Many early Chinese texts were composed before the

End of the Han dynasty The end of the (Eastern) Han dynasty was the period of History of China, Chinese history from 189 to 220 CE, roughly coinciding with the tumultuous reign of the Han dynasty's last ruler, Emperor Xian of Han, Emperor Xian. It was followed by the ...

in 220 CE. They involved numerous

Confucian classics The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian traditi ...

, such as the

Four Books and Five Classics The Four Books and Five Classics are authoritative and important books associated with Confucianism, written before 300 BC. They are traditionally believed to have been either written, edited or commented by Confucius or one of his disciples. S ...

, alongside poetry, dictionaries, histories and surveys on topics such as mathematics, astronomy, music and medicine, among others.

B

* Baihu tong 白虎通, 1 c. CE

C

* Cantongqi *

Chu Silk Manuscript The Chu Silk Manuscript (), also known as the Chu Silk Manuscript from Zidanku in Changsha (), is a Chinese astrological and astronomical text. It was discovered in a (c. 300 BCE) Warring States period tomb from the southern Chinese state of Chu ...

Chuci The ''Chu Ci'', variously translated as ''Verses of Chu'', ''Songs of Chu'', or ''Elegies of Chu'', is an ancient anthology of Chinese poetry including works traditionally attributed mainly to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Warring States period, ...

* Chunqiu * Chunqiu Fanlu * Chunqiu Gongyang zhuan * Chunqiu Guliang zhuan *

Chunqiu shiyu Chunqiu or Ch'un-ch'iu, literally Spring(s) and Autumn(s), may refer to: * '' Spring and Autumn Annals'', the annals of the State of Lu covering the years 722–481 BC * Spring and Autumn period (roughly 771–476 BC), named after the annals * Se ...

D

* Da Dai Liji *

Daodejing The ''Tao Te Ching'' () or ''Laozi'' is a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship and date of composition and compilation are debated. The oldest excavated po ...

* Daozang Wang Bi ben Laozi * Dengxizi *

Dong guan Han ji Dong or DONG may refer to: Places * Dong Lake, or East Lake, a lake in China * Dong, Arunachal Pradesh, a village in India * Dong (administrative division) (동 or 洞), a neighborhood division in Korea Person names Surnames *Dǒng (surname) ...

* Duduan

E

Erya The ''Erya'' or ''Erh-ya'' is the first surviving Chinese dictionary. The sinologist Bernhard Karlgren concluded that "the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from the 3rd century BC." Title Chinese scholars interpret the firs ...

F

* Fangyan * Fayan *

Fengsu Tongyi ''Fengsu Tongyi'' (), also known as ''Fengsu Tong'' (风俗通), is a book written about 195 AD by Ying Shao, who lived during the later Eastern Han period. The manuscript is similar to an almanac, which describes various strange and exotic matt ...

G

Gongsun Longzi Gongsun Long (250 BC), courtesy name Zibing, was a Chinese philosopher, writer, and member of the School of Names, also known as the Logicians, of ancient Chinese philosophy. Gongsun ran a school and received patronage from rulers, advoca ...

Guanzi (text) The ''Guanzi'' ( zh, c=管子) is an anonymously written, foundational Chinese political and philosophical text. Compiled in the early Han dynasty, earlier, similar versions are suggested to date back to the late Warring states period, with id ...

* Guoyu

H

Han Feizi The ''Han Feizi'' () is an ancient Chinese text attributed to the Chinese Legalism, Legalist political philosopher Han Fei. It comprises a selection of essays in the Legalist tradition, elucidating theories of state power, and synthesizing the m ...

Han shi waizhuan ''Han shi waizhuan'' (), translated as ''Exoteric traditions of the Han version of the Songs'', ''Illustrations of the Didactic Application of the Classic of Songs'', or "''The Outer Commentary to the Book of Songs by Master Han''", is a book writt ...

Hàn-jī Hokkien, a variety of Chinese that forms part of the Southern Min family and is spoken in Southeastern China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, does not have a unitary standardized writing system, in comparison with the well-developed written forms of Wr ...

Hanshu The ''Book of Han'' is a history of China finished in 111 CE, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), ...

* Hei An Zhuan pic of Darkness* Heguanzi * Heshang Gong ben Laozi ji Heshang Gong zhu *

Huainanzi The ''Huainanzi'' is an ancient Chinese text made up of essays from scholarly debates held at the court of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, before 139 BCE. Compiled as a handbook for an enlightened sovereign and his court, the work attempts to defi ...

* Huangdi neijing suwen * Huangdi sijing

J

Jiuzhang suanshu ''The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art'' is a Chinese mathematics book, composed by several generations of scholars from the 10th–2nd century BCE, its latest stage being from the 1st century CE. This book is one of the earliest surviving ...

