Introduction

My hope for this book is that it will provide help to students making the transition from “textbook texts” to “real texts”. Introductory textbooks of Classical Chinese naturally use texts which do not present serious philological problems, and whose understanding does not depend on a detailed knowledge of their historical context. Students beginning their own research therefore often find themselves at a loss reading “real” texts, in which such problems abound. This textbook uses a significant historical text, and all of the problems which it presents are confronted in the glosses and notes.