First, how to understand ancient Chinese?
Reading ancient books, the first prerequisite is to have a certain ability to read ancient books, otherwise even if there are many high-quality ancient books in front of you, you will be at a loss and have no way to start. So how can we have the ability to read ancient Chinese? I believe that after studying in junior and senior high schools, you will have a certain reading foundation. If you have forgotten or have no foundation, there are two books that are your only choice.
(1) Ancient Chinese Learners' "Artifact"
The ancients said, "If a worker wants to do a good job, he must sharpen his tools first.". The "artifact" recommended here is a set of books, a dictionary and a website.
The so-called set of books refers to "Synchronous Counseling and Practice of Ancient Chinese" edited by Wang Li and published by Zhonghua Book Company. * * * A total of three volumes, is the best teacher to learn ancient Chinese. The examples inside basically cover the problems encountered in reading classical Chinese. According to the evolution of usage of ancient Chinese, selected excerpts from representative works from pre-Qin to Song and Yuan Dynasties can help learners to establish a complete knowledge system.
The so-called dictionary refers to the dictionary commonly used in ancient Chinese edited by Wang Li and published by the Commercial Press, which is an essential reference book for self-study. In addition, you can buy "Ancient Chinese" edited by Wang Li and published by Zhonghua Book Company.
The so-called website: refers to the Han Dynasty. You can directly search Baidu, where you can find the evolution and ancient and modern meanings of Chinese characters, which are more complete, convenient and fast to query, and necessary for lazy people. As shown in the figure below:
2. What ancient books are worth recommending?
For the recommended ancient books, only Zuo Zhuan (Yang Bojun's Notes on Zuo Zhuan in the Spring and Autumn Period) and Historical Records (published by Zhonghua Book Company) are recommended at the entry level.
Why only recommend two of them? The reason for this is the following：
(1) There are too many introductory books, which are difficult to choose and easy to give up.
(2) Zuo Zhuan retained the original usage of ancient Chinese in the pre-Qin period, and the evolution of characters and words in later generations developed from this. In addition, the language is concise, vivid and readable.
(3) Historical Records inherited the evolution of ancient Chinese in the pre-Qin period, and inspired the development system of ancient Chinese in Han and Tang Dynasties and later. In addition, Sima Qian's writing style is wonderful and readable.
(4) The recommended textbooks have actually covered the common usage of ancient Chinese.
In addition, I also want to say that as long as you understand these two books, ancient Chinese will solve at least 80% of your problems, which is completely impossible for ancient Chinese after Wei and Jin Dynasties!
Finally, I want to say that no matter how good the advice is, ancient Chinese is still out of reach.