Guides
Reading paths through Chinese poetry: where to begin, how to use pinyin, what a translation leaves open, and which poems to read together.
Chinese Moon Poems for Mid-Autumn and Beyond Start with Su Shi’s actual Mid-Autumn lyric, then compare five other Chinese moon poems with English translations, pinyin, and notes on distance and companionship. Chinese Mountain Poems: Six Ways of Seeing a Landscape Explore six Chinese mountain poems in English with pinyin: Wang Wei’s inhabited stillness, Li Bai’s companionship and waterfalls, and Su Shi’s changing viewpoints. Chinese Poems about Friendship and Farewell Five Chinese friendship poems with pinyin and English translations. Compare a farewell cup, a song, reassurance, a message home, and a promised return. Chinese Poems about Homesickness: Family, Music, and Distance Read five Chinese poems about missing home and being away, with English translations and pinyin. Follow imagined family gatherings, flute music, rain, and river nights. Chinese Poems about Rain: Welcome, Waiting, and Farewell Six Chinese rain poems with English translations and pinyin. Compare spring growth, a delayed reunion, a farewell, rising water, and West Lake in changing weather. Chinese Poems through the Four Seasons A seasonal reading path through Chinese poetry with English translations and pinyin: spring rain, lotus gathering, autumn arguments, and a snowy river. Reading Chinese Poems in English How to read Chinese poetry in translation: compare a gloss with a poem, recognize added subjects, and use notes to understand an English version’s choices. A Small Chinese Poetry Collection to Read Slowly Twelve annotated Chinese poems arranged in six pairs: sound, home, friendship, farewell, the moon, and love. A practical plan for building a reading habit. Chinese Poetry in Pinyin Read a Chinese poem aloud with tone-marked Mandarin pinyin. A worked Spring Dawn example explains syllables, tone changes, and historical rhyme. Classical Chinese Poetry, a Reader’s Map A practical introduction to classical Chinese poetry: early songs, Tang shi, Song ci, and the differences that matter when you open a poem. Famous Chinese Poems to Read First A reading path through Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Bai Juyi, Su Shi, and Li Qingzhao, with Chinese texts, pinyin, original translations, and notes. How to Read Classical Chinese Poetry How a PoemWell page works: the Chinese line, Mandarin pinyin, the word-by-word gloss, and why a short poem should not be turned into a treatise. Finding Your Way around Poetry in Chinese Identify a Chinese poem by title and opening line, distinguish tune names from topics, and understand characters, pinyin, punctuation, and text variants. Short Chinese Poems for a First Reading Eight short Chinese poems with complete text, pinyin, and English notes. Choose a first poem by its language, line length, and reading challenge.