This specialisation will equip students with a command of Classical Chinese indispensable for the study of Chinese literature, thought, history, political and social institutions. Classical or literary Chinese is a written language that matured long before the Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C.E.) when China first became an empire. Many of the great legacies of Chinese culture right down to the twentieth century were written in this medium. It was also used widely in pre-modern Korea, Japan and Vietnam. It is only through the medium of Classical Chinese that China's history and cultural traditions are made accessible. Moreover, many idioms, set phrases, allusions and sentence patterns in modern Chinese are inherited from classical Chinese. Indeed, even today, without some grounding in classical Chinese it is impossible to read the headlines in many Taiwanese and Hong Kong newspapers.

A student may not take a course if that course is a prerequisite for another course which they have already passed. Students with prior knowledge of the language will be required to take a placement test.