My point is not all foreigners that come to China are dolts. One can examine some of the Jesuits that actually did learn classical Chinese and were the emperor's interpreters. Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty employed European lingusits, arquitects, ect. Lattimore and Buck were both fluent in Chinese even though you may disagree with their motives in being there. Two of my Chinese history porfessors in the U.S.A. lived in Beijing for some time and they can read and write the ancient Chinese scripts used before the Han Dynasty, as well as classical Chinese. I know of a woman in Suzhou at this moment who can translate between Italian, French, English, and Chinese.

You yourself have been in China several times and are quite knowledgeable in Chinese. I am learning Chinese from a book written by a Spaniard for Spanish speakers. Some of my students tell me that Chinese is too hard for foreigners to learn. I call b.s. on it.