A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese

This textbook contains 40 lessons designed to introduce the beginning student to the basic patterns and structures of Classical Chinese. The lessons are taken from a number of pre-Han and Han texts (Shuo yuan, Shiji, Mencius, Zhuangzi, and Lienu zhuan) selected to give students a thorough grounding in exemplary Classical Chinese style. Two additional lessons use texts from later periods to help students appreciate some of the changes in written Chinese over the centuries.