning classical Chinese, enriching your knowledge of history and humanities, and enhancing your appreciation of classical literature. The Classic View of Ancient Prose was compiled by Wu Chu village and Wu Diao Hou for students and scholars of the Qing Dynasty. First published in the 34th year of the Kangxi reign (1695), it was later reprinted many times, widely circulated, and had a significant influence. It is one of the most famous selections of classical Chinese prose in the Qing Dynasty. This book selects 222 pieces of classical Chinese prose from the pre-Qin period to the late Ming Dynasty. The compilers believed these works were the essence of classical Chinese, hence the book was named after the praise Ji Zha, the prince of Wu, gave when watching the music and dance performances (Shao Xiao): "It is enough to see!" The selected classical Chinese texts are mostly strong in ideology and artistry, having been loved and cherished for thousands of years, tested by time, and becoming part of our excellent cultural heritage to be critically inherited today. The collected articles also pay attention to the diversity of themes and styles, including historical accounts, argumentative essays, landscape travelogues, miscellaneous essays, and other practical writings, largely reflecting the rich and varied face of classical Chinese. The length and overall volume of the selected texts are also suitable for general readers. Of course, the book has some shortcomings, but on the whole, it is still very valuable. It not only helps us learn classical Chinese, understand its content, style, and form, enrich our vocabulary, and improve our language skills but also broadens our knowledge of history and literature, helps us understand ancient society, and provides insights into the political, economic, and cultural aspects of ancient times. As a selection of classical Chinese prose, the original book is entirely written in classical Chinese. For the convenience of young readers, we used the standardly printed version published by Zhonghua Book Company as the base text and translated the entire book into colloquial Chinese. The traditional characters, archaic characters, and variant characters in the text have been replaced with standardized and simplified characters. The translation adopts a combination of literal and free translation based on the nature, style, and content of the text, aiming to both as much as possible convey the spiritual essence of the original work and conform to modern Chinese expression habits. It is elegant, refined, concise, and yet easy to understand, clear, and fluent.