<p>Is anyone here knowledgeable about Classical Chinese? As in, the ancient language no longer spoken today? I’ve got Sun Tzu (孫子)'s book the Art of War, but I guess today’s Chinese-speakers can’t read it? <em>waits</em></p>
<p>They can read it, at least sort of. All the classical chinese books are written in the same characters used today. The vernacular is different, but same basic writing system. What makes classical chinese hard to understand is all the inuendo. The classic books are all filled with ‘in jokes’ and inuendo that that is pretty much impossible for a non-scholar to decipher.</p>
<p>My impression is that it’s like a modern-day American English speaker reading Shakespeare or Chaucer. (I don’t think it’s as bad as a modern-day American English speaker reading Beowulf.) Some things are understandable, and other things are not.</p>
<p>People speak almost the same way back then as they do today. It is just that back then it is considered graceful & educated to use the “classical” writing style which is pretty much incomprehensible to common people even back then.</p>
<p>Almost all “classics” are written in classical chinese such as Confucius, Sun Zi, Taoism, etc. Some are written in more everyday language such as “San Guo” (Three States) and “Shui Hu” (the water marsh).</p>