How these are made
The long novels every cultivation and martial-arts story since has borrowed from. Read them as they were first read, a chapter at a time.
The English is translated afresh from the Chinese, not adapted from older English versions. Each chapter is drafted by an AI model (Claude Opus 5.5 or GPT-6.1) working from one set of rules and one list of names. The draft is checked against the original paragraph by paragraph and reviewed by a second model from another company, and the editor spot-checks chapters from every book.
The illustrations are made with AI assistance, in the manner of late-Ming woodblock prints and late-Qing lithographed editions.
The original stays beside the translation, paragraph by paragraph, so you can always see what the English stands for. Names, offices, places and allusions are explained in notes.
The Chinese originals were written in the Ming and Qing dynasties and have long been in the public domain. Historical English translations in the public domain are listed on a book’s page where there are any; we reuse none of their text. Our own translations, notes and illustrations are covered by our copyright notice.
Each book’s page ends with a note on where its Chinese text comes from, with a link to the source. Start from the library.