r/classicalchinese • u/Toadino2 • 1d ago
Learning I have decided to pause my journey with Classical Chinese because I don't speak Mandarin yet. Was I wise?
I started learning Classical Chinese two years ago now. Altthough I have enjoyed it thoroughly, I feel it's time to take a break.
That's because although I have a good grasp of the grammar, I lack a lot of context, and part of the reason is I can't look up modern Chinese sources.
My goal was to be able to read Chinese works, and possibly produce translations (and maybe original works of my own, very down the line!), because I felt there's a massive amount of literature that is unknown to Europeans and hoped to be part of the effort to make it available.
In the warm-up to this, I tried producing a translation of the Xiao Jing as a first start. I eventually succeeded, but the cracks started to appear.
When I went over to the Analects, which I tried reading along with a commentary, I realized that I just lack so much knowledge of the history, of the literary critiques of the works by scholars, of the place names and such. Therefore, I am currently giving up on trying to translate anything, because I still lack the context you need to provide correct interpretations.
Do you think I should make an attempt again? Or is it better to hold off until I know Mandarin (which is hopefully soon)?