I have been reading Chinese classics lately and finished this one. Out of all of the ones I've read so far, this has to be the greatest.Has /lit/ read traditional Chinese classics like Romance of the 3 kingdoms, Journey to the west, Dream of Red Chamber, Investiture of the Gods, and others?
I love Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio and Zhuangzi
I've only read the Chinese classics Robert van Gulik wrote
Reminder that you can't enjoy Chinese literature without base level knowledge of 1000000000000000000 obscure quotes, poems, and references.Romance of Three Kingdoms is kino though>The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.
>>24959545Who were your favorite characters in 3 kingdoms? For me it's Gaun Yu and Xiahou Dun
>>24958227>>24960443>translationBAHAHAHAHA you did not read the book bro, 100% of it flew over your head.
>>24959545I am glad to see this finally discussed regularly.Reading chinese /lit/ while huwhite is like a Stacy being asked to read a 4chin thread and then be assessed in reading comp SAT style on the content.Are rare case of best watch it on /tv/, at least then you can sort of get what's going on through blocking/body language/facial expressions/scene setting.
>>24960447yes it is useless, people should not read it because only chinese can understand it and only those of the correct chinese language of which many exist till today
So I did take a look for annotated versions and the ones I found out aren't that extensive they might have like 10 or 20 extra pages than a normal paperback.Guess there isn't anything in English with something as good as to be considered university lecture material, might sound a bit delulu but there are books like Pensées where the annotated parts literally make half of the book itself and they put you in the historical context.If anyone wants to give any particular English edition where they go over this and release ancient chinese secret id be eager to buy an actual paperback.
Dream of the Red Chamber is pretty good. I’ve read part 1 and 2. Nice mix of funny and tragic. I don’t really mind that I don’t have 10,000 years of references because I still got a lot of enjoyment out of it. I have part 3 but Cao Xueqin died before he could finish the whole thing so I think after part 3 it’s about resolving the plot instead of keeping the vibe of “Looming portents of decline”.
>>24959545>>24960510Do you think anyone but Chinese literary scholars know all of those references? So does it matter? Pseuds.
>>24961153No idea, I don’t speak Chinese, but my experience is that at best I’m getting plot, and I have enough historical/cultural knowledge to know that I’m missing a great deal and that plot is not what makes the 4 famous.
>>24961202>plot is not what makes the 4 famous.Its the characters that makes them famous. Secondarily, the plot. It's not the references.
>>24960581No but imagine reading the Divine Comedy outside of a western culture
>>24961208I enjoyed it as an Australian
>>24960443>I'd rather betray the world than let the world betray meCao Cao was based as fuck
>>24958227I'm chinapilled
>>24958227The relationship between Song Jiang and Li Kui is one I think about often, years later after reading it.
>>24958227I've been obsessed with Chinese literature, philosophy and history for years now, can't really tell you why honestly.I've read the entire Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Art of War, Daodejing, an extensive book about the history of Daoism, Zhuangzi, I've recently begun Journey to the West and I've read various miscellaneous history books from various different authors on China, the most recent being Conquering the North by John Man and a book about Zheng He's treasure fleet and a book about the 1937 battle of Shanghai.Please send help.
>>24958227Is the Tuttle version of The Water Margin any good? I remember their ROTTK being pretty dry and mildly poorly written.
>>24958227i read journey to the west this year and it was enjoyable but repetitive. the action of every chapter happens, then is recounted by one of the characters to another. it definitely lent itself to being translated into an endless battle manga. i see why kids go crazy for it.is investiture of the gods worth a read? i saw the ne zha movies this year and they were fun.
>>24965048>repetitiveMost of the translated Chinese classics are. I dunno if Chinese is just like that or if it's a translation issue.
Read rickshaw boy.
>>24961153Yes, lol. The same way the average person in the west would know what you mean if you used the phrase "Achilles heel" or "writing on the wall".
>>24965048Investiture of the gods was worth my time. I would recommend it in some capacity, whether it be /lit/ or in other forms.
>>24965091Picking this up when I can
>>24958227friends have been telling me to read 'to live' by yu hua, waiting for my library hold but it will be my first chinese lit. I've been planning on hittin water margin for a long time, but just because it's so old and long I keep putting it off. Is that shit lit or what
I took several Chinese literature classes when I was in college, and I enjoyed them immensely. One of the last texts we were assigned was a story from Liao Zhai's Record of Wonders, in which the protagonist almost dies of sexual exhaustion from being doubleteamed by a foxspirit girl and a ghost girl. Was pretty funny. I ended up buying the anthology book that our professor sourced most of the assigned readings from, and I keep it displayed prominently in my home library.
>>24964872did you even watch the three kingdoms series?
>>24958227have you guys heard of wm theodore de bary?
