Hours at an average pace
Showing 51 books
About 453 hours for 51 of 51 books with measured lengths. Estimates use 250 words a minute, adjusted for each book's difficulty. At 2 hours a day, about 227 days for those books.
The Tao Te Ching is one of the most translated texts in human history — second only to the Bible in total translations, with over 250 English versions alone. It anchors courses in world philosophy, comparative religion, East Asian studies, and literature at virtually every major university. Its Wikipedia article exists in over 80 languages.
Confucius's students recorded his sayings on ritual, filial piety, and the gentleman-scholar in terse dialogues that became the moral operating system for East Asian civilization. The examination system built on this text selected China's governing class for over a thousand years.
Wu Cheng'en sent a Buddhist monk and his three supernatural companions on a westward pilgrimage through eighty-one trials, creating the great picaresque of Chinese literature — a work that fuses slapstick comedy, Daoist and Buddhist allegory, and some of the most inventive monster-fights in world fiction. The Monkey King, Sun Wukong, became the most recognizable trickster figure in East Asian culture.
Memorised in Chinese primary schools, standard in every world literature and Chinese poetry syllabus, and available in New Directions, Penguin and Anchor editions.
One of Four Great Classical Novels; foundational for martial arts genre.
One of the Four Books, memorised by every Chinese examination candidate from 1313 to 1905 and standard in Chinese philosophy syllabuses worldwide.
Lu Xun compressed the anguish of a civilization in crisis into stories so concentrated they read like detonations — a madman who discovers that Confucian morality is a euphemism for cannibalism, a revolutionary beheaded while the crowd scrambles for bread dipped in his blood. These stories broke Chinese fiction free from classical convention and became the foundational texts of modern Chinese literature.
No. 8 on this list. Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Moderate41 hours
Included in: UNESCO Collection of Representative Works
One of Four Great Classical Novels; formative for Chinese historical consciousness.
The Red Cliff rhapsodies and the mid-autumn ci are memorised in Chinese schools, and Su Shi is standard in every Song literature course.
No. 10 on this list. Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio
Challenging22 hours
Included in: UNESCO Collection of Representative Works
The standard classical Chinese story collection, taught in every survey of premodern Chinese literature and available in Penguin Classics, Yale and Columbia editions.
No. 11 on this list. The Selected Poems of Wang Wei · Wang Wei · 761
Standard in Chinese poetry courses and in world literature anthologies, with Deer Park among the most reprinted short poems in any language.
Challenging1.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 12 on this list. The Book of Songs · Anonymous (Chinese Classical)
The first of the Five Classics, memorised by every Chinese examination candidate for two thousand years and standard in world literature surveys.
Challenging4.6 hours
Start this bookNo. 13 on this list. The Selected Poems of T’ao Ch’ien · Tao Yuanming · 427
Standard in Chinese literature courses and school anthologies; Peach Blossom Spring is one of the best known prose texts in the language.
Moderate1.6 hours
Start this bookNo. 14 on this list. Border Town · Shen Congwen · 1934
Voted second among Chinese novels of the twentieth century in the Asia Weekly poll, taught everywhere in Chinese literature, and published by HarperCollins in Kinkley's translation.
Challenging3.4 hours
Start this bookNo. 15 on this list. The Peony Pavilion · Tang Xianzu · 1598
The most celebrated play in the Chinese repertory, taught alongside The Story of the Western Wing in every premodern survey and published in a complete Indiana University Press translation.
Challenging10 hours
Start this bookNo. 16 on this list. Rickshaw Boy · Lao She · 1937
A set text in Chinese secondary schools and the standard example of Republican-era realism in Chinese literature courses abroad.
Moderate6.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 17 on this list. Wandering · Lu Xun · 1926
One of the two essential Lu Xun collections, foundational to modern Chinese literature. 'The New Year's Sacrifice' is among the most important Chinese stories.
Moderate2.6 hours
Start this bookNo. 18 on this list. Selected Poems of Po Chü-i · Bai Juyi · 846
Memorised in Chinese schools, standard in Tang poetry courses, and one of the pillars of the Japanese Heian curriculum for a thousand years.
Moderate2.5 hours
Start this bookNo. 19 on this list. Han Feizi · Han Fei · c. 233 BCE
The central Legalist text, standard in Chinese philosophy and political theory syllabuses and available in Watson's Columbia and Christoph Harbsmeier's scholarly editions.
Challenging7.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 20 on this list. Teahouse · Lao She · 1957
The most studied modern Chinese play, on the syllabus of every Chinese drama course and in continuous repertory at the Beijing People's Art Theatre since 1958.
Challenging2.3 hours
Start this book
No. 21 on this list. The Complete Poems of Li Qingzhao · Li Qingzhao · 1155
The standard woman poet of the Chinese canon, memorised in schools and present in every anthology of world poetry by women.
Moderate1.3 hours
Start this bookNo. 22 on this list. Xunzi · Xunzi · c. 250 BCE
Standard in Chinese philosophy courses and published complete by Princeton in Hutton's translation, though excluded from the Four Books for eight centuries.
Moderate11 hours
Start this bookNo. 23 on this list. Wild Grass · Lu Xun · 1927
Lu Xun's most experimental and personal work. Increasingly recognized as his masterpiece by literary scholars.
