A short list of Classical Chinese reading materials
(Disclaimer: I put this together from my notes rather quickly.)
Confucianism
Kongfuzi (Confucius) 孔夫子 《論語 - The Analects》 https://ctext.org/analects
Mengzi (Mencius) 孟子 https://ctext.org/mengzi
Daoism
Laozi 老子 《道德經 - Dao De Jing》 https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing
Zhuangzi 莊子 https://ctext.org/zhuangzi
Liezi 列子 https://archive.org/details/book-of-master-lie-lieh-tzu-thomas-cleary/mode/2up
Buddhism (esp. Chan Buddhism)
Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 《桃花源記 - The Peach Blossom Spring》 https://eastasiastudent.net/china/classical/tao-yuanming-taohua-yuan/
Su Shi 蘇軾 《赤壁賦 - Ode on the Red Cliff》 https://ajmccready.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/translation-su-shi-meditation-on-red-cliff/
Bai Juyi 白居易 《長恨歌- Song of Everlasting Regret》 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Song_of_Everlasting_Regret
Du Fu 杜甫 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Fu https://allpoetry.com/Du-Fu
Li Bai 李白 https://archive.org/stream/worksoflipochine00libauoft/worksoflipochine00libauoft_djvu.txt
Wang Wei 王維 (and Pei Di 裴迪) 《輞川集 - Wheel River Collection》 https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/23162/Bruneel_2018.pdf?sequence=1
Additional misc. collection of the above 4 poets https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Chinese/AllwaterWangWei.php
Hanshan 寒山 https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Chinese/HanShan.php
Platform sutra https://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Translations/PlatformSutra_DharmaJewel.pdf
Lotus sutra http://www.pawhitney.com/LotusSutrax.pdf
Heart sutra https://huntingtonarchive.org/resources/downloads/sutras/02Prajnaparamita/heartsutra.pdf
Reblogging this because apparently some people need the reminder. Future croptoptux would like to mention that these reference URLs are not reliable. They're bad references but they're there so the average tumblrina doesn't fall into a pit with "where do I start?".
I would highly encourage you to look up the works on wikipedia and find a more reliable translation, preferably by a PhD Sinologist who is active after 1980, but no earlier than 1950. Pre-1950's Sinology is not the best reading material (pre-WW2 is still Orientalism; the Victorians are serial liars too. they don't care about textual integrity so much as it sounding pleasant in English, and that's not helpful).
Additionally, look at the political circumstances under which each writer lived. The vast majority of notable Chinese literature was written by people who were groomed to be bureaucrats. They're all very sensitive and reactionary to the events and conflicts of their eras. Laoshi drilled that into us so I'm reiterating it to you.





















