The primary-source library

The classics we read from

Every entry on Jade Almanac traces its non-obvious claims to a primary source. This page gathers the passages that come up most — the actual lines from the classics, in the original Chinese beside a translation, with the entry each one anchors. It is the concrete version of the promise the About page makes: not "the tradition says," but the sentence, the book, and who rendered it into English.

Two rules keep it honest. Where a translation is public domain — chiefly James Legge's nineteenth-century versions — it is shown in full and named. Where a modern translation is under copyright (Anne Birrell's Classic of Mountains and Seas, Anthony C. Yu's Journey to the West, Burton Watson's Records of the Grand Historian), we cite it and give our own plain reading rather than reproduce it. The original Chinese is always the ancient text itself, which belongs to everyone.

The Analects 論語

compiled c. 5th–3rd c. BCE

The sayings of Confucius and his disciples — the single most-quoted book on these pages.

子曰：「參乎！吾道一以貫之。」曾子曰：「唯。」子出。門人問曰：「何謂也？」曾子曰：「夫子之道，忠恕而已矣。」

The Master said, 'Shen, my doctrine is that of an all-pervading unity.' The disciple Zeng replied, 'Yes.' The Master went out, and the other disciples asked, saying, 'What do his words mean?' Zeng said, 'The doctrine of our master is to be true to the principles of our nature and the benevolent exercise of them to others, this and nothing more.'

tr. James Legge Read in 忠 loyalty →

知者樂水，仁者樂山。知者動，仁者靜。

The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills. The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil.

tr. James Legge Read in 水 water →

歲寒，然後知松柏之後彫也。

When the year becomes cold, then we know how the pine and the cypress are the last to lose their leaves.

tr. James Legge Read in 寿 longevity →

季路問事鬼神。子曰：「未能事人，焉能事鬼？」「敢問死。」曰：「未知生，焉知死？」

Ji Lu asked about serving the spirits. The Master said, "You are not yet able to serve the living — how could you serve the dead?" "May I ask about death?" "You do not yet understand life — how could you understand death?"

Jade Almanac's reading Read in 死 death →

Source: Chinese Text Project (Legge translation)

The Dao De Jing 道德經

traditionally attributed to Laozi, c. 4th c. BCE

The foundational Daoist text; the source of the most-loved line ever written about water.

上善若水。水善利萬物而不爭，處衆人之所惡，故幾於道。

The highest good is like water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving to the contrary, the low place which all men dislike.

tr. James Legge Read in 水 water →

Source: Chinese Text Project (Legge translation)

Mencius 孟子

compiled c. 3rd c. BCE

富貴不能淫，貧賤不能移，威武不能屈，此之謂大丈夫。

Wealth and rank cannot corrupt him; poverty and obscurity cannot shift him; force and might cannot bend him — this is what it is to be a great man.

Jade Almanac's reading Read in 武 warrior →

Source: Chinese Text Project, Teng Wen Gong II

The Zuo Zhuan 左傳

c. 4th c. BCE

The great narrative history of the Spring and Autumn period.

止戈為武。

To stop the spear is what makes the martial. (King Zhuang of Chu, reading the character 武 as 止 "stop" over 戈 "spear" — beloved, though later paleography shows it began as a soldier marching to war.)

Jade Almanac's reading Read in 武 warrior →

Source: Zuo Zhuan, Xuan 12 (宣公十二年)

Records of the Grand Historian 史記

Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE

From Sima Qian's letter to Ren An, written after his own disgrace.

人固有一死，或重於泰山，或輕於鴻毛。

A man has only one death. It may weigh as much as Mount Tai, or as little as a goose feather.

Jade Almanac's reading Read in 死 death →

Source: Letter to Ren An (报任安书)

The Book of Songs 詩經

gathered before Confucius, c. 11th–7th c. BCE

China's oldest poetry anthology; the source of its two evergreen birthday blessings.

如南山之壽，不騫不崩。　萬壽無疆。

Like the longevity of the Southern Mountain, which neither wears away nor collapses. … Longevity without bound.

Jade Almanac's reading Read in 寿 longevity →

Source: Xiaoya, Tianbao (小雅·天保)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE

The first Chinese dictionary, and the earliest written definition of most characters. Its one-line glosses anchor the etymology on nearly every character page. The English is our own plain rendering; the original is Xu Shen's.

Character	Gloss	Reading
水	準也。北方之行	"A levelling; the phase of the north."
生	進也。象艸木生出土上	"To advance; a picture of grass and trees growing up out of the earth."
死	澌也，人所離也	"A dissipating; that which a person departs from."
壽	久也，从老省	"Long-lasting; abbreviating the element for old age."
忠	敬也，从心中聲	"Reverence; the heart, with 中 for the sound."
武	定功戢兵，故止戈爲武	"To settle merit and sheathe weapons; hence stopping the spear is 武."
忍	能也，从心刃聲	"Capacity; the heart, with 刃 (blade) for the sound."

Source: Shuowen Jiezi (shuowen.org)

Common questions

What sources does Jade Almanac use?

Primary Chinese texts wherever a claim depends on one: the Analects, the Daodejing, Mencius, the Zuo Zhuan, the Records of the Grand Historian, the Book of Songs, and for character origins the Shuowen Jiezi, the first systematic Chinese dictionary, completed around 100 CE. Character forms, readings and stroke data follow Zdic. Every entry lists the specific texts behind it rather than a generic bibliography.

Which English translations do you quote?

Where a classical passage needs an English rendering we name the translator rather than presenting an anonymous version. James Legge, whose translations are in the public domain, is quoted inline and checked against the Chinese. Translations still in copyright, such as those by Anne Birrell, Anthony Yu and Burton Watson, are cited and pointed to but never reproduced. Where no published translation is used, the reading is labeled as our own.

Why does Jade Almanac cite Chinese-language sources?

Because most English writing about Chinese culture is downstream of other English writing, and errors compound with each retelling. Reading the Chinese record directly is the only way to catch the point where a folk explanation replaced the documented one, which happens often with character etymologies and tattoo meanings.

How do you handle claims that cannot be sourced?

We cut them or label them. If a popular story about a character or a figure has no textual basis, the entry says so explicitly rather than repeating it, and where scholarship is genuinely divided the entry presents the disagreement instead of picking the tidier version. A claim with no source behind it does not get written as fact.

This library grows as entries ship — each new character or story adds the passage behind it. The method behind it is the About page; the fullest single worked example is how the bazi calculator derives every number.