Chinese Literature Quotes

“Countless words
count less
than the silent balance
between yin and yang”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“告诉我你读了什么，我就会告诉你你的思考方式。”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“After Supper the Master dismissed all except Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha the Monk. He took them out with him and said, "Look at that wonderful moolight. It makes me long for the time when I can return home.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“The boatman then gently guided the raft across. They saw a dead body floating. At the sight of this, the Master was greatly frightened. But Sun smiled and said, "Master do not be alarmed! That corpse is none other than your own." Zhu Bajie said, "It is you, it is you!" Sha the Monk clapped his hands, and also said, "It is you, it is you!" The boatman also remarked "It was yours, I congratulate you." The three pilgrims congratulated him, and they quietly crossed over the Could Ferry in safety. The Master's shape was changed, and he jumped ashore on the other side with a very light body.”
― Wu Cheng'en, Monkey: The Journey to the West

“Walking on water is easy if you know where to step.”
― Peter Tieryas, Watering Heaven

“All kinds of mysterious phenomena exist in this world, but answers to most of them have come with advances in scientific knowledge. Love is the sole holdout-nothing can explain it. A Chinese writer by the name of Ah Cheng wrote that love is just a chemical reaction, an unconventional point of view that seemed quite fresh at the time. But if love can be controlled and initiated by means of chemistry, then novelists would be out of a job. So while he may have had his finger on the truth, I'll remain a member of the loyal opposition.”
― Mo Yan

“Xuan and I had decided to take a trip together in honor of our one-thousand-day anniversary. We ate Korean barbecue, shared a decadent cake, and then drove three and a half hours to Yosemite. I’d never heard of such an occasion. But in Seoul, where Ji-Hoon was born and raised, there was almost a monthly holiday devoted to romance. We wore similar out- fits, which Xuan said was common for couples in Asian countries. Three years was a big deal, especially when we didn’t know how many more we’d have.”
― Kayla Cunningham, Fated to Love You

“Unfortunately, I have dedicated great effort to the task of compiling this ‘sensitive words glossary,’ and I have mastered my filtering skills. I knew which words and sentences had to be cut, and I accepted the cutting as if that was the way it should be. In fact, I will often take it on myself to save time and cut a few words. I call this ‘castrated writing’ -—I am a proactive eunuch, I have already castrated myself before the surgeon raises his scalpel.”
― Murong Xuecun

“Th Chinese believe that before you can conquer a beast you first must make it beautiful.”
― Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

“The fearful thing about the Chinese literary scene is that everyone keeps introducing new terms without defining them. And everyone interprets these terms as he pleases. To write a good deal about yourself is expressionism. To write largely about others is realism. To write poems on a girl's leg is romanticism. To ban poems on a girl's leg is classicism.”
― Lu Xun

“She believed being so free with her sexuality was empowering, but I wouldn't say taking home a douchebag who would laugh about the encounter with his friend later is a step forward in the feminist movement."-Lily”
― Teresa Lo, The Red Lantern Scandals

“Time will solve all the problems Chinese school graduates face. In our bilingual society, there are no more Chinese school graduates, only English school graduates who can speak Mandarin. These English school graduates probably can also read and write Chinese, but they did not go to a Chinese school, and they act and think differently from us. Drawing a line between us, they would never say they graduated from a Chinese school, because former Chinese school graduates, that is, the vanishing group of people that includes us, are second-class citizens. They, on the other hand, belong to the first class, the Chinese elite, English school graduates who are fluent in Chinese.”
― Yeng Pway Ngon, Trivialities About Me and Myself

“The library was a great sprawling complex with rolls and rolls of paper tucked into many shelves. Between the reading rooms were courtyards with living fountains and singing birds and butterflies that would transform into handsome young women to guide or entertain anyone who stayed there any length of time. I saw one among the stacks, explaining an older style of calligraphy to the newly appointed Heavenly Marine Official of the South China Sea. In another wing, a librarian stepped from her chrysalis for the first time, reciting T’ang Dynasty poetry to the flowers. That’s how I knew I was in the right section.”
― Larissa Lai, Salt Fish Girl

“Because at this time, in this place, Chinese writing exhibits symptoms of a mental disorder.”
― Murong Xuecun

