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Classic tales

Famous Chinese stories, retold in modern Mandarin.

Choose a levelRead at your level

Every reading sits at the level where most of its words are taught

HSK 167 readings HSK 232 readings HSK 328 readings HSK 435 readings HSK 519 readings HSK 620 readings

35 readings

Story · 3 min audio桃花源记The Peach Blossom Spring, retold in modern ChineseA fisherman rows into a peach grove and comes out in a village that has never heard of the Han dynasty. He marks the way home. No one ever finds it again.HSK 6

Article · 3 min audio《红楼梦》到底讲了什么？What is Dream of the Red Chamber about?A stone that wanted to see the world, a garden full of cousins, a girl who repays a debt with tears, and a great family that loses everything. Here is China’s most argued-over novel in one reading.HSK 6

Story · 2 min audio女娲补天Nüwa mends the skyA lonely goddess makes the first people out of mud. Then a furious god breaks the pillar that holds up the sky.HSK 4

Story · 2 min audio盘古开天Pangu separates the sky and the earthA giant sleeps inside an egg for eighteen thousand years. When he wakes up, he has to hold the sky up himself.HSK 4

Story · 2 min audio后羿射日Hou Yi shoots the nine sunsTen suns take turns in the sky, one a day, until they get bored and all come out at once. The earth starts to burn.HSK 4

Story · 3 min audio梁山伯与祝英台The Butterfly LoversA girl dresses as a boy to go to school. Her best friend shares her desk for three years and never guesses.HSK 4

Story · 2 min audio孟姜女哭长城Lady Meng Jiang cries down the Great WallHer husband is taken to build the Great Wall. She walks a thousand miles with his winter clothes, and her tears bring the wall down.HSK 4

Story · 2 min audio一片草叶Lu Ban and the saw: a Chinese legendChina's greatest carpenter has a palace to build and not enough time to cut the trees. Then a blade of grass cuts his hand.HSK 4

Story · 2 min audio牛的舌头Judge Bao and the case of the cut ox tongueSomeone has cut out a farmer's ox's tongue. Judge Bao Zheng gives the strangest advice: go home and kill the ox.HSK 5

Story · 2 min audio伯乐和千里马Bole and the thousand-li horse (伯乐相马)An old horse hauls a salt cart up a mountain road until a stranger climbs down, weeps, and covers it with his own coat. The horse answers with a cry that reaches the sky.HSK 6

Story · 1 min audio狐假虎威The fox and the tiger: borrowing a tiger’s powerA tiger catches a fox for lunch. The fox has one trick left: take a walk together and see who the animals run from.HSK 3

Story · 2 min audio井底之蛙The frog in the well: the frog who had never seen the seaA frog thinks its broken old well is the best place in the world. Then a sea turtle tries to come in for a visit.HSK 3