Problems With Wade-Giles to Pinyin

[Ding Yiyi]

Hello Everybody,

I'm traveling to China this summer, and there are a few books I'd like to pick up in Chinese... specifically some of the classics like the 道德经，etc. Another book I'd like to find is Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" of which I don't know the pinyin or characters. If anyone could help me with that, and some other classical works I'd be very grateful!

大家感谢！

丁一一

[liuzhou]

The Art of War is 孫子兵法 sūn zi bīng fǎ

[Songyi]

三国演义 - Three Kingdoms

红楼梦 - A Dream of Red Mansions

西游记 - Journey to the West

水浒传 - Outlaws of the Marsh

牡丹亭 - The Peony Pavilion

[Ding Yiyi]

谢谢你们！

Can anyone name some contemporary literature that might be interesting to pick up? Same with poetry, etc.? Are there any authors that stand out in your minds?

丁一一

[darceye]

I think the original Chinese version of 道德经 is hard to read for you because it's wroten in ancient Chinese grammar. In fact most of ordinary Chinese people aren't able to read it very well. It needs special prectice even for Chinese people, even though this book is very famours and filled of philosophic topics. I suggest you take the English version or the vernacular Chinese version.

About contemporary literature, the greatest author, as I think, is Lu Xun (鲁迅). You can search his articles, fictions, and poems through internet. 《故乡》(Home Town) is a famous short story. 《野草》(Wild Grasses) is his famous poem.

[againstwind]

Someone on the forum used to ask about contemporary literature:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/12238-modern-and-contemporary-postmodern-literature

Hope it valuable.

[Ding Yiyi]

Yeah, I was planning on picking up a copy in the original language to try to learn from, and a copy "translated" into modern Chinese, same with any other books along those lines. I am also interested in picking up some Chinese history books in modern vernacular, does anyone have any suggestions about authors or a particularly good series of books?

Thanks,

丁一一

[gato]

There is a series of stories by famous Chinese authors available in English-Chinese bilingual format.

For example, some of the writer Ah Cheng's stories are available in this series:

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=445463

阿城小说选(英汉对照)

More at:

http://search.dangdang.com/search.aspx?key=%D0%A1%CB%B5%D1%A1++%D3%A2%BA%BA%B6%D4%D5%D5&selbook=0&selmusic=0&selmovie=0&key1=&key2=&key3=&key4=&key5=&catalog=01

小说选(英汉对照)