“Only on a few occasions had I ever been comfortable showing my body off, and now here I was, taking a job where Asian boobs and ass ran free.”
― Teresa Lo, The Red Lantern Scandals

“Từ lần cuối cùng gặp nhau ở nhà hàng McDonald’s, đã bảy năm trôi qua, tôi đột nhiên cảm thấy quãng thời gian đằng đẵng như vậy chỉ như trong khoảnh khắc của một cái quay đầu.
Cuộc đời dâu bể.
Cái thay đổi chỉ là trái tim ngày càng chai sạn của tôi, cái thay đổi chỉ là cái vỏ bề ngoài càng như hóa đá của Dĩ Thâm.
Còn cô ấy hầu như không thay đổi.
Vẫn nụ cười vô tư.
Hôm đó về đến nhà, ngồi trên ghế sôpha, nhìn trời sáng dần qua cửa sổ.
Do bận công việc, căn nhà thuê đã lâu không sửa, chậu hoa trên ban công mua về để đấy, không biết đã ra hoa tự lúc nào, vài cành hoa đã tàn phất phơ trước gió, chỉ còn một cánh màu đỏ trên đài hoa nhỏ xíu màu tím nhạt.

Bỗng nhiên tôi cảm thấy mình giống như loài hoa không biết tên này.
Lặng lẽ ra hoa, lặng lẽ tàn, ngày tháng trôi qua không ai thăm hỏi.”
― Cố Mạn, Bên nhau trọn đời

“Perhaps the god who had made the Cat People intended them as a joke. They had schools, but no education; politicians but no government; people, but no personal integrity; faces, but no concept of face. One had to admit that their god had gone a little too far with his little joke.”
― Lao She

“War is very cruel, a predatory jungle, and is never the true path of life.”
― Feng Nong

“Science fiction is a vehicle of aesthetics to express my values and myself.”
― Chen Quifan

“The biggest problem in Chinese society is not money, but rather the lack of a developed civil society. Civil society has received a lot of attention in recent years. But in truth, squared off against the overwhelming presence of the state, the positive elements of civil society are completely powerless."

[In interview. Pathlight: New Chinese Writing (Summer 2013)]”
― Bi Feiyu

“I’m in Suzhou, Zhou Lingtong said, angling his head so he could wipe away his tears and see the road sign clearly. I’m in Changrui Lane, Suzhou. If you walk north past two telephone poles you’ll find me in the dustbin.

["Two Lives", in Pathlight: New Chinese Writing (Summer 2013)]”
― A Yi

“Je sais juste planter des arbres, l'administration n'est pas mon affaire.”
― fonctionnaire chinois

“Huizi barely called anyone. He didn't get too involved with the details of his friends' lives. He was private, shut tight like a fortress. His short crew-cut and refined manners gave him the air of a Buddhist monk. Huizi would say never look back to the past. Never regret. Even if there is emptiness ahead, never look back.”
― Xiaolu Guo, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth

“Never refuse wine. I'm telling you,
people come smiling in spring winds:

peach and plum like old friends, their
open blossoms scattering toward me,

singing orioles in jade-green trees,
and moonlight probing gold winejars.”
― Li Po, The Selected Poems of Li Po

“Once again, Judge Dee wished he too could write a poem like hers, but he had reached an age, he told himself, when he could admit what was beyond him. So many years he had wasted playing politics, which, unlike poetry, would not survive him.”
― Xiaolong Qiu

“情感第，
晚点装。
简单第，
主权在后。
友谊第，
信仰以后。
善良第，
天后。
道德第，
国籍在后。
和平第，
后来爱国。
人性在先，其他切在后。
爱是我的宗教，人性是我的民族。”
― Abhijit Naskar, Earthquakin' Egalitarian: I Die Everyday So Your Children Can Live

“A Thousand mountains will greet my departing friend,
When the spring teas blossom again.
With such breadth and wisdom,
Serenely picking tea—
Through morning mists
Or crimson evening clouds—
His solitary journey is my envy.
We rendezvous at a remote mountain temple,
Where we enjoy tea by a clear pebble fountain.
In that silent night,
Lit only by candlelight,
I struck a marble bell—
Its chime carrying me
A hidden man
Deep into thoughts of ages past.

— "The Day I Saw Lu Yu off to Pick Tea”
― Aaron Fisher, The Way of Tea: Reflections on a Life with Tea