Yang Bojun is a famous linguist and ancient philologist in China. He has made outstanding contributions to the study of ancient Chinese grammar and function words, as well as the collation and translation of ancient books.
Especially the Analects of Confucius has the greatest influence. The translation of this book is clear and smooth, and the annotations emphasize the textual research on the meaning of words, grammatical rules, rhetorical rules, the system of names and things, customs and habits, etc. Many new personal opinions are based on the achievements of ancient and modern scholars.
One of the most obvious features of the annotations of The Analects of Confucius is that they are written in vernacular Chinese. Throughout the history of The Analects, all the works explaining The Analects are written in classical Chinese, which makes it difficult to read. With the development of society, classical Chinese works can no longer meet the needs of the broad masses of the people, so the use of vernacular Chinese for annotation is put on the agenda.
Annotations to the Analects of Confucius is a typical example of classical annotations in vernacular Chinese. There are many advantages in marking notes in vernacular Chinese. First of all, the translation is concise and can accurately express the original meaning. Secondly, it can help ordinary readers to understand the Analects more easily and correctly, and provide some clues for those who are interested in studying it.
When learning ancient Chinese, we should not only pay attention to the differences between ancient Chinese and modern Chinese, but also pay attention to the Chinese communication between them. As I said before, there is a relationship between ancient and modern Chinese, and attaching importance to communication can achieve the goal of understanding the unknown with the known.