Sinographs 102 · Literary Chinese

The second course of the sinograph school. It begins where 101 · Foundations closed: you know how the characters work and own the 55 most frequent of them; this course teaches the LANGUAGE they wrote — Literary Chinese, the classical written tongue of the Analects, the Laozi, the Great Learning, the Odes, and the Changes.

Each chapter teaches one element of the grammar — the sentence shapes, the little words that steer them, the ways of negating, asking, and concluding — and brings in the characters that element needs, always on real lines of the real texts, cited to their witnesses. By the end of the course the famous sayings you met in pieces read whole, because you know both the characters and the grammar holding them together.

Chapters

1. The sentence without a verb — X, Y 也indeed · yě · the sentence-final 'it is so' of classical prose: defining without "is"; the cast of persons
2. The verb and its object — subject, verb, object; nothing conjugates; the Laozi stays home
3. Having and lacking — there-is and is-not; the two ways of saying no; the myriad things arrive
4. Counting the world — the number row filled; a life told in decades
5. The belonging thread — 之of · zhī · of; him, her, it — the classical linker and object ties owner to owned; the Way opens the chain whole
6. The one who, the thing which — 者who · zhě · the one who — turns a verb into its doer and 所place · suǒ · place; that which — the nominalizer make nouns of verbs; the Odes quote themselves
7. With, by, from, at — the coverbs; the hub’s empty center gives the use
8. Already, and at last — 矣by-now · yǐ · final particle: the state has arrived — 'now it is so' and 已already · yǐ · already; to stop, be done; (而已) and that is all mark completion; the first line of the first book, at home
9. The art of asking — 何what · hé · what? how? why? what, 安peace · ān · peace, ease, safety; how? wherein, 乎really · hū · the question-breath that ends classical questions the spoken question mark; friends from far quarters
10. If and then — 則rule · zé · rule, pattern; then, in that case the hinge of consequence, bought with a cowrie and a knife
11. Can, get, want — the modal row; wealth priced, greatness unchased
12. Making it happen — the causativea verb build meaning "make someone do it" — the tree falls, the woodsman FELLS it; Akkadian builds it with š- in front (šūbilam, "make-carry it — send it") runs a thousand-chariot state; 天heaven · tiān · sky; Heaven, the ordering power下below · xià · below, under; to descend為do · wéi · to do, to make; to act as; for公duke · gōng · duke; public, common box-free
13. Like and alike — the comparative ladder; 上above · shàng · above, upper; to ascend善good · shàn · good; to be good at若as-if · ruò · to be like; if水water · shuǐ · water; a river without a box
14. All of it — 皆all · jiē · all, everyone alike all, 至arrive · zhì · to arrive, to reach; utmost the utmost; the Great Learning stops at the good
15. And so — therefore, so, follow — the ladder crowned; the people say 自self · zì · self; from — the reflexive and the point of origin然so · rán · so, thus; like that

The course is complete. Fifteen chapters: the grammar of the classical sentence from the verbless frame to the discourse words, taught entirely on real lines of the classics — with the famous sayings the Foundations course met in pieces now read whole.