<p>Yes. There are &quot;vernacular translations&quot; (白话译文)  putting the Analects themselves in modern Chinese language.  Several of these can be found by searching &quot;论语&quot; &quot;译文&quot;.  I have not surveyed how many.</p>

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2020-10-05T21:07:47.353Z
2020-10-05T21:07:47.353Z
Colin McLarty
<p>Bilingual (English/Chinese) editions of the Analects seem to be set using standard, Modern Mandarin fonts.  And some of the analects are pretty easy to read with a Modern Mandarin background -- with a few corrections like knowing that 也 used to mark affirmation.  But the experts I read say the Analects as a whole, in the classical Chinese, are not readable in Modern Mandarin.  Are there published editions in the PRC adapted to Modern Mandarin?  Maybe for school children?</p>
<p>I am asking in order to understand modern China.  I do not want such an edition myself.</p>
<p>As to the character fonts, those issues are well,  but concisely, described at <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/posts/9569/revisions">https://chinese.stackexchange.com/posts/9569/revisions</a></p>

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2020-10-03T22:59:56.533Z
I feel that Mandarin **annotated commentaries** of the analects would be more common than Mandarin **translations**.
dROOOze
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2020-10-04T04:34:42.833Z
“in order to understand modern china”   well, read george orwell’s “1984”; lee kuan yew’s memoirs (the traditional chinese version) vol 2; and ray huang’ s “china`: a macro history”.
水巷孑蠻
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2020-10-04T12:38:17.107Z
@dROOOze Yes that was how scholars read the Classical texts throughout history.  But I still wonder if today there are also adaptations to Modern Mandarin,.   Certainly the forms of the characters are often modernized..
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-04T13:14:04.043Z
What do you mean by `forms of the characters are often modernized`? If you mean PRC's Simplified Chinese, that might be OK for Mandarin annotations, but rendering the original text in that way makes the text an unreadable confusing mess. Academically serious publications like those by 中華書局 of the canonical texts are still published with a faithful orthography.
dROOOze
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2020-10-04T14:18:07.800Z
@dROOOze I mean they do not use Warring States, or Han dynasty forms of the characters.  But they do, I believe use classical forms of Chinese language.
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-04T17:09:28.860Z
Script change has multiple levels to it, your average Chinese person gets caught up in what essentially is a font difference, but that’s a novice understanding about characters and really not the most difficult part about reading ancient scripts. It’s the unfamiliar semantic and phonetic combinations which pop up more frequently the further back you go, not the essentially superficial aesthetic difference, which makes reading hard. I can transcribe most of that question’s characters into regular script, but the result will not really be intelligible.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-04T18:10:55.483Z
@dROOOze That's all true.  And so, I wonder if there are published editions of the Analects in the PRC adapted to Modern Mandarin.
Colin McLarty
<classical-chinese>
Are there published adaptations of the Analects in Modern Mandarin?
# Are there published adaptations of the Analects in Modern Mandarin?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-10-03)

Bilingual (English/Chinese) editions of the Analects seem to be set using standard, Modern Mandarin fonts. And some of the analects are pretty easy to read with a Modern Mandarin background -- with a few corrections like knowing that 也 used to mark affirmation. But the experts I read say the Analects as a whole, in the classical Chinese, are not readable in Modern Mandarin. Are there published editions in the PRC adapted to Modern Mandarin? Maybe for school children?

I am asking in order to understand modern China. I do not want such an edition myself.

As to the character fonts, those issues are well, but concisely, described at <https://chinese.stackexchange.com/posts/9569/revisions>

**Tags:** classical-chinese

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I feel that Mandarin **annotated commentaries** of the analects would be more common than Mandarin **translations**.  
> **username_2**: “in order to understand modern china”   well, read george orwell’s “1984”; lee kuan yew’s memoirs (the traditional chinese version) vol 2; and ray huang’ s “china`: a macro history”.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Yes that was how scholars read the Classical texts throughout history.  But I still wonder if today there are also adaptations to Modern Mandarin,.   Certainly the forms of the characters are often modernized..  
> **username_1**: What do you mean by `forms of the characters are often modernized`? If you mean PRC's Simplified Chinese, that might be OK for Mandarin annotations, but rendering the original text in that way makes the text an unreadable confusing mess. Academically serious publications like those by 中華書局 of the canonical texts are still published with a faithful orthography.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 I mean they do not use Warring States, or Han dynasty forms of the characters.  But they do, I believe use classical forms of Chinese language.  
> **username_1**: Script change has multiple levels to it, your average Chinese person gets caught up in what essentially is a font difference, but that’s a novice understanding about characters and really not the most difficult part about reading ancient scripts. It’s the unfamiliar semantic and phonetic combinations which pop up more frequently the further back you go, not the essentially superficial aesthetic difference, which makes reading hard. I can transcribe most of that question’s characters into regular script, but the result will not really be intelligible.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 That's all true.  And so, I wonder if there are published editions of the Analects in the PRC adapted to Modern Mandarin.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2020-10-05. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

Yes. There are "vernacular translations" (白话译文)  putting the Analects themselves in modern Chinese language.  Several of these can be found by searching "论语" "译文".  I have not surveyed how many.


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