Hi, all,
I am currently trying to locate some good online resources of Literary Chinese (文言文) texts.
Two things to note:
1. The texts I am looking for are Literary Chinese texts, not Classical Chinese (古文). Strictly speaking, both are not the same thing. I am aware that Classical Chinese is a sub-set of Literary Chinese.
2. I already have the Confucian Classics (四書) and the Five Classics (五經), plus some of the other ancient texts, e.g. 老子, 三字經, 孫子兵法 - all of which fall under the Classical Chinese sub-group.
I am looking for samples of written documents and articles outside the sphere of the standard canon of scholastic texts. This could take the form of, say, imperial edicts, government laws and constitutions, old letters and correspondences (both formal and informal), or even old newspapers pre-dating 1900.
I would like to see how Literary Chinese was used as a practical tool of writing and communication in pre-modern China, and East Asia in general (which means Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese texts written in wenyan are okay, too).
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Cheers,
Mark