Introduction to Literary Chinese/Preface

Hardly does there exist another language in which the spoken style differs so much from the written style as in the Chinese language. And it would not be an exaggeration to say that in reality there are two Chinese languages, the spoken and the written. It is quite natural that every foreigner coming to China who wishes to study Chinese begins with the spoken language. Many fundamental manuals existing on this subject make the student's work very easy and interesting. But as soon as he has mastered to some extent the spoken Chinese and tries to read the texts of the written style he at once encounters difficulties very hard to overcome. His knowledge of the spoken language is of little use to him because he meets new expressions and unfamiliar forms of sentence structure. It is true that explanations given by his Chinese teacher assist him in getting the meaning of an expression or particle in a given case. Seldom however is his teacher able to explain to him how a particle is used or a sentence formed. Furthermore for this analysis of the written style there is no systematic work which may solve his perplexities and answer his numerous questions. The result is that many people who earnestly wish to study the written Chinese very soon lose their enthusiasm and stop mid-way. The aim of the present book is to help the students of the Chinese written style in their difficult task by guiding their first steps in its mastery. The book is composed of 40 lessons. The texts which comprise various styles of literary writing are, in the beginning, very simple. For every new character used, explanations are given so that a person who does not know Chinese at all can start studying this book. For those who know the spoken Chinese it may be of no little value in the analysis of the written constructions to have the spoken versions which accompany the written texts in the first ten lessons. The particles of the written style are grouped in separate classes according to their grammatical use. The author is very far from the thought that this book will be able to satisfy completely the acute need of a systematic manual on the Chinese written style. On the contrary, being quite aware of the hard task which he has assumed, he foresees serious defects and oversights in his work and only consoles himself with the thought that he is on the right path, that the studying of the written Chinese according to his method will not be waste of time and that in the future some other sinologues will develop and complete his work in those points in which he has not had sufficient ability or time. The works which have been consulted and made use of in the preparation of this manual and to which the author is greatly indebted are enumerated in the Bibliography. It is recommended before beginning the study of this book that necessary corrections be made in accordance with the list of the errata. The material of these lessons has been used for lectures given by the author in the North China Union Language School during a period of 18 months to three successive groups of students, gave him a good opportunity to verify by experiment the practicability of his method, to regroup the material and make necessary alterations. The author is especially grateful to the North China Union Language School for this privilege granted to him. The author also takes this opportunity to express his hearty thanks to Dr. C. K. Searles for his valuable help and many useful suggestions in the composition of this work. J. BRANDT.