General Summary

This was the literary language throughout East Asia up until the 20th century. It developed out of the earliest forms of written Chinese (such as oracle bone inscriptions, which were used starting as far back as 1250 B.C.). The archaic form is seen in early versions Confucius’ writings, and had become at least somewhat standardized by the 5th century B.C.

Grammar

Even at its most formal, grammar is very simple, with much of the meaning of a text instead coming from the meanings of characters (on their own and in combination). The rules were generally followed during the “classical” period (5th-2nd centuries B.C.), after which adherence to the rules became much less common.

Related to this, parts of speech are very fluid, with many words acting as either a noun or verb as needed. An adverb + verb can also be a “noun.” For example, 不知 literally means “not know,” but can also mean “ignorance.”

Number and tense are typically not marked explicitly.

Vocabulary. This is where most of the meaning comes from. But characters can have a significant range of meanings, so context (and subject matter, e.g. a poem vs. a legal document vs. a medical treatise) can have a significant influence. Rouzer even suggests thinking about there being multiple dialects (based around common type and style).

Pronunciation. There is no “official” pronunciation, since literary Chinese was used by people who spoke a variety of different languages. So there are readings of the characters in everything from Mandarin to Korean to Vietnamese. I’m using the Mandarin ones, since that’s what I’m most familiar with.

Unit One (Rouzer)

Lessons 1-10 contain proverbs/anecdotes from the Garden of Stories, which was compiled around the end of the 1st century B.C.

Grammar

者

Added to a verb (or verb phrase) to show the person doing the thing: * 知者: one who knows * 導人者: one who leads people

於

Vague, multi-purpose preposition, usually appearing between a verb and a noun. The noun is often the location of the action, but sometimes it’s more abstract. Can only be translated based on context, but most frequently means “in,” “from,” or “by.” Examples: * 聖人得目於天。The wise person obtains eyes from Heaven. * 聖人導小人於禍。The wise person leads the petty person from disaster. (But could just as easily mean “leads to disaster”!)

以

One of the most common characters in literary Chinese, with a very wide range of meanings. It originally meant “to take” or “to use,” but eventually became used with other verbs (a coverb) to convey things like “with,” “by means of,” and “through.” It generally comes before the main verb and is followed by its own object: * 天以禍報為不善者。Heaven repays with disaster the person who does evil. (Lit. “Heaven with disaster repays…”)

However, this can be reversed if the writer wants to emphasize the thing that gets used: * 小人導心以耳目。The petty person leads his heart with his ears and eyes (or: It is with his ears and eyes that the petty person leads his heart).

Vocabulary