Three thousand years of Chinese writing

Chinese literature is one of the world’s oldest living traditions — an unbroken line from the songs of the Book of Songs three thousand years ago, through the golden age of Tang poetry, the great Ming and Qing novels, and the philosophy that still shapes how a fifth of humanity thinks. To read it is to hear China think, feel and dream in its own voice.

And it is woven right through the language you’re learning: a huge share of everyday idioms are lines lifted straight from these poems and stories. This is where we gather it — starting with the poems everyone knows by heart. Each guide gives the famous lines in hanzi, pinyin and audio, so you learn the classic and the language together.