This Culture of Ours: Readings in Classical Chinese Prose Essays

Through close readings of the representative classical Chinese prose essays, students will catch a glimpse of the core values of the unique “written” intellectual tradition, that is, the vivacious and self-reflective experience of the heart and mind of the cultural and intellectual elite of pre-modern China, recorded in a highly condensed “written-only” language. No pre-knowledge of classical Chinese is required. Students will approach the original texts with the help of translations in modern Chinese.