An unfortunate thing occurred recently – a disagreement which resulted in the sudden and complete severance of a friendship. And all because of the I Ching. This caused me to confront once again an age old question: who has the right to speak for China? Let me explain.
Category Archives: The Classics
Journey to the West Bilingual Guide
Below is a bilingual guide to Journey to West (西游记). It alternates bite-sized chunks of the original text in Chinese with English translation. Enjoy!
The Monkey King, or Havoc in Heaven
A new 3D, CGI-amped version of the famed Chinese tale of The Monkey King (大闹天宫)came out a few days ago in cinemas across China. As expected, the new version is not particularly good.
The Analects of Confucius: Simple Bilingual Reference
The Analects (论语) of Confucius are one of the most influential texts in the world and one of the most widely read in Asia over the last two millenia. Few people read them in their entirety and only a handful of scholars care about their translation. The standard English translation is James Legge’s, but our favorite is Simon Leys’ which was the career capper for this giant of Sinology. Below is the complete Analects in both English (Legge’s translation) and simplified Chinese characters book by book, chapter by chapter. Chinese Wiki has the original ancient text (古文) translated into modern day Chinese (白话).
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