Classical Chinese for Everyone: A Guide for Absolute Beginners

by Bryan W. Van Norden

In just thirteen brief, accessible chapters, this engaging little book takes "absolute beginners" from the most basic questions about the language (e.g., what does a classical Chinese character look like?) to reading and understanding selections from classical Chinese philosophical texts and Tang dynasty poetry. "An outstanding introduction to reading classical Chinese. Van Norden does a wonderful job of clearly explaining the basics of classical Chinese, and he carefully takes the reader through beautifully chosen examples from the textual tradition. An invaluable work." —Michael Puett, Harvard University

Genres: China, Language, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Reference

163 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 15, 2019

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caveats to this review: 1) I studied Mandarin for 11+ years in K12 school - though I hated it and felt I wasn't any good at it back then, mostly because it was so poorly taught; 2) I'm a language nerd.

I really enjoyed working through this book. I think it's genius to motivate each chapter by having it centre around 1-2 interesting texts, mostly analects of Confucius, but later broadening its scope to include e.g. passages from Zhuangzi and Tang dynasty poems. Each text is followed by a list of new words and then discussion points on grammar, the historical or philosophical background to the text, etc.

The passages were at the Goldilocks level for me - challenging (yes, even with >11 years of study) but fair and very interesting to work through. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it as much if I knew no Mandarin at all, and couldn't easily recognise which character was which. But then I'm not the most patient person. I supplemented the book with the recommended SCM dictionary that's in Pleco, which made things a lot easier to look up.

I found the build-up of grammar knowledge to be just right. I was fascinated by how much the language has changed. Sure, it's 2500 years from Confucius till now, but I would never have guessed that 是 was once a resumptive pronoun rather than a copula. The inclusion of the Tang poetry was also fascinating - 1200 years after Confucius and the language was so much easier to understand (maybe also because it's not philosophical language?). I already knew one of the poems, which is taught to every Chinese schoolchild, but not the other (probably because it's about drunkenness) and I really enjoyed parsing it out and trying to figure out how to make the most poetic but still faithful translation.

There was also a lot of humour scattered throughout the book, mostly in the (not overwhelming) footnotes, which I enjoyed.

My only criticisms are:

1) it would have been super useful for the "recommended translations" to be in the book itself rather than in another text co-authored by Van Norden. I kinda get why he did it that way, which was that if the translation is available that's a lot of temptation to just peek when you're struggling. There are also some discussion questions that he poses that never get answered unless you do. I think this would be a great text to work through in a class where you could actually engage in these discussions.

2) I would have put the recommended "further study" stuff at the end of the text so that when you're on the high of having finished the book, you'd immediately see where to go next rather than have to go back to the introduction.

3) I'm not entirely confident of how much I will retain from this going forward.

But I genuinely enjoyed this book so much that I'm going to still give it 5*.

[Caleb Loh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is pitched at non-Chinese speakers, but I seriously doubt that people with absolutely no knowledge of Chinese can read classical Chinese after this. It’s really interesting but like the author said he is only scratching the surface

[Eric Farnsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Completed this for a college summer school course in 2022.
Not an easy time with this book. It’s like learning 3 languages in one. Ping king, Chinese characters, and English.
The 3 stars is not necessarily a reflection of the book itself, as it is an indicator for my desire to read it again.

[Wing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received my secondary schooling in British Hong Kong and was exposed to Classical Chinese. However, it wasn’t taught in any systematic manner. Even though I scored a distinction in Chinese in my school leaving qualification exam, in my adult life I still need to consult translations and commentaries when I read classics such as the Analects. This short and concise book is truly amazing. After going through it, I feel I can begin to appreciate Classical Chinese with a degree of confidence. The challenge of Classical Chinese, I think, is that the same words can bear different grammatical classes depending on the context. Also, there is a tendency to truncate expressions such that words become implicit rather than spelt out. Professor Van Norden explains all these nuances and intricacies clearly. He uses famous passages from the Analects, Zhuangzi, and poems by Li Bai as examples to illustrate these principles. Indeed, one can learn some Chinese philosophy from his commentaries as well. The book is supposed to be suitable for those who has no previous exposure to the Chinese language. As a native Cantonese speaker, I cannot validate this premise. I can say I myself find it immensely useful and enjoyable. Five stars.

[deedee megadoodoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this for a book review assignment for Grad School

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and essential for any beginner to classical chinese. I'd give it 5 stars except it is not self-contained, but refers to books in the notes that the reader probably does not own. It also does not supply a translation of its texts. To check on your own translation, the reader is referred again to books they do not own. And they should check on their translations. The book is dense in terms of grammar. Those who have studied a foreign language would find it less taxing. Still a very useful little work. Thank you.

[De Yu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent introductory book but kept failing to explain passages. The structure where the reader is given a chance to figure it out is nice, but never getting an answer for what's going on in certain places just leaves the reader confused.

[Rosie K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Textbook for the first half of Intro to Classical Chinese (CHI 322)

[DragonTree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written. Good textbook for my intermediate Chinese course.

[Dylan Zachrich · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty good