It is not easy for a Chinese Singaporean to specialise in ancient China history because there are so few historians interested to begin with. Little Chinese history is taught in either the History or Chinese Language syllabi in Singapore schools. Chinese history also rarely figures in the media, except for some ‘historical’ drama serials aired by Channel 8 and occasional documentaries on Discovery, the National Geographic Channel, and Channel NewsAsia.

But whether you aspire to be a professional ancient China historian, or just want to know more about ancient China history, it can be done. I didn’t know anything when I started out, but I gradually figured out how to get a fairly good grounding in Chinese history. Here are some tips.

1) Learn Classical (wenyan) Chinese

Most ancient Chinese history sources havenever been translated into English, and even for those that have been, you will learn much more from reading the original text. For that reason, an ability to read the classical prose these texts are written in will be essential. In 2005, a team of Chinese historians finally finished translating the 24 Dynastic Histories into ‘normal’(baihua) Chinese. However, this translated edition is not readily available at this point in writing.

If you have trouble reading normal Chinese, don’t fret. Reading more books on Chinese history written in simpler contemporary Chinese (these are mostly published by China) will help you improve until you are confident enough to try classical. The ‘A’-Level Chinese and Higher Chinese syllabi in Junior Colleges introduces a number of classical passages. But your ultimate goal should be to read at least some of the 24 Dynastic Histories, or part of the monumental Zizhi Tongjian by Sima Guang (which covers nearly 1,400 years of history up to AD 959).

The simplest way sometimes is to simply jump in and start trying to make sense of the text. You should get the hang of it relatively quickly - the classical prose in Histories is usually simple rather than ornate, except for edicts, memorials, and essays recorded verbatim. Get a good Chinese-to-English dictionary that also includes definitions in Chinese, and a dictionary of archaic Chinese. These will be very useful for getting around tricky/rare words or phrases.

You will find that most good editions of the Dynastic Histories are in the Fanti script, not the Jianti script that is commonly taught in China and Singapore. This is true even for PRC editions. One reason for it is that the Jianti script has erased a large number of characters by merging them with similar-sounding characters, and this can sometimes create ambiguity when ancient texts get rendered in Jianti - a character that didn’t use to have so many meanings now does in Jianti.

This is potentially inconvenient for Singaporeans who are mostly educated in Jianti Chinese. My suggestion is to gradually make a list, in alphabetical order by Hanyu Pinyin, of Fanti characters and their Jianti equivalents. If in doubt, just check your dictionary - the good ones will give the Fanti version of a character in brackets.

2) Read good books by historians

This is an obvious but crucial point, especially in Singapore where good books on China are hard to come by. Borders and Kinokuniya have a small selection of ancient China books in English, although not all are written by professional historians. Even books written by PhD-holders can be extremely inaccurate - Ann Paludan’s Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors is one notable example. Another drawback of English-language books is that the good ones (e.g. Cambridge History of China series) are often expensive, whether buying in Singapore or online. Alternatives are also slightly lacking. The National Library does not have enough of such books even in its Lee Kong Chian Reference Library; though the NUS Central Library does have quite a good collection - see Point 4.

However, we cannot rely on English-language works alone. They are more accessible for a reasonable introduction, but eventually we have to delve into the much larger body of works by Chinese historians writing in Chinese. Kinokuniya’s Chinese section has several, but they are mostly published in Taiwan and Hong Kong (therefore in Fanti), and of uneven quality. Do not buy anything from the large Chinese historical novel section - none of those novels is a credible historical source!

Vista Culture at Paragon Shopping Centre has some good PRC-published books, and so do the various bookstores at the Bras Basah Complex. The annual World Book Fair also brings in a large variety of Chinese books, and is worth going to unless you are able to make trips to China to buy the same books at much lower prices (see Point 3). Again, the NUS Chinese Library is a good alternative to buying.

One series I’d personally recommend is Bai Yang’s translation of the Zizhi Tongjian from classical into Fanti Chinese, which is available in more than thirty slim volumes. What’s more, you need not buy all but only those volumes covering periods that are of interest to you. The generally cost $19-20 each, and include maps as well.

3) Visit China and Taiwan

Besides getting to visit some historical landmarks and museums you have read about, the best thing about travelling to China as a history student is that the major cities have plenty of bookstores, and those bookstores are usually well-stocked with good Chinese history books at affordable prices. The publishing industry in the PRC has expanded considerably since the 1990s, and many books are now well-illustrated with maps and pictures, and are printed on good quality paper. The Zhonghua Shuju edition of the 24 Dynastic Histories, which remains authoritative, is also easily found in Beijing and Shanghai, especially in bookstores near universities.

Taiwan (and especially in Taipei) has just as many bookstores and its own range of locally-published books. But books are generally more expensive there and are printed in unfamiliar Fanti. The advantage of Taiwanese books is that they are often more historically sound than the PRC ones. By this I mean that they do not carry the Marxist ideological and methodological baggage that many PRC books suffer from, and are also not as constrained by considerations of political correctness in issues touching on ethnic relations.

Two reference books that should definitely be in your library as soon as possible, and can probably only be found in China: a dictionary of official titles and ranks in ancient Chinese governments, and the Historical Atlas of China edited by Tan Qixiang.

Continued in Studying Ancient Chinese History in Singapore (Part Two) …

The author graduates in August 2007 with a Masters (Arts) in History, from the Department of History, National University of Singapore. He will be studying for his Ph.D in UC Berkeley come August 2007.