About 讀文 duwen

duwen is a free reader for public-domain Chinese literature, built for learners: tap any word for pinyin and definitions, color words by HSK level, read in traditional or simplified script, and export the words you save to Anki. Accounts are optional: everything lives in your browser and works without an account. When you sign in, your saved vocabulary, spaced-repetition state, and reading position sync across devices and survive browser storage resets.

Why these texts are free

Every work here is verified public domain in both China and the United States. Lu Xun died in 1936: his works entered the Chinese public domain fifty years after his death, and because he died before 1946 their US copyrights were never restored under the URAA. Each work page states its public-domain basis and text source.

Sources & licenses

• Texts: transcriptions from Chinese Wikisource and Project Gutenberg (Project Gutenberg branding removed as their trademark license requires; the texts themselves are public domain).
• Dictionary: CC-CEDICT, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. The word data embedded in this site derives from CC-CEDICT and is available under the same license.
• Word levels: the HSK 3.0 vocabulary standard (levels 1–6 and the 7–9 band). This site is not affiliated with Hanban/CLEC.
• Word audio: recordings from audio-cmn (Hugo Lopez et al.) and the Shtooka project's cmn-caen-tan collection (Yue Tan / University of Caen), licensed CC BY-SA; packaged via the Anki-xiehanzi project.
• Built-in study decks: adapted from the Anki-xiehanzi New HSK deck and the HSK Standard Course deck.
• Example sentences: Tatoeba, licensed CC BY.
• Karaoke dialogs: written for this site and voiced with neural text-to-speech. They are not transcriptions of any published work, song, or recording.

Feedback

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Roadmap

More pre-1946 authors, per-sentence English glosses for every work, and difficulty-ranked recommendations.