Classical Chinese

Offering an unsurpassed introduction to the grammar of classical Chinese, this book makes an ideal complement to the three-volume textbookClassical Chinese: A Basic Reader. The main text and its four supplementary volumes together represent the most comprehensive and authoritative textbook on the language, literature, philosophy, history, and religion of premodern China. Rigorously and extensively field-tested and fine-tuned for years in classroom settings by three members of the Chinese Linguistics Project at Princeton University, it sets a new standard for the field. The other supplementary volumes include readings in poetry and prose, selections from historical texts, and selections from philosophical texts. As in the main volumes, all the reading texts here are supplemented by corresponding exercises with which to review and reinforce classroom learning. WithClassical Chinese: A Basic Readerand its supplementary volumes, Naiying Yuan, Haitao Tang, and James Geiss provide the definitive new resource for students and instructors of classical Chinese language or culture, one whose impact will be lasting.

Naiying Yuan and Haitao Tang are Lecturers Emeritus in the Department of East Asian Languages, and in the Chinese Linguistics Project, at Princeton University. Tang is coauthor of "Chinese Primer", an introductory Chinese language textbook (Princeton). James Geiss, who earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1979, was a Ming scholar and worked for many years as research associate, editor, and contributing author with the "Cambridge History of China Project".