How to Start Reading Classical Chinese (文言文)

Start classical Chinese (文言文, wényánwén) when modern written Chinese in Traditional characters feels comfortable, which is roughly around Band B. Then learn about ten function words, read short passages with a modern gloss, and build up from poems and four-character idioms to short prose. This guide is an introduction. It is not a course, and a teacher or a good annotated edition will take you much further.

What to have first

Classical Chinese is written with the same characters you already study, so the gap is in vocabulary and grammar, not in script. Before you start it helps to have:

• A working vocabulary in modern Chinese. The TOCFL suggested cumulative bases are 2,500 words at Band B Level 3 and 5,000 at Level 4. There is no official threshold for classical Chinese, so treat Band B as a practical guide and not a rule.
• Comfort with Traditional characters, since classical texts in Taiwan are printed in them. See reading Traditional Chinese characters.
• A dictionary that gives classical senses. The Taiwan MOE dictionary (moedict.tw) marks senses used in classical texts, for example 曰 (yuē) “to say, used in 文言文”. The site’s dictionary search is useful for modern readings.
• Some familiarity with written register. The Band C written register grammar guide shows where modern formal writing already borrows from classical style.

The older writing style has a page of its own on this site: Classical Chinese in Traditional characters.

How classical Chinese differs

Feature	Modern (白話)	Classical (文言)
Typical word length	Mostly two characters	Mostly one character
”to say”	說	曰 (yuē)
“I” / “you”	我 / 你	吾 (wú) / 汝 (rǔ)
“also”	也	亦 (yì)
“all”	都	皆 (jiē)
“wish, want”	想要	欲 (yù)
Punctuation	Modern marks	Often none in the original; added in modern editions

The first row explains most of the difficulty. In modern Chinese 學習 and 朋友 are two-character words, while a classical writer writes 學 and 友 alone. A classical sentence can look like a string of characters until you see where the words divide. Modern idioms (成語, see the chengyu guide) are a good bridge, because they are classical phrases that survived into modern speech.

The function words to learn first

Function words carry the grammar.

Word	Reading	Main uses
之	zhī	”it, him, her” as an object; “of” (like 的); a link between subject and predicate
者	zhě	”one who, that which”: 仁者 “a person of benevolence”
也	yě	ends a statement, like a spoken “is” or a full stop
乎	hū	question, exclamation, or “in, at” (hū, with a variant hú)
而	ér	”and, and yet, but” between two clauses
以	yǐ	”use, by means of, in order to”
其	qí	”his, her, their, its”
於	yú	”in, at, to, than”
則	zé	”then, in that case”
所	suǒ	turns a verb into “what is …ed”: 所欲 “what one wants”
焉	yān	”here, there, in it”, often at a sentence end

Learn these as a group and recognise them in context. Do not try to memorise every sense at the start.

Five real lines, read slowly

These lines are from the Analects (論語, Lún Yǔ) and Mencius (孟子, Mèngzǐ), two books of the classical period. Each shows one or more of the words above.

1. 學而時習之，不亦說乎？

Xué ér shí xí zhī, bú yì yuè hū?

“To study and at times practise it, is that not a pleasure?” 而 joins the two actions, 之 is “it” (the thing studied), and 不亦…乎 is a rhetorical question. 說 here is read yuè and means 悅, joy.

2. 己所不欲，勿施於人。

Jǐ suǒ bú yù, wù shī yú rén.

“What you do not want yourself, do not do to others.” 所 turns 不欲 into “what is not wanted”, 勿 (wù) means “do not”, and 於 means “to”. 欲 is the classical 想要.

3. 三人行，必有我師焉。

Sān rén xíng, bì yǒu wǒ shī yān.

“When three people walk together, there is surely a teacher for me among them.” 焉 ends the sentence with the sense “in them”. 師 is “teacher”.

4. 學而不思則罔，思而不學則殆。

Xué ér bù sī zé wǎng, sī ér bù xué zé dài.

“Study without thought is lost, thought without study is dangerous.” The pattern is “A 而 not-B 則 result”, repeated in reverse. 殆 (dài) means danger or unease, and 罔 (wǎng) is an early form of 網, a net. In this line it means being lost or bewildered. 思 is read sī here, as a verb.

5. 魚，我所欲也；熊掌，亦我所欲也。

Yú, wǒ suǒ yù yě; xióng zhǎng, yì wǒ suǒ yù yě.

“Fish is what I want; bear’s paw is also what I want.” 所欲 is “what is wanted”, 亦 is “also”, and 也 closes each statement. This opening of a passage by Mencius is a classic example of the 也 pattern. The passage goes on to discuss how to choose when you cannot have both.

Read each line aloud, then with the gloss, then once more without it. The patterns repeat constantly, and a few dozen lines teach more than long lists.

A reading path

1. Short poems. Tang poems are close enough to modern vocabulary to read with a gloss. See Tang Poems for Chinese Learners.
2. Four-character idioms with their stories. For example, 守株待兔 (shǒu zhū dài tù), the story of a farmer who waited by a tree stump for another rabbit, comes from the book 韓非子 (Hán Fēizǐ). 愚公移山 (yú gōng yí shān) is another story-based idiom.
3. Short passages of the Analects, as above. Choose an annotated edition with Traditional text, modern Chinese glosses and readings.
4. Short classical prose such as 桃花源記 (Táohuāyuán Jì, a short prose piece by Tao Yuanming of the Jin dynasty) and the 出師表 (Chū Shī Biǎo), by Zhuge Liang.

Texts like these are commonly studied in Taiwanese Chinese-language classes (國文), which is why annotated editions for students are easy to find. The exact selection changes with the national curriculum guidelines (課綱), so check what a current school edition contains if you want to follow the same list.

Habits that help

• Read slowly and mark function words as you meet them.
• Keep a short list of one-character words and their modern equivalents (曰 說, 吾 我).
• Use a modern gloss as support, then cover it and try again.
• Take the readings from the dictionary, because some characters read differently in classical contexts. 說 (yuè) above is an example.
• Be patient. Classical Chinese rewards short, repeated sessions more than long ones.

Related reading

• Classical Chinese in Traditional Characters
• Tang Poems for Chinese Learners
• Chengyu Guide for Intermediate Mandarin
• TOCFL Band C Grammar: Written Register