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Classics · History · Philosophy · Novels

Read Chinese Classics古籍書庫

Twenty-five of the books that shaped Chinese civilisation, from Confucius and Laozi to the Records of the Grand Historian and Dream of the Red Chamber. Each one has its own free reading site with the full original text.

13The Classics
3History
7The Philosophers
2The Great Novels

How to read them in English

Each reading site is in Chinese: the classical original, a modern Chinese translation, notes, people and themes. To read along in English, open a book in Chrome, Edge or Safari and choose Translate to English (right-click the page on a computer; the menu or address bar on a phone). The machine translation is rough on ancient text, but it lets you follow the modern Chinese version and see the original beside it.

Where to start

The Analects of Confucius 論語: short passages, each a complete thought; the root of everything else here.
Tao Te Ching (Laozi) 老子: eighty-one tiny chapters you can read in an evening and reread for a lifetime.
Zhuangzi 莊子: the funniest book in the collection: stories first, philosophy second.
Records of the Grand Historian 史記: real lives, told like adventure stories; start with the biographies.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義: the epic every Chinese reader grows up with.
Liaofan's Four Lessons 了凡四訓: written by a father for his son, about shaping your own future.

Who learned from whom

Twenty authors and makers of these classics, from the Duke of Zhou to Cao Xueqin: who taught whom, who argued with whom, who wrote whose biography. Hover over a person or a line for the story; on a phone, tap.

Early Zhou
Confucian
Daoist
Mohist
Legalist
Syncretist
Historian
Novelist

Teacher → student
Family
Influence
Criticism
Edited or annotated
Used as a historical source
Wrote the biography of
Met

Time runs left to right, not to scale. Authorships marked "traditional attribution" are what tradition says, not settled history.

King Wen → Duke of Zhou：Father and son.
Duke of Zhou → Confucius：Confucius's model. In old age he sighed, "It is long since I dreamed of the Duke of Zhou."
Confucius → Laozi：Tradition, recorded by Sima Qian, says Confucius went to ask Laozi about ritual.
Confucius → Zengzi：Zengzi was one of his last disciples; the Classic of Filial Piety is Confucius teaching him.
Confucius → Zisi：Grandfather and grandson.
Zengzi → Zisi：Tradition says Zisi studied under Zengzi.
Zisi → Mencius：Mencius studied with Zisi's followers; the line is called the Si–Meng school.
Confucius → Mencius：Mencius: "I could not be Confucius's disciple, but I learned from him through others."
Confucius → Zuo Qiuming：The Zuo Commentary explains Confucius's terse Annals with the full stories behind them.
Mozi → Confucius：Mozi trained in Confucian learning, then wrote "Against the Confucians", attacking lavish funerals and costly music and ritual.
Mencius → Mozi：Mencius called Mohist impartial love a denial of one's own father, a threat to Confucius's Way.
Xunzi → Mencius：Xunzi's chapter "Human Nature Is Bad" answers Mencius head-on.
Confucius → Xunzi：Xunzi revered Confucius but took his teaching in a stricter direction, built on ritual and study.
Xunzi → Han Fei：Han Fei and the future Qin chancellor Li Si both studied under Xunzi.
Laozi → Zhuangzi：Zhuangzi carried Laozi's teaching forward; the two are paired as "Lao–Zhuang".
Laozi → Han Fei：Han Fei wrote the earliest surviving commentary on the Laozi, reading it as a guide for rulers.
Zhuangzi → Confucius：Zhuangzi often borrows Confucius as a character, sometimes to be lectured by Laozi or a fisherman.
Han Fei → Confucius：In "The Five Vermin" he lists Confucian scholars among the pests that weaken a state.
Han Fei → Mozi："Eminent Teachings" attacks the two most popular schools, Confucian and Mohist, together.
Laozi → Liu An：The Huainanzi is Daoist at heart; one chapter illustrates the Laozi line by line with stories.
Zhuangzi → Liu An：The Huainanzi reworks many of Zhuangzi's parables and phrases.
Sima Qian → Confucius：His Confucius chapter ranks him with the hereditary lords, an extraordinary honour for a commoner.
Sima Qian → Laozi：Laozi, Zhuangzi and Han Fei share one biography chapter.
Sima Qian → Han Fei：The same chapter tells how Han Fei went to Qin and was destroyed by his old classmate Li Si.
Sima Qian → Mencius：Mencius and Xunzi share one biography chapter.
Sima Qian → Liu An：His chapter on Liu An records the prince's alleged rebellion and suicide.
Zuo Qiuming → Sima Qian：For the Spring and Autumn period, the Records draw heavily on the Zuo Commentary.
Zuo Qiuming → Sima Guang：The Mirror opens in 403 BCE, picking up roughly where the Zuo Commentary ends.
Sima Qian → Sima Guang：For the Warring States and early Han, the Mirror leans on the Records.
Zengzi → Dai Sheng：The Great Learning survived as a chapter of Dai Sheng's Book of Rites.
Zisi → Dai Sheng：The Doctrine of the Mean survived as a chapter of Dai Sheng's Book of Rites.
Duke of Zhou → Dai Sheng：The Book of Rites explains the meaning of the Zhou rites; with the Rites of Zhou and Etiquette and Ceremonial it forms the "Three Rites".
Dai Sheng → Zhu Xi：Zhu Xi lifted the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean out of the Book of Rites as books in their own right.
Confucius → Zhu Xi：Zhu Xi's commentary on the Analects, one of his Four Books.
Mencius → Zhu Xi：Zhu Xi's commentary on Mencius made "Confucius and Mencius" the pair every student knew.
Sima Guang → Zhu Xi：Zhu Xi condensed the Mirror into his Outline and Details of the Comprehensive Mirror.
Sima Guang → Luo Guanzhong：The historical skeleton of the Three Kingdoms comes from Chen Shou's history and chronicles such as the Mirror.
Mencius → Yuan Liaofan：Liaofan's "establishing destiny" comes from Mencius: "Whether life is long or short, cultivate yourself and wait; that is how one establishes one's destiny."
Zhuangzi → Cao Xueqin：In chapter 21 of Dream of the Red Chamber, Baoyu reads Zhuangzi and writes his own continuation of it.

經部The Classics

The Confucian canon: the Thirteen Classics and the Four Books, on self-cultivation, government, ritual and language.

史部History

Biographies and chronicles: the rise and fall of dynasties, from legend to the tenth century.

子部The Philosophers

The Hundred Schools and a family classic: Daoist, Legalist, Mohist and Confucian answers to how to live and how to rule.

說部The Great Novels

Two of the Four Great Novels of the Ming and Qing: war and statecraft, love and the fall of a family.