The linked pages have been prepared for use in classes relating to China and may be assigned for direct use on-line if desired. Some are reference materials —maps, charts, &c.— or brief essays. Some are translations, ranging from a few lines to a whole book. All translations have introductions by me. Since Chinese is a common school subject in Anglophone schools today, most of the translations include the Chinese text. Some may be toggled between bilingual and English-only formats.
Unless otherwise indicated, these materials were all written or translated by me and may be freely used by teachers and students without additional permission. Those by others are out of copyright, so far as I know, and may also be freely reused.
Click here for a technical note about displaying tone-marked letters and Chinese characters and test page to check your browser's present capabilities.
Other Index Pages
Separate Index Page: Chinese Stories (Included are about 250 retellings and translations of myths, opera plots, and popular stories in general, always with characters for Chinese names, sometimes with introductory essays. Translations usually include the Chinese original.)
Selections From the Penal Laws of China Relating to Marriage and Divorce
(Revision of G. T. Staunton's 1810 Translation of the Qīng 清 Dynasty Marriage Code, with introduction and notes. English only.)
Two Community Contracts in the Form of Sworn Brotherhoods (When central authority fails, the ancient tradition of sworn brotherhood is drawn upon, with law codes incorporated into brotherhood oaths. This text is an appendix to a research essay on sworn brotherhood —link.)
Late Dynastic Chinese
Jingles & Ditties (Examples of very brief urchins' jingles and catcalls incorporating ideas about family and marriage and some Hakka love songs. Also indexed under language.)
The First Emperor of Qín (Qín Shǐ Huángdì秦始皇帝) by Sīmǎ Qiān 司马迁) (Anonymous Translation. Bilingual.)
Origin and Migrations of the Hakkas by Hsieh T'ing-yü (1929) (A summary of theories and evidence bearing on Hakka migrations, re-edited to include Pinyin Romanization and Chinese Characters.)
The Rites Controversy by John Barrow (1804) (A remarkably concise, clear, and sober overview of missionary activity in Imperial China, very slightly re-edited for modern class use. The author was a member of Lord Macartney's party visiting China on behalf of the English king.)
Dynastic China Seen by Foreign Visitors >(These are brief texts I have prepared for web use because they happen to fit in classes I was teaching.)
Thomas Knox (1870) Thomas Knox in Běijīng (A chapter about Běijīng from his Overland Through Asia, with engravings.)
W. Gilbert Walshe (1906) Etiquette for Missionaries (Two extracts from Ways That Are Dark, an introduction to Chinese etiquette for foreign missionaries in late imperial times.)
General Diacritic Screen Convert Mandarin or Cantonese tone numbers into tone marks. (The same utility converts Esperanto in "X" format into standard othography.)
Late Dynastic Chinese
Jingles & Ditties (Twenty-two examples of very brief urchins' jingles and catcalls plus a few Hakka love songs, all exemplifying a type of evidence used in studies of dialectology Also indexed under social structure.)
Four Ancient Chinese Songs(Translations with text and commentary from the Book of Songs in the Confucian Canon. Also listed with Chinese Philosophy, below.)
The Three Character Classic 三字经 (A very Confucian elementary textbook memorized by centuries of unhappy children. Also listed below under Confucianism. Tr. with commentary by DKJ. Bilingual with romanization in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Literary Hokkien.)
Two Essays by Xúnzǐ 荀子
Human Nature Is Evil (page from chapter 23) (Tr. by DKJ. Bilingual.) Debate on Military Affairs (chapter 15) (Tr. modified from Dubs. Bilingual.)
The Three Character Classic 三字经 (A very Confucian elementary textbook memorized by centuries of unhappy children. Also listed above under language. Tr. with commentary by DKJ. Bilingual with romanization in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Literary Hokkien.)
A Child’s Discourse (Xiǎo Ér Lùn 小儿论) (Tr. with commentary by DKJ. Bilingual. The tale of Confucius’ encounter with the precocious child XIÀNG Tuó 项橐)
C. E. Couling: A Short Overview of Daoism (1917) (Substantially re-edited reprint of an obsolescent article from Encyclopedia Sinica in the interest of having a very short overview.
Dàodé Jīng 道德经:The Scripture of the Way & Its Virtue (A brief essay about the text with a translation of the first chapters and puzzles to solve for several additional chapters. Linked to it is:
Ten Translations of the Dàodé Jīng 道德经 showing the variation in interpretations of Chapter 1.)
Daoist Tales From Zhuāngzǐ 庄子 (All of chapter 18 and parts of other chapters, including several famous brief Daoist anecdotes —the fish, the cow, the butterfly— arranged for class use. Tr. by DKJ or modified from James Legge. Bilingual.)
The Thief of Chǔ (Huáinán Zǐ 淮南子) (A very Daoist story about how to conduct warfare. Tr. by DKJ. Bilingual.)
A Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains (Lièzǐ 列子) One story from Daoist writer Lièzǐ made especially famous because of its use by Máo Zédōng. Tr. by DKJ. Bilingual.)
Romance of Canonizations (Fēng Shén Yǎnyì 封神演义) (An abridgement of the Míng-dynasty novel about where Chinese gods came from. About 40 pages, or 4% of the length of the original novel. Heavily edited and augmented from the 1922 work of E.T.C. Werner. Includes useful introduction.)
The Life of the Buddha (Sanskritic Version, Chinese Version)
(Heavily illustrated biography using Chinese or Indian names. The Chinese version uses frames, awkward in some browsers. The updated indian version avoids them.)
A Jataka Tale: Prince Vessantara (Retold, with an introduction. Equivalent to about 5 printed pages. These tales are commonly told across southeast Asia, but are less common in China. The retelling focuses on versions in Burma and Thailand.)
Tales of the Living Buddha of Golden Mountain (English version of a 1968 comic book produced by a Taiwan monastery for the education of children and of lay beginners in Buddhist studies.)
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