[Aaron Poochigian]

I need to be able to read Wang Wei, Li Po and Tu Fu in the original. Any suggestions for an introductory text for Classical Chinese?

[Aaron Novick]

Start with: Bryan Van Norden - Classical Chinese for Everyone: https://www.hackettpublishing.com/cl...-everyone-4328

Followed by: Paul Rouzer - A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Lit.../dp/067402270X

[Kevin Rainbow]

An older text -"Introduction to Literary Chinese"
by Brandt- is available for free here: https://archive.org/details/introduc...ge/n5/mode/2up

[Andrew Szilvasy]

Bryan van Norden is an amazing text. Get your hands on Pulleyblank in addition to Rouzer. Those are your go-tos for grammar and a sense of how Classical Chinese functions.

I'd also recommend (a) Archie Barnes' Chinese through Poetry as a way to help more quickly build a Chinese poetic vocabulary. Fuller's An Introduction to Chinese Poetry (his intro grammar is good too, Rouzer's just the standard), and Hawkes' A Little Primer on Du Fu.

You'll also want to get Pleco on your phone/tablet and the add-on of Kroll's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese. The ability for it to recognize character via the camera is game-changing.

If you need copies of anything, sans the van Norden, shoot me a DM.