Language Tips
Now I want to focus on some positive tips for learning to read classical Chinese medical texts. This article will focus on the language aspect of the medicine. We should follow the example of the French learner from the last post.
Having a good dictionary to reference is important. First, get a good English-Chinese dictionary. Nigel Wiseman’s Practical Dictionary is a great place to start. I have not found this directly helpful when it comes to reading classical texts, but grasping medical terminology at many levels will be useful when these texts are approached. I understand that this dictionary will be available through Pleco, which is a digital dictionary program with several dictionaries inside, making it easy to compare definitions. If you are serious about learning to read classical Chinese, Pleco is an indispensable product. If you can read modern Chinese definitions in a dictionary, then get the 漢語大辭典 (hanyu da cidian). This is by far the best Chinese-Chinese dictionary with nearly 1 million entries and it’s available in CD-ROM format (Pleco does not plan to carry it, so you will have to buy it separately). If you don’t want to spend the money on a Chinese-Chinese dictionary, then go to http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/, which is a free dictionary by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. It has examples of characters and how they are used in classical texts. Only Wiseman’s dictionary is medical, but you will need at least one good non-medical dictionary to get through classical texts. If anyone has experience with these, or helpful dictionaries, then leave a comment.
There are not any books that approach classical Chinese medical texts in a ‘textbook’ fashion, which is why I wrote Classical Chinese Medical Texts and why we are planning at least one more volume. Sorry, this book is the only choice you have for now! I do highly suggest Edwin Pulleyblank’s Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar for those who want to understand the grammar of classical Chinese. This book is worth the price tag. I have not found another book that address classical grammar in as detailed a manner as this book.
For learning the language, the above list should give you more than enough resources. You might also want to take advantage of other Chinese learners’ tips. Below are some links to sights that have forums for Chinese language learners.
Forumosa (Chinese learners in Taiwan)
For studying classical Chinese we (sinology students in Prague) are using these dictionaries mostly:
Mathews’ Chinese-English dictionary
Excellent dictionary, the only flaw is that it’s using Wade-Giles transcription and not pinyin.
http://chinese.dsturgeon.net/dictionary.pl?if=en
I found this one not long ago, so I didn’t test it properly, but it looks very useful.
Thesaurus Linguae Sericae
This is also an on-line dictionary and encyclopedia, but it’s working very slowly, probably the server is overwhelmed, so I’m not putting here the link, only those who can find their way to the dictionary should use it :-).
An other excellent dictionary is Oshanin’s dictionary, but it’s a Russian dictionary, so it’s useless unless you understand Russian.
Hope it will help.