Hong Zeng's Chinese language and culture

This course will allow you to learn a wide range of Chinese language

(such as language describing Nature, emotion, basic topics of human

existence) by learning the breath-taking, immortal beauty of the

original works of the most famous classical Chinese poets,

world-renowned poets such as Li Po, Tu Fu, Wang Wei, etc. More than any

other countries, classical Chinese poetry is given the most prominent

and exalted status, which not only shapes Chinese language, literature,

arts, philosophy and religion, but also Chinese history and politics.

Chinese scholar-officials are invariably good poets who had passed Civic

Entrance Exams with good grades and became high officials by composing

excellent poetry and to a lesser extent, great essays. Moreover, the

language of classical Chinese poetry is surprisingly similar to modern

Chinese language, therefore it is very adaptable to the language use in

daily life. For example, look at any casually selected poetic line, such

as Li Po's poem, "月下独酌”，("Drinking Alone under the Moon")

"花间一壶酒/独酌无相亲/举杯邀明月/对影成三人”，("Among the flowers, a jug of wine/ drinking

alone, no companion/ raise the cup, invite bright moon/ And my shadows,

makes three") you will see that every phrase in the poetic lines is

perfectly understandable and applicable as modern Chinese language. To

the very few vocabularies that changes their usage in time, the course

will explain carefully and provide the modern equivalent. One major

change is that the monosyllabic vocabularies in classical Chinese

becomes double-syllabic in modern Chinese, but the source and change is

perfectly traceable and easy to master and gives you a clear idea of the

development of Chinese language. Therefore, by learning this course,

you will not only take pride in yourself being able to understand and

appreciate the greatest jewel of Chinese language and art, as well as

crystallized Chinese philosophy embedded in this literary genre, which

is world-renowned and highly influential on world literature and arts,

but also learn a great range of Chinese language quickly, impressively,

and memorably through the original works of these famous poets, and

these language you acquired through this course is perfectly adaptable

to your modern, daily use.

This first season of this classical Chinese poetry series choose the most famous poems of three greatest classical Chinese poets--Li Po, Tu Fu, Wang Wei, called the Poet Immortal (诗仙），Poet Saint (诗圣） and Poet Buddha (诗佛）respectively, and represent the Taoist, Confucius and Buddhist strands of Chinese culture respectively. Each poem of theirs is taught in three lectures: the first lecture teaches the language of the poem. Vocabulary lists are provided and taught to recite and to use in modern situation, the literal meaning of each poetic line is explained in great detail, and each poetic line is led to recite and memorize, because the vocabulary lists include vocabularies from the most basic to the advanced, any level of Chinese students can take the course, although it is advisable to take my College Mandarin Chinese on Your Own Beginning Level so that you are knowledgeable of the Chinese pinyin and writing system and basic Chinese vocabularies. The second lecture teaches in English the poetic implication, the relationship between its poetic form and meaning, composition method and philosophical influence of the poem, so that you understand and appreciate the cultural implication of the poem in greatest depth. The third lecture is a music recitation video made with my recitation (which you can read after), beautiful classical Chinese music and painting, so that you can further familiarize and memorize the language of the poem, and appreciate the immortal, living beauty of these poems.

Through learning this course you will be able to take greatest pride in yourself in being able to understand the greatest jewel of Chinese language and literature which has amazing homology with Chinese arts, philosophy and religion and shapes Chinese history for thousands of years. While you take the aesthetic flight, your Chinese skill will also improve drastically with the wide range of vocabularies and expression (in Nature, society, human emotion and basic human existence) you learned through these poems.