Dear Kåre,

>It is too hard to read them even for chinese who know
>putonghua and many chinese dialects.He or she must
>learn proper old chinese grammar which is not easy.
>However,it can be done if you are a fulltime scholar
>but not some guys who can only spend one hour per day
>for buddhist studies.

I see. Let us hope that one of those scholars will sitt down some day and
write a "Chinese Warder", an introduction that leads straight into the old
language of those texts, so that more people can get access to this
interesting literature.
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Actually, it has been one of my long-term dormant projects but I am hampered
by constraints of money and time. However, if you want to read the Chinese
Agamas, I have found that they are quite simple in comparison with other
Chinese Buddhist translations, especially if you use the Pali as a guide to
the content. Also see my reply to Ong Teng Kee.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge