Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar
Edwin G. Pulleyblank, 1995, Introduction, p. 3-5.
[Note: Due to technical difficulties, Chinese characters present in the text are not reproduced in this excerpt. We apologize for the inconvenience.]
Chinese was the principal vehicle of culture and civilization for the whole of East Asia for many centuries and today is spoken by more people than any other language. The earliest known examples of written Chinese are the so-called ‘oracle bones,’ records of divination from the last capital of the Shang dynasty at Anyang. They date from approximately -1300 to -1050. From the following centuries, after the founding of the Zhōu dynasty, come inscriptions on bronze vessels recording royal donations and other such events. The earliest of the Chinese classics — parts of the Book of Changes (Yjiīng), the Book of Documents (Shūjīng) and the Book of Odes (Shījīng) — also date from the early centuries of the Zhou dynasty. All these texts are written in an archaic form of Chinese referred to as preclassical. Continue reading…
Mrs. Nishimura came to Canada from Japan after her husband died. She hesitated to leave her friends and home in a small coastal town, but her daughter and son-in-law in Victoria convinced her that she would be happy living with them, and they could help her as she grew older. When she first arrived, at age seventy-six, she did much of the cooking and worked in the small garden, a useful contribution because her daughter and son-in-law both spent very long hours in their corner store. She sometimes visited her son, who lived in Vancouver. Once a week when the family went to the Buddhist church, she was able to chat with other older women, some of whom lived nearby and came to see her. One friend convinced her to go to English classes at the church, where she learned enough to carry on a very basic conversation.
