Classical/Literary Chinese Learning Resources

Columbia University Press How to Read Chinese Literature series

link: https://cup.columbia.edu/series/how-to-read-chinese-literature

so far, this series has come out with three books: How to Read Chinese Poetry, How to Read Chinese Poetry Workbook, and How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context.cite:zong-qicai6451,zong-qicai6452,zong-qicai6516 all three are in my library, the first two are accompanied by audio files for the poems (ask me for a copy!), and while all are bilingual and aim to present historical and cultural context, the second is specifically geared toward language learning.

in december, they plan to release three more books: How to Read Chinese Prose, How to Read Chinese Prose in Chinese, and How to Read Chinese Drama. again, the second one is specifically meant as a course in classical Chinese, and says there will be audio of the texts online.

Mark Edward Lewis’ online course

link: http://chinesetexts.stanford.edu/

this is made by the guy who wrote a bunch of interesting-looking history books, including /The Early Chinese Empires.cite:markedwardlewis6490 it’s “intended for people who would like to learn how to read classical Chinese philosophy and history as expeditiously as possible,” and the contents go through a bunch of major pre-Qin texts.

Bryan W. Van Norden, Classical Chinese for Everyone

link: http://66.115.189.154:56660/book/6375

Van Norden did the Hackett translation of Mengzi,cite:mengzi6484 and is generally a proponent of comparative philosophy. he might follow you on twitter. i believe his book came out of trying to initiate philosophy students independently of any spoken Mandarin study.