For learning the classics or reading texts

Yoshikawa Kōjirō and Miyoshi Tatsuji, ed., Shin tōshisen (Iwanami shoten, 1952)
---. Shin tōshisen zokuhen (Iwanami shoten, 1954)
Has everlasting value as an entry-level book for reading Tang poetry. Yoshikawa’s earnest belief that Chinese literature is not so-called kanbun, but rather one category of foreign literature that should be regarded as a classic for all humanity and which has universal value that goes beyond the ethnic nation-state is readily evident.

Saitō Mareshi, Kanshi no tobira (Kadokawa sensho 2013)
Conveys the enjoyment of reading poetry in literary Sinitic. However, the study also illustrates how one word is chosen from among the long accumulation of words used in poetry. Thereby, along with relaying the depth of literary Sinitic poetry, it also teaches how to approach it as a literary product. Yoshikawa’s assertion from sixty years earlier is here shown in its maturation. Further, Ogawa Tamaki’s Tōshi gaisetsu (Iwanami shoten 2005) is indispensible for the study of Tang poetry.

Perspective on the classics

Kim Moonkyong, Ri haku: hyōhaku no shijin sono yume to genjitsu (Iwanami shoten, 2012)
This work is on the famous poet Li Bai, but research on the legend of Li Bai, as the history of literary reception, places each work historically and investigates further. This method should be read as exhibiting new possibility for the study of classical literature.

Ōtani Masao, Uta to shi no aida: wakan hikaku bungaku ronkō (Iwanami shoten, 2008)
Aimed at specialists, and deals with one pivotal part of Japanese classical literature. However, its movement from establishing the problem into definitive demonstration goes beyond comparative literature and can be taken as one form of researching classical literature.

On the System Supporting a World of Literary Sinitic

Miyazaki Ichisada, Kyūhin kanjinhō no kenkyū: kakyo zenshi (Chūōkōronsha 1997)
---. Kakyoshi (Heibonsha, 1987)
It goes without saying that the civil service examinations cast a deep shadow on the world of the classics in China, and especially on the mentality of the intelligentsia. The first work above is a history of the first levels of the examination system, but it can also be read as a history of the formation of the strata of the intelligentsia. For works on the influence of the civil service examination on China, see Murakami Tetsumi’s Kakyo no hanashi: shiken seido to bunjin kanryō (Kōdansha, 2000), Fu Xuancong, Tang dai ke ju yu wen xue (Xi’an: Shanxi ren min chu ban she, 1986), and Cheng Qianfan, Tang dai jin shi xing juan yu wen xue (Shanghai: Shang hai gu ji, 1980). The latter is also available in Japanese as Tōdai no kakyo to bungaku (Gaifūsha, 1986).

Shimizu Shigeru, Chūgoku mokurokugaku (Chikuma shobō, 1991)
Inami Ryōichi, Chi no zahyō: chūgoku mokurokugaku (Hakuteisha, 2003)
The classification of books is not a technique so much as an important cultural endeavor. Shimizu is interested in the book itself, especially in the mentality from which it is edited. Inami carefully explains the meanings hidden in classification.

Literature Research and Thinking about Words

Tanaka Kenji, Kotoba to bungaku (Kyūko shoin, 1993)
Literature research begins with the scrutiny of words. This book does not investigate the history of words; rather, it elaborately theorizes words, usually a particular word (sinograph), that is used in a text and what effect that usage has on that text.

Inami Ritsuko, Chūgokutei retorikku no dentō (Kage shobō, 1987) (Kōdansha, 1996)
This work theorizes the problem of how authors, in literary works, including works that were copied, expect certain phrases to have certain effects. The chapters on Chen Lin, Lu Xun, and Mao Zedong in particular stimulate thought on the relation between literature and society and how literature squares off against reality.

On Recognition of the World of Sinographs in East Asia

Tōyōgaku no keifu (Taishūkanten v.1 1992, v.2 1994, Ōbeihen 1996)
A critical study of East Asian studies researchers from Meiji to Shōwa, mainly covering the prewar. It is difficult to summarize the whole as it is composed of short vignettes on each author, but one can feel the establishment of the idea of “the Orient” (tōyō) and the enthusiasm of the establishment period. Kanda Ki’ichirō’s Tonkōgaku gojūnen supplements this book, though Kanda’s text is limited by region and field.

Others

Ogawa Tamaki, Dan’ō kango (Chikuma shobō, 1987)
I enjoy reading essay-style works by researchers. Some part of this is selfishly hoping to get hints for my own articles, but in informally-written work, there are many opportunities to realize what it means to learn. This book fits that description, and is not only cerebral but rich in heart. Kōzen Hiroshi’s Koten chūgoku kara no nagame and Iiki no me: chūgoku bunka sansaku are similarly enlightening.