Classics to Stop at--Parallel Translation of Classical and Modern Chinese

Author: Wu Chucai (Qing Dynasty), Wu Diao Hou (Compiler), Que Xun Wu et al. (Translation and Annotation)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-11-01
Features: This book is divided into twelve volumes and includes over one hundred classical Chinese essays from the Zhou to Ming dynasties, collected from Classics at a Glance. In addition to the original text, it provides detailed vernacular translations, thorough annotations, and summaries of the content. The book is rich in content and innovative in form, combining knowledge and readability. Through reading this book, readers can expand their knowledge, broaden their horizons, and improve their ability to read and understand classical Chinese. Classics at a Glance ranges from classical texts of the Zhou and Qin dynasties to the Ming dynasty. This book focuses on the classical Chinese of the Qing dynasty to complement Classics at a Glance, titled Classics at a Glance of the Qing Dynasty. For those who have already read Classics at a Glance, this volume completes the collection. The selection criteria for the classical Chinese in this book are as follows: (1) Relevance to the times. (2) In addition to famous works widely praised by scholars, essays with profound meaning and contributions to society are also included. (3) A wide variety of literary forms are selected to ensure comprehensiveness, allowing readers to generalize and apply their knowledge. The purpose of compiling Classics at a Glance is "to cultivate moral education and benefit future learners," providing young people with an introductory reading material for classical Chinese prose. In the preface to Three Hundred Tang Poems, Sun Zhu of Hongtang Retired Studio said, "Read three hundred Tang poems thoroughly, and even if you cannot compose poems, you will be able to." We can also say, "By thoroughly reading most of the essays in Classics at a Glance, one becomes familiar with the vocabulary, grammatical phenomena, and principles of structure and composition in classical Chinese, gains extensive emotional knowledge, lays a foundation for reading and even writing classical Chinese, and grasps the general outline of the development of classical Chinese prose in ancient China. This opens the door to further studies. Moreover, these two hundred-plus essays are short and mostly well-known, making them easy to memorize. Therefore, over the past three hundred years, it has been immensely popular with readers and has been more widely circulated among the general public than Classics of Classical Chinese Prose compiled by Yao Nai of the Tongcheng School during the Qing dynasty, becoming a must-read textbook for beginners in classical Chinese. After the Xinhai Revolution, many schools still used it as a national literature textbook.