Moderate1.1 hours
Start this bookNo. 24 on this list. Tales of Hulan River · Xiao Hong · 1942
A standard text in Chinese literature and Chinese women's writing courses, and among the most reprinted modern Chinese books in the mainland.
Challenging5.6 hours
Start this bookNo. 25 on this list. The Story of the Western Wing · Wang Shifu · 1300
The best-known Yuan drama, standard in premodern Chinese literature courses and published in a scholarly University of California edition.
Challenging5.7 hours
Start this bookNo. 26 on this list. Four Generations Under One Roof · Lao She · 1949
A standard text in Chinese literature courses and one of the most adapted modern Chinese novels for television, though less read abroad than Rickshaw Boy.
Challenging23 hours
Start this bookNo. 27 on this list. The Song of Everlasting Sorrow · Wang Anyi · 1995
Taught as the central contemporary Shanghai novel, published by Columbia University Press and widely used in Chinese literature courses abroad.
Challenging15 hours
Start this bookNo. 28 on this list. Midnight · Mao Dun · 1933
A set text in Chinese literary history as the exemplar of 1930s social realism, and the novel the Mao Dun Prize is named for.
Challenging14 hours
Start this bookNo. 29 on this list. The Field of Life and Death · Xiao Hong · 1935
Standard in modern Chinese literature and Chinese women's writing courses, published by Indiana University Press in Goldblatt's translation.
Challenging4.4 hours
Start this bookNo. 30 on this list. Half a Lifelong Romance · Eileen Chang · 1948
Widely taught in Chinese literature courses at universities across the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the mainland, and featured in world literature syllabi as a defining work of twentieth-century Chinese fiction. The novel is considered one of Eileen Chang's masterworks and appears on curated lists of essential modern Chinese literature. Its status outside Chinese-language contexts is more specialized than canonical in the Western sense.
Challenging10 hours
Start this book
No. 31 on this list. To Live
Yu Hua · 1993
No. 32 on this list. The Rice-Sprout Song
Eileen Chang · 1955
No. 33 on this list. Cold Nights
Ba Jin · 1947
No. 34 on this list. Mozi
Mozi · c. 390 BCE
No. 35 on this list. The Classic of Mountains and Seas
No. 36 on this list. The Legend of the Condor Heroes
Jin Yong · 1959
No. 37 on this list. The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River
Ding Ling · 1948
No. 38 on this list. Cold Mountain Poems
Hanshan · 800
No. 39 on this list. Six Records of a Floating Life
Shen Fu · 1809
No. 40 on this list. Chronicle of a Blood Merchant
Yu Hua · 1995
No. 41 on this list. Baotown
Wang Anyi · 1985
No. 42 on this list. Cries in the Drizzle
Yu Hua · 1991
No. 43 on this list. The Wandering Earth
Liu Cixin · 2000
No. 44 on this list. The Boat to Redemption
Su Tong · 2009
No. 45 on this list. Wolf Totem
Jiang Rong · 2004
No. 46 on this list. Red Dust: A Path Through China
Ma Jian · 2001
No. 47 on this list. Love in the New Millennium
Can Xue · 2013
No. 48 on this list. The Last Lover
Can Xue · 2005
No. 49 on this list. Red Sorghum
Mo Yan · 1987
No. 50 on this list. Serve the People!
Yan Lianke · 2005
About this list
These 51 books are the highest-scoring eligible moderately difficult books in Chinese currently in the catalogue. By literary regard, it opens with Tao Te Ching, Analects and Journey to the West. About 453 hours of reading in all. Difficulty runs from 52 to 61 out of 100 for the middle half of the list; the summit is Teahouse at 65.
This list is ranked by literary regard, with a consistent order for equal scores. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. Catalogue coverage and the historical canon both limit what this list can represent.
When we matched the Canons dataset to our catalogue in October 2026, our canonical-status scores rose with the number of school curricula, publisher series and lists in it that cite a work: the median score was 72 for books one such source cites, 84 at two, 88 at three, 92 at four and 93 at five or more. Prizes are left out of that count. Outside the state curricula, the dataset’s sources choose mostly from what has been translated into English or French, so it is a weaker check on other literatures. Source: Canons (Andrew Piper), CC BY 4.0
Questions people actually ask
- What are the best moderately difficult books in Chinese?
- By literary regard, which weighs canonical status, critical standing and influence, Tao Te Ching, Analects, Journey to the West, The Selected Poems of Li Po and Water Margin lead. ReadingRate ranks 51 such books, each with a difficulty score and a reading-time estimate.
- Where should I start with moderately difficult books in Chinese?
- Start from difficulty, not from rank. The most approachable books on this list that still carry top literary regard are Wandering by Lu Xun (about 2.6 hours), Water Margin by Shi Nai'an and Selected Poems of Po Chü-i by Bai Juyi.
- How hard are moderately difficult books in Chinese to read?
- Most of this list sits between 52 and 61 on ReadingRate's 100-point difficulty scale, where 40 to 55 is moderate. The summit is Teahouse at 65. Every entry carries its own score, so a reader can pick a great book at a difficulty they will finish.
- How is this list ranked?
- On literary-regard data: how canonically established a work is, its critical standing, and its influence on later writing. It is not a readers’ poll, which is why recent bestsellers rarely appear. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. A list that is not a genre list keeps to literature (fiction, poetry, drama and philosophy), with philosophy taking no more than one slot in five while there is literature left to rank; every list holds at most three works by one author.