Chinese Literature

Chinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese. The introduction of widespread woodblock printing during the Tang Dynasty (618–907) and the invention of movable type printing by Bi Sheng (990–1051) during the Song Dynasty (960–1279) rapidly spread written knowledge throughout China. In more modern times, the author Lu Xun (1881–1936) is considered the founder of baihua literature in China.

A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing
Women, Seated
Ghost Music
长安的荔枝
Đêm Trường Tăm Tối
Land of Big Numbers
City of Fiction
Rouge Street: Three Novellas
太白金星有点烦
If You Are Lonely and You Know It (Currency)
A View from the Stars: Stories and Essays
Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China's Civil War
The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories
The Shadow Book of Ji Yun: The Chinese Classic of Weird True Tales, Horror Stories, and Occult Knowledge
The Art of War
The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)
To Live
Tao Te Ching
Three Kingdoms (4-Volume Boxed Set)
Monkey: The Journey to the West
Red Sorghum
The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 1: The Golden Days
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Outlaws of the Marsh (4-Volume Boxed Set)
The Analects
Love in a Fallen City
The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)
Dream of the Red Chamber
Chronicle of a Blood Merchant
A Free Life by Ha JinWar Trash by Ha JinBalzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai SijieThe Art of War by Sun TzuWaiting by Ha Jin
Authors Born in China
18 books — 4 voters
The Once and Future King by T.H. WhiteThe Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael PollanThe Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays by Richard HofstadterUbik by Philip K. DickThe Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
FOTRT essential reading
27 books — 2 voters

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. TolkienEast of Eden by John SteinbeckLittle Women by Louisa May AlcottGone with the Wind by Margaret MitchellIt by Stephen  King
Big Fat Reads Worth The Effort 2.0
45 books — 72 voters
The Three-Body Problem by Liu CixinThe Dark Forest by Liu CixinDeath's End by Liu Cixin仰望星空之遥远的问候 by Bryant JohnsonVagabonds by Hao Jingfang
Chinese Science Fiction Novels
19 books — 24 voters

Złota pagoda by Yukio MishimaWyznanie maski by Yukio MishimaDziennik szalonego starca by Jun'ichirō TanizakiJestem, tęsknię, mówię by Yūko TsushimaCzteroksiąg by 阎连科
Proza Dalekiego Wschodu
36 books — 6 voters
The Three-Body Problem by Liu CixinTo Live by Yu HuaWolf Totem by Jiang RongBalzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai SijieThe Four Books by Yan Lianke
Modern Chinese Literature
80 books — 38 voters


Xiaolu Guo
Huizi barely called anyone. He didn't get too involved with the details of his friends' lives. He was private, shut tight like a fortress. His short crew-cut and refined manners gave him the air of a Buddhist monk. Huizi would say never look back to the past. Never regret. Even if there is emptiness ahead, never look back. ...more
Xiaolu Guo, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth

Lu Xun
The fearful thing about the Chinese literary scene is that everyone keeps introducing new terms without defining them. And everyone interprets these terms as he pleases. To write a good deal about yourself is expressionism. To write largely about others is realism. To write poems on a girl's leg is romanticism. To ban poems on a girl's leg is classicism. ...more
Lu Xun

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