* Jizhong Zhoushu

K

Kongzi jiayu The ''Kongzi Jiayu'' (), translated as ''The School Sayings of Confucius'' or ''Family Sayings of Confucius'', is a collection of sayings of Confucius (Kongzi), written as a supplement to the ''Analects'' (''Lunyu''). A book by the title had exi ...

孔子家語

L

* Laozi Daodejing *

Lienü zhuan The ''Biographies of Exemplary Women'' () is a book compiled by the Han dynasty scholar Liu Xiang (scholar), Liu Xiang . It includes 125 biographical accounts of exemplary women in ancient China, taken from early Chinese histories including ''S ...

Liexian Zhuan The ''Liexian Zhuan'', sometimes translated as ''Biographies of Immortals'', is the oldest extant Chinese hagiography of Daoist '' xian'' "transcendents; immortals; saints; alchemists". The text, which compiles the life stories of about 70 mytho ...

Liezi The ''Liezi'' () is a Taoist text attributed to Lie Yukou, a c. 5th century BC Hundred Schools of Thought philosopher. Although there were references to Lie's ''Liezi'' from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, a number of Chinese and Western scholar ...

Liji The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The ''B ...

Lingshu Jing ''Lingshu Jing'' (), also known as ''Divine Pivot'', ''Spiritual Pivot'', or ''Numinous Pivot'', is an ancient Chinese medical text whose earliest version was probably compiled in the 1st century BCE on the basis of earlier texts. It is one of two ...

* Liutao *

Lunheng The ''Lunheng'', also known by numerous English translations, is a wide-ranging Chinese classic text by Wang Chong (27 – ). First published in 80, it contains critical essays on natural science and Chinese mythology, philosophy, and literatu ...

Lunyu The ''Analects'', also known as the ''Sayings of Confucius'', is an ancient Chinese philosophical text composed of sayings and ideas attributed to Confucius and his contemporaries, traditionally believed to have been compiled by his followers. ...

Lüshi Chunqiu The ''Lüshi Chunqiu'' (), also known in English as ''Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals'', is an encyclopedic Chinese classic text compiled around 239BC under the patronage of late pre-imperial Qin Chancellor Lü Buwei. In the evaluati ...

M

* Maoshi * Mengzi *

Mozi Mozi, personal name Mo Di, was a Chinese philosopher, logician, and founder of the Mohist school of thought, making him one of the most important figures of the Warring States period (221 BCE). Alongside Confucianism, Mohism became the ...

* Mu Tianzi Zhuan (''Tale of King Mu'')

N

* Nanhua zhenjing *

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

Q

Qianfu lun The ''Qianfu Lun'' ( zh, , ''Qiánfū lún'', "Comments of a Recluse"), also known by its Wade-Giles romanization ''Ch'ien-fu Lun'', is a political-metaphysical text by the Later Han philosopher Wang Fu. It contains criticisms of contemporary so ...

* Qian Hanji

R

* Rong Cheng shi 容成氏 (Shanghai Museum corpus)

S

* San Guo Yan Yi (Romance of The Three Kingdoms) * Shang Jun Shu *

Shangshu The ''Book of Documents'' ( zh, p=Shūjīng, c=書經, w=Shu King) or the ''Classic of History'', is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorical prose attributed to figures of ancient China, an ...

* Shangshu dazhuan *

Shanhaijing The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', also known as ''Shanhai jing'' (), formerly Wade-Giles, romanized as the ''Shan-hai Ching'', is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may hav ...

Shennong Ben Cao Jing ''Shennong Bencaojing'' (also ''Classic of the Materia Medica'' or ''Shen-nong's Herbal Classics'' and ''Shen-nung Pen-tsao Ching''; ) is a Chinese book on agriculture and medicinal plants, traditionally attributed to Shennong. Researchers belie ...

* Shenzi (Shen Buhai) * Shenzi (Shen Dao) *

Shiji The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st cen ...

Shijing The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...

Shiming The ''Shiming'', also known as the ''Yiya'', is a Chinese dictionary that employed phonological glosses, and is believed have been composed . Because it records the pronunciation of an Eastern Han Chinese dialect, sinologists have used the ''S ...

* Shĭzhòupiān (史籀篇) * Shizi * Shuihudi Qinmu zhujian (Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts) *

Shujing The ''Book of Documents'' ( zh, p=Shūjīng, c=書經, w=Shu King) or the ''Classic of History'', is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorical prose attributed to figures of ancient China, a ...

Shuowen Jiezi The ''Shuowen Jiezi'' is a Chinese dictionary compiled by Xu Shen , during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE). While prefigured by earlier reference works for Chinese characters like the ''Erya'' (), the ''Shuowen Jiezi'' contains the ...

