Classical Chinese Readers

[Neil C]

Hey guys. Can anyone recommend bilingual readers for Classical Chinese? There are similar editions for Latin (Loeb Readers), but as of yet I haven't found anything for Classical Chinese.

Thanks!

[Luxi]

There's one in 3 volumes published by Princeton University Press, but I only know it only from references :  

Classical Chinese: A Basic Reader in Three Volumes, [Yuan. Naiying; Tang. Hai-tao; Geiss. James]. Published by Princeton University Press.  

Google Books has a good preview:  

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0O6dDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false  

 

I'm sure that most of those texts are available individually online and many will include English translations (or you can find the English translation separately). There are also English translations of most if not all of the texts in the standard classical Chinese textbooks, and some classical poetry books and websites include word by word translations.

 

There are plenty of individual classical texts in bilingual versions, both online and in print. For instance, all of James Legge's translations are available in bilingual books, as well as in electronic form.

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Legge%2C James%2C 1815-1897

 

Several of those old translations have been incorporated in The Chinese Text Project . Here's a popular one:

https://ctext.org/art-of-war/

 

 

[Demonic_Duck]

Presumably you mean bilingual Classical Chinese/English, not bilingual Classical Chinese/Modern Chinese? You can find the latter by searching something like [name of work] 原文 白话.

 

For English translations, you can also try Project Gutenberg.

 

For example, with the Dao De Jing:

• Original + English
• Original + Modern Chinese

 

 

 

[Neil C]

Thanks very much. Yes, James Legge would have been a good choice, although the translations are often horribly wrong, for example, his understanding of the Classic of Odes was confounded by moralistic Confucian exegesis, which defined, what were essentially ancient campfire songs, as reflecting Confucian principles. It makes great reading, but very unreliable as translations for the modern reader. 

Chinese Text project is excellent, but also much of the work is in the public domain because it is so old. 

I have bought, loved, and reread the Princeton course. 

Maybe I should just buy some modern translations and read them alongside the original.

Thanks, everyone. Some great advice here.