古代漢語教程

[OneEye]

周光慶、楊合鳴主編， 2001：《古代漢語教程》，武漢：華中師範大學出版社， 2008年3月重印

I stumbled across this book (two volumes, 上 and 下) at a mainland import store the other day (若水堂 near 台大, for those interested). It's a university textbook for classical Chinese, much like the aging (1962) but well-known 《古代漢語》 by 王力. The format is similar, the title is similar, and even the flimsy paperback binding is similar. And like 《古代漢語》 (at least my copy), it's entirely in traditional characters.

So what's the difference? Well, it's much more recent. In the preface the editors state that they used 王力's book as a model while changing the contents to account for newer research. There have been a lot of developments in the fields of 文字學 and 音韻學, not to mention grammar etc., in the last 50 years (39 at the time this book was published), and this book does indeed seem to account for a good deal of that.

Each chapter begins with an article on a certain topic (文字, 詞彙, 音韻, 語法, 修辭, and 古代文化典籍解釋). I haven't gone through them in detail yet, but from skimming through, the articles seem fairly in-depth. The first one, on the writing system, covers the origins and development of the writing system, character formation, etc., followed by some points for further consideration and some suggestions for further reading. One of those books, I was pleased to see, was 《文字學概要》 by 裘錫圭, one of the standard works in the field (and which came out 20 years after the 王力 books) and one which I happen to be reading currently. All in all, 64 pages are devoted to this article. The article for each chapter follows a similar structure to this, some being longer and some shorter.

The article is followed by text selections relevant to the topic of the chapter. So in the first chapter, you actually get to read some 甲骨文 and 金文. There are black and white reproductions of the original text, along with the printed text and annotations. For me, this is really one of the coolest features of this book.

I'm assuming the selections for the other chapters are similarly relevant to the topic (for instance the chapter on phonology contains some 楚辭, the preface to the 切韻, and a selection from 段玉裁 among others), though like I said I haven't gone through with a fine-toothed comb yet. On a quick flip through, it looks like there are some unpunctuated readings from older block printed editions. The sixth chapter contains photocopies of different commentaries on classical texts. One of them is literally 3 full pages of very tiny commentary (over 4000 characters) on the 10 lines of 關雎, a poem from the 詩經.

Each of the six chapters has around 10-15 excerpts of varying length. At the end of the second volume, there are an additional 49 excerpts (about 100 pages) independent of the rest of the book. The excerpts throughout the book generally follow the familiar format of reading hints, main text, and annotations. It seems like the vast majority of them are pre-Jin dynasty, so the focus is very heavily on early China.

The stated goal of the book is to be a foundational course for people in the fields of literature, history, philosophy, and it looks like it will serve that purpose very well (particularly if your field is early China). It does not contain the large selection of post-Han readings that 王力 does, and at 756 pages total it is not even half the length of the latter, so it can't completely replace it. But from what I've seen so far, it does look very good.

The price on the cover is 29 RMB. The exchange at 若水堂 is 5.8 for non-members, so I paid 168NT, which is more like 36 RMB. But at just under US$5.80, I still felt like it was a steal. Some import stores in Taipei have a lower rate (like 萬卷樓 at 5.0), and I'm sure they'd order it for you if they don't have it in stock. Of course it will be a bit cheaper for those of you in China.

Edit: fixed a few typos

[Arreat]

The main way I got dead-tree books is National Library in Beijing. Does 台北 have a library that anyone can read and borrow books? I think buying books is not a good idea. Hey, @OneEye, do you know Chinese website 豆瓣？ Maybe you can find useful information on that site. Here is reading channel of 豆瓣： http://book.douban.com/ I think you can also go to some college forums to ask them review of a book. Many forums are open to anyone who wants to have a account. Like: http://www.newsmth.net/ (清华大学) https://www.bdwm.net/ (北京大学)

I only know this two forums. I went to a college focus on engineering. I think it doesn't fit your need. You can go any university's forum you think has a lot of useful information you needed. Almost every user on these site knows English, you can use Chinese or English whichever you like. But if you didn't use forums like these before, you may find it's confused to you. Students of my college are glad to help, and some forums I used are the same. May this can help you!

[daofeishi]

...May this can help you!

Appreciate your enthusiasm, but OneEye didn't actually post any questions, he has written a review of 《古代漢語教程》for others who are studying classical Chinese. A good one at that, why are there so few green arrows?

[Arreat]

I've read it in detail again. A few words come out: 这帮人用我能够看懂的文字写了一堆我看不懂的话。囧

A good one at that, why are there so few green arrows?

What do you mean by "green arrows"?

[imron]

Discussion not related to this book review has been moved here.

[vaanen]

Hello, i know this is an old post, but i'm very interested in the book. However, i cant find it ? where can one get it ?