When I started reading the papers I found its with a lot of names and dates which I could not retain . My mind was not able to recall and retain this huge information and I felt discouraged and pessimistic about the course.
I did not know anything about Chinese history , culture and philosophy and been unacquainted with Chinese names , I felt that everything was really difficult for me .
Then I switched my reading to the book from Dr. Fung Yu-Lan , A short history of Chines philosophy , and I found it so inspiring and clear ; he answered to many of the questions and doubs I had about China and I got a better understanding and the base upon which I could support my studies .
Thank you so much Dr. Fung for your wisdom
Kenneth Ch'en
I've found Ch'en's Buddhism in China helpful
There are concise segments on the major schools and figures that make it easy to break down into chunks and memorize
Note that the spelling of names Ch'en uses is not the same as in our handouts
I recommend making a list of names from the handouts and keeping it handy to refer to if you're reading Ch'en so there's no confusion between Chih-i and Zhiyi for example
Spelling
Yes is true , our papers and books does not have same spelling , is a good suggestion of you to make a list , thank you for the advise