a collection of classic texts through the rise and fall of chinese dynasties, not including poetry. check out my list on classical chinese poetry for more on that!
created by ruiconteur
last updated April, 2026
Monkey King: Journey to the West
Wu Cheng'en
The Book of Rites
Confucius Confucius
Rereading the Stone: Desire and the Making of Fiction in Dream of the Red Chamber.
Anthony C. Yu
The Peony Pavilion
Xianzu Tang
Plum Shadows and Plank Bridge: Two Memoirs about Courtesans
Xiang Mao
Monks, Bandits, Lovers, and Immortals: Eleven Early Chinese Plays
Stephen H. West
A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy
Wing-Tsit Chan
The World of Thought in Ancient China
Benjamin I. Schwartz
Escape From Blood Pond Hell: The Tales of Mulian and Woman Huang
Beata Grant
The Scripture on the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism
Stephen F. Teiser
1616: Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu's China (Arden Shakespeare)
Tian Yuan Tan
Foundations of Internal Alchemy: The Taoist Practice of Neidan
Wang Mu
I Ching (Translated with Annotations by James Legge)
Anonymous Anonymous
The Life and Teachings of Confucius: The Chinese Classics, Vol. 1: Analects, Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean
The Orphan of Zhao and Other Yuan Plays: The Earliest Known Versions (Translations from the Asian Classics)
Records of the Three Kingdoms in Plain Language
Translating, Interpreting, and Decolonizing Chinese Fairy Tales: A Case Study and Ideological Approach (Studies in Folklore and Ethnology: Traditions, Practices, and Identities)
Juwen Zhang
Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies
Moss Roberts
The Peach Blossom Fan (New York Review Books Classics)
Kong Shangren
Essentials of Chinese Materia Medica: 本草纲目 Ben Cao Gang Mu (100 Books of Ancient China Classics Book 1)
Li Shizhen
Tao Te Ching: The Essential Translation of the Ancient Chinese Book of the Tao
Lao Tzu
The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica: A Translation of the Shen Nong Ben Cao (Blue Poppy's Great Masters Series)
Shou-Zhong Yang
The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary
Maoshing Ni
Handbooks for Daoist Practice (10 Volume Set plus Slipcase)
Louis Komjathy
Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy
Bryan W. Van Norden
The Drunken Man's Talk: Tales from Medieval China
Luo Ye
Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China
A.C. Graham
A World History of Chinese Literature (Routledge Literature Handbooks)
Yingjin Zhang
Gentlemen's Prescriptions for Women's Lives: A Thousand Years of Biographies of Chinese Women: A Thousand Years of Biographies of Chinese Women (East Gate Books)
Sherry J. Mou
Trauma and Transcendence in Early Qing Literature (Harvard East Asian Monographs)
Wilt L. Idema
i love this list so much! thank you <3
welcome! i'm glad you like it 🫶
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