This is a list of early Chinese texts that were composed before the

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of the

Eastern Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

. The titles are rendered in

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

transcription and sorted alphabetically. {{expand list, date=October 2012

B

* Baihu tong 白虎通, 1 c. CE

C

* Cantongqi *

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 The ''Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals'' () is one of the works attributed to Dong Zhongshu that has survived to the present, though its compilation might have continued past his lifetime into the 4th century. It is 82 chapters long ...

* Chunqiu Gongyang zhuan * Chunqiu Guliang zhuan *

Chunqiu shiyu ''Chunqiu shiyu'' () is an List of early Chinese texts, early Chinese text written on silk which was unearthed in 1973 from the Tomb no. 3 (dated 168 BCE) at the Mawangdui, Mawangdui Han tombs site in Changsha, Hunan, China. The tomb was that of a ...

D

* Da Dai Liji * Daodejing * Daozang Wang Bi ben Laozi * Dengxizi * Dong guan Han ji * Duduan

E

Erya The ''Erya'' or ''Erh-ya'' is the first surviving Chinese dictionary. Bernhard Karlgren (1931:49) concluded that "the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from the 3rd century BC." Title Chinese scholars interpret the first title chara ...

F

* Fangyan * Fayan *

Fengsu Tongyi ''Fengsu Tongyi'' (), also known as ''Fengsu Tong'', 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 An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is ...

G

Gongsun Longzi Gongsun Long (, BCLiu 2004, p. 336), courtesy name Zibing (子秉), was a Chinese philosopher and writer who was a member of the School of Names (Logicians) of ancient Chinese philosophy. He also ran a school and enjoyed the support of rulers, ...

Guanzi (text) The ''Guanzi'' () is an ancient Chinese political and philosophical text. At over 135,000 characters long, the ''Guanzi'' is one of the longest early Chinese philosophical texts. This anonymously written foundational text covers broad subject m ...

* Guoyu

H

Han Feizi The ''Han Feizi'' or ''Hanfeizi'' (" ritings ofMaster Han Fei") is an ancient Chinese text named for its attribution to the political philosopher Han Fei. It comprises a selection of essays in the Legalist tradition on theories of state power, ...

* Han shi waizhuan * Hàn-jī * Hanshu *

Heguanzi The ''Heguanzi'' (鶡冠子, or ''Master Pheasant Cap'') is a circa 3rd century BCE syncretic collection of writings from the Chinese Hundred Schools of Thought, particularly the schools of Huang-Lao, Daoism, Legalism, and the Military. The ...

Heshang Gong ben Laozi ji Heshang Gong zhu ''River Elegy'' () is an influential six-part documentary by Wang Luxiang, and co-written by Su Xiaokang, shown on China Central Television on June 16, 1988, which portrays the decline of traditional Chinese culture. Synopsis The film asserts ...

* Huainanzi * 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 2nd century CE. This book is one of the earliest sur ...

* 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 ex ...

孔子家語

L

* Laozi Daodejing * Lienü zhuan *

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 mytholog ...

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 schola ...

* Liji *

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 literature. ...

* Lunyu * Lüshi Chunqiu

M

* Maoshi * Mengzi *

Mozi Mozi (; ; Latinized as Micius ; – ), original name Mo Di (), was a Chinese philosopher who founded the school of Mohism during the Hundred Schools of Thought period (the early portion of the Warring States period, –221 BCE). The ancie ...

Mu Tianzi Zhuan The ''Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven'' ()Literally "Mu(,) Heaven('s) Son('s) Tale". "Son of Heaven" is a designation for a sovereign of China, and the word used for tale is often a biography or history. is a fantasy version of the travels of Kin ...

(''Tale of King Mu'')

N

* Nanhua zhenjing *

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

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 The Rong Cheng Shi () is an ancient bamboo manuscript from the Chinese Warring States period (ca. 453–221 BCE) that was discovered and purchased on Hong Kong's antiquity market in 1994. It is now kept at the Shanghai Museum. It was published in t ...

容成氏 (Shanghai Museum corpus)

S

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

Shang Jun Shu The ''Book of Lord Shang'' () is an ancient Chinese text from the 3rd century BC, regarded as a foundational work of "Chinese Legalism". The earliest surviving of such texts (the second being the Han Feizi), it is named for and to some extent at ...

Shangshu The ''Book of Documents'' (''Shūjīng'', earlier ''Shu King'') or ''Classic of History'', also known as the ''Shangshu'' (“Venerated Documents”), is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorica ...

Shangshu dazhuan The ''Book of Documents'' (''Shūjīng'', earlier ''Shu King'') or ''Classic of History'', also known as the ''Shangshu'' (“Venerated Documents”), is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorica ...

* Shanhaijing * Shennong Ben Cao Jing * Shenzi (Shen Buhai) * Shenzi (Shen Dao) * Shiji *

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

Shujing The ''Book of Documents'' (''Shūjīng'', earlier ''Shu King'') or ''Classic of History'', also known as the ''Shangshu'' (“Venerated Documents”), is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorica ...

* Shuowen Jiezi (aka Shuowen) * Shuoyuan * Sima fa *

Sunzi bingfa ''The Art of War'' () is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The work, which is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun"), is comp ...

* Sun Bin bingfa

T

Taixuanjing The text ''Tài Xuán Jīng'' ("Canon of Supreme Mystery", ) is a guide for divination composed by the Confucian writer Yang Xiong (53 BCE – 18 CE). The first draft of this work was completed in 2 BCE (in the decade before the fall of the West ...

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

* Tang Yu zhi Dao 唐虞之道 ( Guodian)

W

Wei Liaozi The ''Wei Liaozi'' () 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, who is said to have ...

* Wenzi * Wushi'er bingfang * Wuwei Handai yijian * Wu Yue chunqiu *

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 ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zhou ...

* 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 possibl ...

* Yuejue shu * Yuliaozi

Z

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

* Zhonglun * Zhoubi suanjing *

Zhouli The ''Rites of Zhou'' (), originally known as "Officers of Zhou" () is a 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 replace a lost ...

Zhouyi The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zhou ...

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

* Zhushu jinian *

Zi Gao Xiao Jia (), personal name Zi Gao (), was a Shang dynasty King of China. In the ''Records of the Grand Historian'' he was listed by Sima Qian as the seventh Shang king, succeeding his brother Tai Geng (). He was enthroned in the year of Dingsi ...

子羔 (Shanghai Museum corpus) * Zuozhuan

References

* Michael Loewe (ed.): ''Early Chinese texts: a bibliographical guide'', Berkeley 1993 * Reiner Stoppok (ed.): ''An Alphabetical Index to the Bibliography of the Hanyu Da Zidian'', Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press 2003 Chinese classic texts History of literature in China

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See also

References