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University of Chicago Press, Published 1979. Paperback, xv, 213 pp.; 23 cm; text in English with Chinese characters throughout; Revised and Enlarged Edition (Second Edition, 1948), Midway Reprint 1979; illustrated with a calligraphic chart and ancient character forms throughout the notes.
In Good condition. Blue paper covers with black lettering. Moderate toning and foxing to both covers, heavier to rear cover, with a small nick at the top corner and light bumping and creasing to edges and corners. Perfect bound and tight. Foxing to the top edge of the text block and dampstaining to the bottom edge; leaves lie flat, without waviness. Pages toned, heaviest at the front. Otherwise unmarked. Creel taught classical Chinese by etymology and induction rather than rote: show that the character for man was once a drawing of a man seen from the side, and the compounds built on it follow. What set the book apart was where those etymologies came from. Rather than lean on the Shuo Wen Chieh Tzu, the second-century dictionary that had served as the standard authority for eighteen hundred years, Creel worked from the Shang oracle-bone inscriptions excavated at Anyang from 1928, drawing on six years of study of the new material. Tung Tso-pin, who directed those excavations, checked the ancient character forms for this revision. Volume I reads the Hsiao Ching, the Classic of Filial Piety. Chicago's Creel Center for Chinese Paleography is named for him. Contents: Dialects; Romanization; History of the Characters; The Study of Etymology; Development of the Script; On Writing Chinese; On Using a Chinese Dictionary; On Reading Chinese; How to Use the Notes; Introduction to the Hsiao Ching; Abbreviations and Symbols; Text of the Hsiao Ching; Notes on Hsiao Ching; Exercise Sentences; Exercise Essays; Calligraphic Chart; Index of First Occurrences of Characters and Compound Expressions; List of Final Occurrences of Characters and Compound Expressions; General Index.