Language of the Dragon, Volume 1 Textbook

Language of the Dragon, Volume 1 textbook is designed to help students discuss academic and scholarly topics more articulately and read classical Chinese materials with ease.

The author offers a systematic and clear analysis of classical Chinese (wenyan) grammar, using twenty readings from texts of the Spring and Autumn, Warring States, “Qin”, and early Han periods. The text is written in baihua (modern Chinese), and each reading invites learners to make connections between modern and classical Chinese. Such comparison not only enriches study of the latter but also strengthens students’ grasp of modern Chinese.

Each lesson contains five sections: Text, Glossary, Commonly Used Words, Patterns and Function Words, and Exercises. The volume also contains four appendices that explore the classification of words, sentence elements, basic sentence types, and function words. Each appendix contains examples from the readings to contextualize the material. The equivalent of three years of modern Chinese is assumed. Text is written in traditional Chinese characters and English, and is supplemented with pinyin.