Late 文言文？

[Guest realmayo]

I'm dabbling in some Classical Chinese again, still just a beginner, but as well as working through the standard beginner textbooks I wondered if it would be interesting to read 文言文 written in, say, the late 19th century. Does anyone have any suggestions for texts that might be interesting and/or have explanations, footnotes, translations etc?

[陳德聰]

Unfortunately don’t know of any that have footnotes or translations but I know there are a lot of archives of Chinese newspapers from the 19th century that come from the west coast of North America.

[Guest realmayo]

Thanks, that could be worth following up.

[evn108]

Not as late as the 19th century, but 聊齋誌異 is very entertaining! Many of the stories have been translated, but I don't know if any of it has been published with annotations that would make it appropriate to use as a study tool. I still think with a dictionary and a copy of the English translation on hand if you got totally stuck it would still be doable. 

[Luxi]

Lu Xun's 文言文 has a good reputation. I don't know whether there are English translations, but here's an example with some notes and modern Chinese 'translation'

https://www.douban.com/group/topic/46364458/

 

 

[Guest realmayo]

Thanks both of you, I've found a decent-looking translation of 聊齋誌異  for £2 on kindle so that's promising, and Luxi, Lu Xun sounds an excellent idea too, especially after finding this translation etc of that essay: http://www.jonvonkowallis.com/articles/Lu_Xun-Toward_a_Refutation_of_Malevolent_Voices.pdf

[Luxi]

29 minutes ago, realmayo said:

especially after finding this translation etc of that essay:

 

Great find, thank you!

[Jim]

There's Vol 2 of Sources of Chinese Tradition of course: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/sources-of-chinese-tradition/9780231112710 Fair few relevant bits in there and the Chinese original should be easy enough to locate.

[evn108]

Another really great later text written in 文言文 (And one from the actual 19th century, but just barely!) is Shen Fu's 沈復 Six Records of a Life Adrift 浮生六記, which has been translated into English (at least) twice, and many other languages too. It's quite long, but it's really a wonderful book. It's worth reading if you just read the English translation (I recommend the most recent one).

[ParkeNYU]

Oh, you mean 淺文言, aka 漢文.

 

Well, here's the preamble to the National Pronunciation Character Dictionary from 1918-1921 (老國音):

 

教育部校正國音字典之通告

 

前據國語統一籌備會函請頒發國音字典及附錄等因當經本部將此項字典及附陸通行頒發並將該會所述校改國音字典理由詳細敘明在案茲復據該會函稱查字典印本流行已廣至其附綠雖與原本不可離惟係後來追加之件故未及印入原書現經本會與原承印者商務印書館商定先將附錄單獨印行以備目前各方面之應用一方面將字典原版按照附綠校改重排重印定名為校改國音字典俾各方面皆得所準繩此事於國音統一關係至鉅但恐各界未及周知設僅沿用商務印書館前出之國音字典而不據附錄校改或將來校改本出版各方面不知校改本與現行稿本之所以異同則以訛傳訛既滋紛歧之弊害既妨統一之前途應請大部查核將上述國音字典校改及印行辦法用布告通知各省區各學校各書店俾各有所準繩至現經審定載此項字典既經修正所有前項圖書亦應令一體照改並通知各界以免訛誤等語特此通告

If you're feeling brave, try adding modern punctuation. Fortunately, the material is very straightforward.