Chinese in between Classical and Modern

[Polyhistor]

As part of my survey of Chinese over the centuries, I've tried to read selections of works from over the dynasties. 春秋、汉、晋 (mostly history)、唐、宋 (mostly poetry)、明、清 (mostly literature) and more recent. I have noticed some significant changes in style and comprehensibility as I move forward in time, but I'm still in the embryonic stages of my investigations into Chinese literature so I don't wish to speak on my observations yet. 

 

For the present, one major task I would like to embrace is improving my ability to read 明 and early 清 literature. My question is simple: How? 

 

I'm working my way through Rouzer's text on Literary Chinese, Gregory Chiang's Language of the Dragon, but these focus more on the earlier period of literary Chinese. I'm basically trying to move backwards from the 1930s fiction I've read most and understand best through to 清末年, then back to 18th century stuff like 阅微草堂笔记 and 聊斋志异,  as well as forward, going from 论语 to 史记 to 神仙传 of 晋朝, hoping to converge around the 明代 literature I'm most fascinated by (for now). 

 

If anybody knows of any era-specific resources to help provide a more solid anchor for the intermediary periods of Chinese language and literary development, that would be most helpful. As it is, I feel like I'm walking a bridge from the foundations of the academic literature on either ends in time, but with only examples of the literatures of the ages serving as flimsy planks occupying the span of the bridge.

 

Anything you can suggest, from a dictionary to a readable book from 唐 to a youtube video, even a method you've found helpful for tracking the changes of meaning of a zi, I'm interested in absolutely anything that'll help me on this journey. I just want to learn, but I have nothing to guide me, and using my own experience in language learning more generally has allowed me to swim to this point, but now I'm stranded deep in the ocean where there is almost no more help anywhere. Can you help? Can you be my lifejacket? 

[Guest realmayo]

You could try Tang Dynasty Tales: A Guided Reader I & II (sample chapter here https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/7453 )

At the other end of the spectrum there are textbooks for English speakers written around the early 1900s which teach the written language of that time. e.g. https://archive.org/details/progressiveexerc00bull/page/164/mode/2up

 

But I don't know of anything that spells out the differences era to era. I'd be interested if what other suggestions people are able to provide. My instinct would be that with a very solid base in the really old stuff, the later language becomes rather easier, and because people have typically started 'at the beginning', that's where the grammars and the explanations are, and then you're left more to work out the later stuff for yourself. Perhaps it's enough to read a translated text with the Chinese version and the English version side by side?

[Dani_man]

I have seen specialized Chinese dictionaries per dynasty (Tang, Song, Yuan). These were however Chinese-Chinese dictionaries. I do not remember the publisher unfortunately. But they are available. I also found Hanyu Da Cidian always very helpful as it always includes all meanings throughout all periods.

 

Another option will be to use annotated texts by Chinese literary scholars (annotated in Chinese). These books are often with the word "校释" in the title. For example 唐人小說校釋 for Tang stories, annotated by 王夢鷗. The glosses do not focus specifically on characters but on sentences, context, places and other things that will not be clear for a contemporary reader (like, silk production techniques etc...).

 

I hope this helps. 

 

[Polyhistor]

I had high hopes for the Tang Dynasty Tales, but they're all in English with no accompanying Chinese. They do offer very small glossaries for each story with a handful of Chinese words, but it isn't that helpful. I am enjoying the copious footnotes, but they tend to be more historical than philological. 

 

Thanks for reminding me about the old primers on Archive. I was using one a few months ago, but I'd moved on. It was helping me improve my ability to read traditional characters quite well. I shall go back to looking at them. 

 

I own maybe 300 Chinese books, with many of them being annotated (from sparsely so to extremely frequent and detailed) versions of old texts. By far the best I've found are the orange hardcover 中华经典名著•全本全注全译丛书 (and the worst may be the softcover, 307 page 国学典藏书系, which are quite randomly edited down to fit the universal length, no matter how nonsensical the final product, as I realized after hours of extreme frustration a couple weeks ago). 

[骏马的丕沿?]

I think the method by which you tackle this issue largely depends on your relationship to Chinese culture (which includes the language).

 

What exactly are your goals? There’s a difference between a history graduate student who is studying ancient Chinese using an academic English lens, and someone who is studying/practicing Chinese culture/language, for its own sake, for the long term. Looking at your post, it is not immediately clear if you are more like the former, or more like the latter.

 

I personally happen to be more like the latter. For the purpose of my comment, I will assume you are as well. Anyway, I hope it can help you a bit.

 

First off, I think it is possible that you may be exaggerating the differences between the different eras of Chinese language. If you can read, in a fluent manner, 三国演义、狂人日记、倚天屠龙记、聊斋志异、三体（yes, you read that right）、道德经、and 论语, then you can pretty much read anything else that can be found throughout the language’s history. Granted, it might take some time for you to read through the next book, because perhaps you lack reading experience, but at this point, we are no longer talking about conceptual difficulties or pedagogical approach - we’re merely talking about a matter of repeated practice.

I’m really surprised to hear you own 300 Chinese books - have you read through most of them? If so, then maybe you already have the foundation necessary for reading Ming dai literature.

 

Assuming you have that foundation, I’d say: go ahead and just dive in the deep end of the swimming pool. Crack open a book, with no English and minimal annotations, and start reading. Don’t be afraid to constantly consult dictionaries and Baidu in the beginning. If you have enough persistence to take you through a little bit of time, you will not regret having dived in the deep end.

 

To draw from personal experience, the first chapter (10 pages) of 三国演义（this book is arguably around 85% pure classical) took me 20 hours to read. By the time I got to the 25th chapter, one chapter (again, ten pages) had taken me only 30 minutes to read. Needless to say, the hardest part of every project is the beginning stage.