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Classical Chinese: merely an academic persuit?
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PaoYu -

I've been studying Classical Chinese now for about 5 weeks. It's hard and faced-paced, but I'm
quite enjoying it. Though, we're still on the baby texts: I think it's about to get a lot harder

Anyway, to the point. Do you think there's any practical purpose for a Westerner to study
Classical Chinese?



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Pravit -

Definitely. I haven't been learning as much Classical Chinese as I should lately, but what I've
learned has helped me tremendously in understanding formal written Chinese. Besides that, it makes
some chengyu/other sayings make more sense. Not to mention the huge world of literature written in
Classical Chinese that is opened up to you. It's quite a feeling to be able to read things written
by Koreans and Japanese hundreds of years ago that I'd have no clue how to read were they written
now. Plus, you will have a higher chance of being able to read those decorations in Chinese
restaurants that everyone will inevitably ask you to read!

There's skylee's thread about Classical Chinese on these forums(it's a sticky somewhere), but I
also recommend these websites:

The wonderful Wengu. Pop-up definitions for characters and a variety of English and French
translations. Plus, a cute way of displaying the characters that makes you feel like you're
reading a string of bamboo sticks.

You probably already know this site, but Zhongwen also has some Classical texts. BTW, does anyone
know why that link on the main page has gone uncorrected for so many years? The one where clicking
on "Mao Zedong sayings" will take you to "Diary of a Madman?" Is that some running joke or is
Zhongwen.com not maintained very much?










Aweni -



Quote:

Anyway, to the point. Do you think there's any practical purpose for a Westerner to study
Classical Chinese?

sure,why not, if you are intrested in classical chinese,just go ahead, it is good for you that
keep studying,
there are wellknown literatures of chinese philosophy are written in classical chinese, if you can
read it in classical chinese it is wonderful.










Mark Yong -



Quote:

Not to mention the huge world of literature written in Classical Chinese that is opened up to you.
It's quite a feeling to be able to read things written by Koreans and Japanese hundreds of years
ago that I'd have no clue how to read were they written now.

On the topic of Classical Chinese being used as the literary medium in Japan and Korea, I wrote a
thread about it elsewhere in this Forum: http://www. /showthread.php?t=11622



Quote:

...what I've learned has helped me tremendously in understanding formal written Chinese.

Because I personally have a preference for Classical Chinese over the modern Mandarin vernacular,
I tend to compose my Chinese e-mail correspondences in a more 'literary' style, i.e. preferring
如何 over 怎樣, 則 over 所以, 幾何 over 多少, 此 over 這個, 無 over 沒, 之 over
的, etc. As a matter of fact, I have a strange habit of beginning my e-mail greetings with the
phrase 台鑒 ("For Your Kind Attention"). And to top it all off, I prefer Traditional Chinese
characters.










Pravit -

Great thread! I'll try to revive it when I have time later on, though I agree with a lot of your
points. Incidentally, it was reading the Hunmin Jeongeum when it really clicked for me that
learning Classical Chinese was not totally pointless and that I could actually read things without
relying on English/baihua glosses.










jak__ -

Also, lots of TV shows and lectures use Classical Chinese.



Quote:

BTW, does anyone know why that link on the main page has gone uncorrected for so many years? The
one where clicking on "Mao Zedong sayings" will take you to "Diary of a Madman?" Is that some
running joke or is Zhongwen.com not maintained very much?

I remember emailing the site owner about this years ago and getting a snide comment in reply. So
its probably that way on purpose.










Mark Yong -



Quote:

Pravit wrote: ...I could actually read things without relying on English/baihua glosses.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Quite a number of selections in the 古文觀止 have
allusions that the reader has to be familiar with. Of course, those are the mainly the 'canonical'
stuff, which tend to be heavy. In general, I would imagine it is possible to compose a text in
文言文 Literary Chinese without having to throw in the allusions.










xianu -

As a huge proponent of learning classical, there is the added benefit of being able to better
understand modern grammar and all those sentence patterns and vocab people use in everyday speech.
plus you can read the wuxia xiaoshuo novels with greater ease.










zozzen -

"Ancient Chinese" is a very broad concept that covers the text over a few thousand years.

To understand 詩經 helps almost nothing about modern chinese grammar. 楚辭 looks like monster
code more than chinese. 紅樓夢 may help a bit but if you really use all vocab in the book,
people will find it very strange.

It's always good to get some knowledge on ancient chinese, esp old proverb and idioms which is
still used today. But if you want a practical reason to learn it, you must be a literature
professor.










正在看牡丹 -

As a native Chinese and an English major, I find it extremely interesting and practical to learn
ancient Chinese. The farther I go in learning English, the bigger obstacle my poor proficiency of
Chinese-my mother tongue presents me with. In improving my Chinese, modern novels or textbooks
don't help much.
Besides, ancient Chinese is really BEAUTIFUL language. I'm not saying modern Chiense is rubbish.
Far from it actually. 余光中Yu Guangzhong is a best example. However, I think ancient Chiense
is more elegant and less redundant, though perhaps farther from daily speaking. Although
memorizing<<离骚>>by 屈原 was nightmare in my high school time, it's beautiful poems really,
if you have the patience to look at it closer.

therefore, through my English-learning experience, my suggestions to Chinese-learner is: it's
always good to learn other language's ancient form, only don't forget to learn its modern form as
well. After all, you learn a language to use it, not to appreciate it only.












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