In just thirteen brief, accessible chapters, this engaging little book takes 'absolute beginners' from the most basic questions about the language (e.g., what does a classical Chinese character look like?) to reading and understanding selections from classical Chinese philosophical texts and Tang dynasty poetry.

"This book is designed to introduce Classical Chinese to students with no previous exposure to Modern Chinese. This differs from the approach used in most textbooks, which assume you already have studied Chinese for at least a couple of years"--