A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese is the long-desired Chinese - English reference work for all those reading texts dating from the Warring States period through the Tang dynasty, and beyond. Comprising 8,000+ characters, arranged alphabetically by Pinyin, with an index by "radical" and stroke- count, and various appendices, including one with reign-eras and exact accession dates of emperors according to both Chinese and Western calendars.

Storehouse of Treasures unearths wise and beautiful elements of Chan and Zen still little known in the West, revealing unexpected aspects of the tradition and new implications for practice. Since the dawn of Chan and Zen in medieval China and Japan, members of these schools have enlivened their teaching by creatively adopting and adapting terms, images, principles, poetry, and lore native to their societies. Unfortunately, so much of that cultural wealth has been “lost in translation” that Western practitioners have barely begun to discover and appreciate this extraordinarily rich legacy. In Storehouse of Treasures, second-generation American Zen teacher Nelson Foster makes a series of adventuresome forays into the trove of material laid up by the Dharma ancestors, bringing to light: Masters’ delight in playing with words, stories, and inherited Buddhist concepts, bending them to express the Dharma in inspired ways The powerful influence that Taoist and Confucian thought exerted in the formation of Chan and Zen The emphasis the two schools have laid on excellence of character as well as on profound awakening The experiential meaning and enduring importance to the tradition of ideals little associated with it today, like integrity, shame, and contentment How “knowing the tune” of a fellow student, a mentor, or a teacher of old lies at the heart of transmitting the Dharma Lifting to attention a diverse set of ancient yet still luminous Dharma gems, Foster urges their relevance and value to us as students of the Buddha Way and as citizens of a world increasingly fractious and imperiled.

"Forty lessons designed to introduce beginning students to the basic patterns and structures of Classical Chinese are taken from a number of pre-Han and Han texts selected to give students a grounding in exemplary Classical Chinese style. Two additional lessons use texts from later periods to help students appreciate the changes in written Chinese over the centuries. Each lesson consists of a text, a vocabulary list featuring discussions of meaning and usage, explanations of grammar, and explications of difficult passages. The standard modern Chinese, Japanese, and Korean pronunciations are indicated for each character, making this a learning tool for native speakers of those languages as well. Appendices give suggestions for further readings, review common and significant words, explain the radical system, and provide Japanese kanbun readings for all the selections. Glossaries of all vocabulary items and pronunciation indexes for modern Chinese and Korean are also included."

Analysis of a seventh-century Chinese anthology on imperial governance

A Dictionary of High Frequency Function Words in Literary Chinese is the first comprehensive work on the subject that constitutes a new approach to teaching and learning by providing both a reference tool and a reader. This dictionary can serve both as a reference book and as an anthology for teaching and learning literary Chinese (the premodern written language) and both ancient and contemporary Chinese culture. It differs from the traditional design of dictionaries in that it includes detailed explanations, with examples, for different uses of the graphs most often used to represent function words in literary Chinese. To facilitate teaching and learning through association, the early meaning, extended meanings, and borrowed meanings for each graph are provided, along with explanations supported by the various stages of the historical development of the graph and other relevant research. Each word is grouped into the primary word class to which it belongs, based on its lexical or grammatical meanings, its collocations, and its function in a sentence. Modern idioms derived from words and phrases in the sample passages are provided in order to promote cultural knowledge and show the important role literary Chinese continues to play in everyday life. All Chinese words are provided with Putonghua romanization to facilitate learning and recall through sound; special pronunciations are explained. This book can be used as a textbook, as extended reading, or as a reference work for undergraduate or graduate classes on literary/classical Chinese, Chinese manuscript studies, Chinese language and culture, Putonghua, translation studies, or even linguistics. It can also be used as an anthology from which the teacher can select passages for students to study.

This textbook provides a comprehensive scholarly introduction to Classical Chinese and its texts. Classical Chinese is the language of Confucius and Mencius and their contemporaries, who wrote the seminal texts of Chinese philosophy more than 2,000 years ago. Although it was used as a living language for only a relatively short time, it was the foundation of Chinese education throughout the Imperial age, and formed the basis of a literary tradition that continues to the present day. This book offers students all the necessary tools to read, understand, and analyse Classical Chinese texts, including: step-by-step clearly illustrated descriptions of syntactic features; core vocabulary lists; introductions to relevant historical and cultural topics; selected readings from classical literature with original commentaries and in-depth explanations; introductions to dictionaries and other reference works on the study of ancient China; and a guide to philological methods used in the critical analysis of Classical Chinese texts. The extensive glossary provides phonological reconstructions, word classes, English translations, and citations to illustrate usage, while the up-to-date bibliography serves as a valuable starting point for further research.

The influence of Buddhism on the Chinese language, on Chinese literature and on Chinese culture in general cannot be overstated, and the language of most Chinese Buddhist texts differs considerably from both Classical and Modern Chinese. This reader aims to help students develop familiarity with features of Buddhist texts in Chinese, including patterns of organization, grammatical features and specialized vocabulary. It also aims to familiarize students with the use of a range of resources necessary for becoming independent readers of such texts. Chinese Buddhist Texts is suitable for students who have completed the equivalent of at least one year’s college level study of Modern Chinese and are familiar with roughly one thousand of the commonest Chinese characters. Previous study of Classical Chinese would be an advantage, but is not assumed. It is an ideal textbook for students taking relevant courses in Chinese studies programs and in Buddhist studies programs. However, it is also possible for a student to work through the reader on his or her own. Further online resources are available at: lockgraham.com