(aka Shuowen) * Shuoyuan * Sima fa * Sunzi bingfa * Sun Bin bingfa

T

Taixuanjing The ''Taixuanjing'' is a divination guide composed by the Confucian writer Yang Xiong (53 BCE18 CE) in the decade prior to the fall of the Western Han dynasty. The first draft of this work was completed in 2 BCE; during the Jin dynasty, an oth ...

Taiyi Shengshui ''Taiyi Shengshui'' () is an ancient Chinese text from around 300 BC during the Warring States period. It was discovered as part of the Guodian Chu Slips. It is a Taoist creation myth. According to the transcription and translation by professors ...

* Tang Yu zhi Dao 唐虞之道 ( Guodian)

W

Wei Liaozi The ''Wei Liaozi'' ( zh, t=尉繚子) is a text on military strategy, one of the Seven Military Classics of ancient China. It was written during the Warring States period. History and authorship The work is purportedly named after Wei Liao, w ...

Wenzi The ''Wenzi'' () is a Daoist classic allegedly written by a disciple of Laozi. The text was widely read and highly revered in the centuries following its creation, and even canonized as ''Tongxuan zhenjing'' () in the year 742 CE. However, soon aft ...

Wushi'er bingfang The ''Wushi'er Bingfang'' (), or ''Recipes for Fifty-Two Ailments'', is an ancient Chinese medical text that was discovered in 1973 in Mawangdui in a tomb that was sealed in 168 BCE under the Han dynasty. The text was copied in seal script on ...

* Wuwei Handai yijian *

Wu Yue chunqiu The ''Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue'' () is an unofficial history from the time of the Eastern Han dynasty that consists of a collection sidenotes on historical events. The ten-volume book was written by Zhao Ye (赵晔), and narrates the ...

Wuzi The ''Wuzi'' is a classic Chinese work on military strategy attributed to Wu Qi. It is considered one of China's Seven Military Classics. It is said there were two books on the art of war by Wu Qi, but one was lost, hence leaving the ''Wuzi'' ...

X

* Xiaojing * Xinlun * Xinshu * Xinxu * Xunzi

Y

* Yu Xin * Yan danzi :zh:燕丹子 * Yantie lun (Discourses on Salt and Iron) * Yanzi chunqiu *

Yijing The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...

* Yili * Yilin * Yinwenzi 尹文子 :de:Yin Wen *

Yizhoushu The ''Yi Zhou Shu'' () is a compendium of Chinese historical documents about the Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE). Its textual history began with a (4th century BCE) text/compendium known as the ''Zhou Shu'' ("Book of Zhou"), which was possib ...

* Yuejue shu * Yuejing lassic of Music* Yuliaozi

Z

Zhanguo ce The ''Zhan Guo Ce'' (Wade-Giles, W-G: ''Chan-kuo T'se''), also known in English language, English as the ''Strategies of the Warring States'' or ''Annals of the Warring States'', is an ancient Chinese text that contains anecdotes of political ma ...

* Zhonglun *

Zhoubi suanjing The ''Zhoubi Suanjing'', also known by many other names, is an ancient Chinese astronomical and mathematical work. The ''Zhoubi'' is most famous for its presentation of Chinese cosmology and a form of the Pythagorean theorem. It claims to pr ...

Zhouli The ''Rites of Zhou'' (), originally known as "Officers of Zhou" (), is a Chinese work on bureaucracy and organizational theory. It was renamed by Liu Xin to differentiate it from a chapter in the '' Book of History'' by the same name. To rep ...

Zhouyi The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...

Zhuangzi Zhuangzi may refer to: * ''Zhuangzi'' (book) (莊子), an ancient Chinese collection of anecdotes and fables, one of the foundational texts of Taoism **Zhuang Zhou Zhuang Zhou (), commonly known as Zhuangzi (; ; literally "Master Zhuang"; als ...

Zhushu jinian The ''Bamboo Annals'' ( zh, t=竹書紀年, p=Zhúshū Jìnián), also known as the ''Ji Tomb Annals'' ( zh, t=汲冢紀年, p=Jí Zhǒng Jìnián), is a chronicle of ancient China. It begins in the earliest legendary time (the age of the Yellow E ...

* Zi Gao 子羔 (Shanghai Museum corpus) *

Zuozhuan The ''Zuo Zhuan'' ( zh, t=左傳, w=Tso Chuan; ), often translated as ''The Zuo Tradition'' or as ''The Commentary of Zuo'', is an ancient Chinese narrative history traditionally regarded as a commentary on the ancient Chinese chronicle the '' ...

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Early Chinese texts Chinese classic texts History of literature in China