Selections from Classical Chinese: Historical Texts aims to instruct, inform, and inspire students of Chinese by presenting selected historical texts and their annotations. Taken from the seminal works known as the Four Histories, the fourteen included texts offer insights into the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of China over a long period of time. The comprehensive annotations provide full pronunciation in pinyin, the grammatical function of individual words, and a full explication of the texts.One of the supplementary readings to Classical Chinese: A Basic Reader, this volume includes eight selections from the Shi Ji and two each from the Han Shu, the Hou Han Shu, and the San Guo Zhi. Each unfolds a fascinating account of the historical events and figures that represent certain salient values or distinctive cultural characteristics of what has come to be the Chinese tradition.The Shi Ji, a grand history by Sima Qian chronicling three thousand years of Chinese histo
