Classical Chinese for Everyone: A Guide for Absolute Beginners (English and Chinese Edition)

Dr. Van Norden's "Classical Chinese for Everybody" is exactly what it says. This wonderful book makes the first steps in reading and appreciating Classical Chinese fun and extremely accessible. The pace is gentle without being slow, or worse, boring, and the student begins reading actual literary texts from the first lesson. The student does not absolutely need to know any Modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin), though of course it is a huge help if he does. All vocabulary and grammar notes have the (traditional) Chinese characters, their modern pinyin equivalents (thank you, Dr. Van Norden!), and the English. The book is not without a good deal of humor as well. The texts chosen for translation and analysis are appropriate for the beginner, helping to build his confidence and increasing his enjoyment. Those who know some Modern Chinese will find the going a little easier since Van Norden draws parallels (where appropriate) between the ancient and modern usages (e.g., with subordinating particles). For those who want to compare their own textual translations with scholarly translations, Van Norden refers them to his own book on Chinese philosophy, but accepted translation of the "Analects" and the "Dao De Jing" can easily be found online. I do recommend to the serious student the excellent "Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese", since this will help to clarify both meanings and usage and can be invaluable to both the beginner and scholar alike.

A great way to be initiated into the mysteries of classical Chinese literature. Having studied modern Chinese before, I've used it as a stepping stone on my way to Rouzer. It was a quick and highly enjoyable read. If you are completely new to Chinese, you should still be able to make your way through the book without too much trouble -- and that is its unique appeal. Afterwards, when you read one of those bilingual editions of Chinese philosophical classics where every character is glossed, the sentence structure, if not always clear, will no longer read like word salad. That said, I'm not convinced that it's possible to really learn classical Chinese without studying modern Chinese first. Snippets of classic texts are fine for illustrating grammar, but I doubt anyone would be willing to memorize thousands of characters using word lists and flash cards alone, without the aid of graded readers with tons of artificial text, which -- as far as I know -- exist only for modern Chinese. There is just not enough repetition in the classics to suffice for that purpose.

A great way to get into Classical Chinese. Enjoying it very much!

Funny writing. Very hard if you don't have the translations though - at least for me. It might not be as intuitive, but Van Norden sure likes to make you think hard on things. A great start.

Provided essential knowledge not available in the many other books I've had on classical Chinese texts.

This is a very handy reference for learning Classical Chinese (literary Chinese) The author uses writings attributed to Confucius as the basis for vocabulary and grammar points, and makes it more interesting with explanatory notes. I recommend it for anyone who has a genuine interest in learning.

Even though I have studied modern Chinese I found the grammatical descriptions very useful and the philosophical descriptions fantastic for getting insight to the Chinese way of thinking. I have always regarded languages a window into a given culture so these insights are very meaningful.

I'm always interested in new Chinese textbooks, so even though I've been studying Classical Chinese for about 4 years now I had to go borrow this one and give it a thorough examination. Though I was excited about the concept, having looked through the book, I have to admit I have mixed feelings.First, some pros:1. He seems to have a fairly good grasp of what people with absolutely no familiarity with Chinese will know about the language. Other textbooks which claim to be suitable for this audience overestimate this knowledge. In particular, his discussion of the development and structure of characters is one of the clearest I've encountered. (I haven't been an absolute beginner at Chinese in over a decade, though, so YMMV.)2. Making practice materials available online is a welcome addition, especially for self-learners. Unfortunately, as of this review there are only quizzes available for the first few lessons; I'm not certain if the author intends to expand them.3. The texts seem generally well-selected; not only do they demonstrate grammatical concepts in an orderly fashion, they are also part of the canon of works that would be known to any educated Chinese person. Familiarity with the canon is as essential to understanding Classical Chinese as is grammatical knowledge. In particular, I appreciate his choice to include some later poetry, which is a serious omission from other beginning textbooks.And the cons:1. For a book published in 2019, it's remarkable how little the author seems to be aware of technological advances in language learning. I do commend him for mentioning Pleco, probably the most important app for Chinese learning. But I was surprised to see that he wasted space, both in the introduction and within lessons. on the tedious process of looking characters up in a paper dictionary. Further, I was *shocked* to find that his advice on learning characters is to "write each new character fifty times." This is a great way to learn--if you want to hate Chinese and quit after the first lesson! Cognitive science has produced a large body of research on how memorization works, and if we don't make use of its findings we are doing our students a great disservice.2. I understand that the original texts did not include punctuation and that a true scholar should not rely on this crutch, but it's a crutch that comes standard in the modern Chinese editions of these texts. Chinese scholars I know consider working without punctuation to be an advanced level skill. There's no need to subject students to this sink-or-swim approach; give them their commas and colons and let them focus on the words.3. I find it counterproductive that the first lesson is a terse saying whose meaning requires a not inconsiderable grasp of Chinese culture and philosophy to unpack. Without this, the sentence remains as opaque as it was before you learned all the new vocabulary, and it's impossible to feel the satisfaction that "I can read Chinese on my own." The author appears to have chosen this sentence precisely for its inaccessibility, and expects the student to intuit its meaning simply by reading it several times. (As a middle school teacher, I have ample evidence demonstrating the futility of this strategy!) Providing students with opportunities to experience a sense of accomplishment is essential to maintaining their motivation. Any one of the numerous sayings with equally simple grammar and far more accessible meaning should have been chosen instead.4. There's a bit too much extraneous information attached to the chapters (even if you skip the "nerd notes" section at the end), which is likely to overwhelm less confident students. It is not essential for absolute novices to be thinking about why Being is an important philosophical concept in Western philosophy and not in Chinese; let them get used to working without a "to be" verb first, and bring up the nuances once it's no longer a cognitive strain. (Or don't. I'm sure a number of potential readers don't care about philosophy and are only here because they want to read Du Fu and Li Bai.)5. A brief note on different genres of Chinese literature and why it is best to start by reading philosophy would have been appropriate, as this is pedagogically sound but counterintuitive to most novices.Overall, it's not terrible, but I can't say I would recommend it. The author is a typical specimen of academics relegated to teaching beginning language: plenty of subject knowledge, not a whit of pedagogy, and decades past remembering what it was like to be a novice. Beginning students of Chinese face numerous barriers, both internal and external, and this book does more to build those up than to break them down. At best, it may be useful as a supplement to another textbook.