The Book of Expletives () written by

Wang Yinzhi Wang Yinzhi (; 1766–1834) a Qing dynasty philologist. The son of Wang Niansun Wang Niansun (; 1744–1832), courtesy name: Huaizu () was a Chinese scholar of the Qing Dynasty. Biography A native of Gaoyou, Jiangsu, he worked as a government offi ...

() is a book in ten volumes that analyzes the function of words in

classical Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...

texts.Cheung, Kam-siu, 2011, "New Evidence for the Authorship of Jingyi Shuwen and Jingzhuan Shici". Qinghua xuebao 41.2.

Background

Modern Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...

and

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...

are distinctly different. Even though some of the

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically Epigraphy, inscribed, Printing press, mechanically transferred, or Word processor, digitally represented Symbols (semiot ...

may be the same, grammar, sentence structure and meanings of words in their cultural context changed over time and may make Chinese classics difficult if not impossible to understand. ''The Book of Expletives'' serves as an interpretation of classical Chinese texts in modern terms.

References

{{wikisourcelang, zh, 經傳釋詞 Chinese language Chinese classic texts Standard Chinese