Word count in Classical Chinese vs English
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now, be calm; please. the quoted wikipedia entry is, imo, unacceptable, in classical / literary chinese. so, your translation and comparison is, invalid. remember:

"garbage in, garbage out"

i assumed your understand the difference between classical chinese and literary chinese. the internet archive have books printed in chinese and english; that you might do a empirical research.

華英對照四書

註釋校正華英四書

james legge's english translation is quite good, you can depend on it. e.g.:

孟子　盡心上 chapter 6


  孟子曰．人不可以無恥．無恥之恥．無恥矣


mencius said, "a man may not be without shame. when one is ashamed of having been without shame, he will afterwards not have occasion for shame."

16 chinese words vs 26 english words.

孟子　盡心上 chapter 7


  孟子曰．恥之於人大矣．為機變之巧者．無所用恥焉．不恥不若人．何若人有


mencius said, "the sense of shame is to a man of great importance."

"those who form contrivances and versatile schemes distinguished for their artfulness, do not allow their sense of shame to come into action."

"when one differs from other men in not having this sense of shame, what will he have in common with them?"

30 chinese words vs 56 english words.



last,


  Is there a rule of thumb?


no. i don't think so.

ps, just curious, where and why students need to learn classical chinese in english?