Dear all,
Welcome to the Jixia forum at Rachelle’s Lab!
This space is set up for everybody who is doing some sort of research on classical Chinese texts. When I was doing my PhD in London, I was in a pre-modern Chinese text reading group and learned tremendously from the exchanges with my colleagues, teachers, and students. I really enjoyed having a space where people with the same interest and from different backgrounds can share their questions and opinions as equals. After I started to study and teach classical Chinese in London, I came to realise that there are more people who are interested in classical Chinese than I thought. But still, we were not really a big community. If someone has a question about classical Chinese, it is not as easy as to get help with Mandarin, so having a space to meet and support each other really makes a difference!
The format of online forum of classical Chinese text reading is certainly not a new thing. I registered, for example, in the forum “Guoxue shudian” 國學數典 (bbs.gxsd.com.cn, only in Chinese) many years ago, and have found tons of resources and learned many things there. I hope the forum at Rachelle’s Lab can serve classical Chinese enthusiasts in the English speaking world in the same way. Come here to share your questions, get help from people around the world, and help them back! Asking questions and explaining something to others are both great ways to learn :)
In my apparently very partial view, classical Chinese enthusiasts are all very nice and sensible people. However, as this is a public space (everybody can register to be a member for free), I think it is better to clarify some house rules and offer my advice for everyone to make the most of this space. Please read through the following very carefully before posting your question or starting any discussion.
1. If possible, provide full reference information of the text you are working on. If it is available online publicly, provide a link. If it is not available to the public, check the copyright information of your source, and if possible, provide a screenshot or type up the passages in question. This forum does not allow uploading big files. You may upload your files to external cloud storage such as google drive and provide the shareable link in your post.
2. The “Reading and Translation” area is not for asking people to translate your text for you, it is for testing your interpretation or draft translation and for asking for help with your specific questions. In other words, you must have already put some efforts into resolving the puzzle you have. There's no stupid questions, and you may ask questions even if you are a complete beginner, but you don't want to look as if you just want a freebee. To avoid that, consider formulating your question along the following lines:
1) I’m not sure how to interpret the phrase X in the original passage. I’ve checked [your reference] which suggests [some information], but it doesn