Archie Barnes taught classical Chinese at Durham University, and was hugely inspirational to us young sprogs as we tried to get to grips with Mencius, Wang Wei and the like. I'm not sure my dissertation on the use of 德 in the Analects of Confucius was quite up to the great man's standards (in fact, I didn't dare ask my tutors what they thought of it, for fear it was lamentable), but it was the sort of direction he steered us towards.

In his retirement, he wrote Chinese through Poetry: An Introduction to the Language and Imagery of Traditional Verse. This is now available to download at www.archiebarnes.com, thanks to Marie and Archie's family.

From a Japanese perspective, anyone struggling to reach an appreciation of kanji should give this a try. Without needing to 'learn' Chinese, you will see the richness of the tradition of which kanji are a part.

Needless to say, those with an interest in classical Chinese or Chinese poetry will find this invaluable.