Donald B. Wagner

This textbook provides the first chapter of the [Mencius], reproduced from a punctuated and annotated Chinese edition, with extensive vocabulary and grammatical notes to aid the beginner student in Classical Chinese with comprehension of the text. For the ambitious student, a Song Dynasty unpunctuated woodblock-print edition is provided without notes. The advanced student has notes and glosses from the Eastern Han commentary of Zhao Qi provided along with the Song Dynasty edition.

This reader gives the student a decent introduction to Mencius, and its vocabulary and grammar while rewarding advanced students with a more challenging text. Yet, as the author mentions, to gain a better understanding of Classical Chinese grammar, Edwin Pulleyblank's [b:Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar|338950|Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar|Edwin G. Pulleyblank|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348344816s/338950.jpg|329350] is essential and without which, complete understanding of this text is difficult.

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