Grundstrukturen der antikchinesischen Syntax: Eine erklarende Grammatik & Antikchinesisch in funf Element(ar)gangen: Eine propadeutische Einfuhrung & Antikchinesische Texte: Materialien fur den Hochschulunterricht.

• Author: KERN, MARTIN
• Position: Review

Grundstrukturen der antikchinesischen Syntax: Eine erklarende Grammatik. By ROBERT H. GASSMANN. Schweizer Assistische Studien, monograph no. 26. New York: PETER LANG, 1997. Pp. 352 + tables. $54.95 (paper).

Antikchinesisch in funf Element(ar)gangen: Eine propadeutische Einfuhrung. By ROBERT H. GASSMANN. Schweizer Asiatische Studien, Studienhefte 15/1. New York: PETER LANG, 1997. Pp. 124 + tables.

Antikchinesische Texte: Materialien fur den Hochschulunterricht. By ROBERT H. GASSMANN. Schweizer Asiatische Studien, Studienhefte 15/2. New York: PETER LANG, 1997. Pp. 505 + tables. $31.95 (set).

With these almost one thousand pages of grammar and textbook, Robert Glassmann, professor at the University of Zurich, has established himself as a leading authority of Classical Chinese. Developed over a decade of teaching at Zurich, this exquisite set of materials has already been adopted at several universities in the German-speaking world. At a time when the systematic study and teaching of Classical Chinese seems to have been moved much to the margins of Chinese studies, Gassmann's work is not only excellent but also a veritable act of resistance. It rightfully adds the author's name to the small but very fine group of scholars who wrote--and continue to write--in German on Classical Chinese: Georg von der Gabelentz's (1840-1893) monumental Chinesische Grammatik mit Ausschluss des niederen Stiles und der heutigen Umgangssprache (1881) is still a first-rate reference work, and Erich Haenisch's (1880-1966) Lehrgang der chinesischen Schriftsprache (1931; later reprinted as Lehrgang der klassischen chinesis chen Schriftsprache) served students through most of the century. (During the decades of the German division, both Gabelentz and Haenisch were repeatedly reprinted in the eastern part of the country). More recently, Ulrich Unger (now retired from the University of Munster) has written the most valuable Einfuhrung in das klassische Chinesisch (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1985), Glossar des klassischen Chinesisch (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1989), and Rhetorik des klassischen Chinesisch (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1994); and while the scholarly world still awaits the official publication of his eight-volume (!) samizdat grammar of Classical Chinese, he is currently working on a dictionary of this language.

Gassmann's notion of "Antikchinesisch" ("Ancient Chinese") embraces the written language of the Eastern Zhou through Eastern Han periods (Grundstrukturen, p. 15) and is thereby somewhat broader than Unger's "Klassisches Chinesisch" (fifth through third centuries B.C.) or Raymond Dawson's "Classical Chinese" (fourth through second centuries B.C.). [1] But in fact, his thirty selections in Antikchinesische Texte come from Lun yu (3 passages), Dao de jing (3), Li ji (4), Zhong yang (1), Da xue (1), [2] Meng zi (4), Han Fei zi (1), Zuo zhuan (6), Shi ji (1), Xun...