The quality of Literary Chinese in 遐邇貫珍(Chinese Serial)

[louiejac]

I was looking for some 文言文 newspapers to practise my literary chinese reading and came across this newspaper. I particularly like this paper because the sentences are punctuated for me,  and all names are underlined. Therefore, I find it fairly easy to read as someone still learning 文言文.

But then I read that the editors-in-chief are not Chinese, but Europeans.

 

So, are these Chinese articles written by Europeans themselves, for which Chinese is not their first language? Or did these Editors-in-Chief hire local Chinese journalists to write these articles? To those who have mastered 文言文, what is the quality of the Literary Chinese writing of this paper? Is this paper a good model to emulate if I hope to one day write purely in 文言文?

Here are their articles, freely available online on the Hong Kong library's website:

 

https://mmis.hkpl.gov.hk/search-result?p_p_id=search_WAR_mmisportalportlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&_search_WAR_mmisportalportlet_keywords=遐邇貫珍&p_r_p_-1078056564_actual_q=( all_dc.title%3A("遐邇貫珍")) AND+( verbatim_dc.collection%3A("Old\ HK\ Newspapers"))&p_r_p_-1078056564_sort_field=dc.publicationdate_bsort&_search_WAR_mmisportalportlet__advancedsearch_WAR_mmisportalportlet_formDate=1389840865663&_search_WAR_mmisportalportlet_mode=Advanced&p_r_p_-1078056564_new_search=true&p_r_p_-1078056564_sort_order=desc&_search_WAR_mmisportalportlet_jspPage=%2Fjsp%2Fsearch%2Fcnsc05.jsp

[mouse]

Seems pretty standard missionary fare (although this really isn't my era). Regardless of the nationality of the writers, their articles would almost certainly be checked by Chinese people before publication. Although of course, no one has 文言 as a first language.

 

As for whether it's a good model or not, again, to me it seems fine, although I don't tend to write in the language. But some people object to all modern 文言 — just the other day a friend was disparaging the 文言 wikipedia to me. But if you find the content interesting and mean to write about similar things, then 遐爾貫珍 is a good model. 

[louiejac]

Thanks mouse! Glad to know I haven't been wasting my time with the wrong material.