The series Graded Readers
for Chinese Language Learners is composed of 50 books, divided into three
subseries, namely folktales, literary stories and historical stories,
corresponding to Levels 1-3 respectively. The rich and fun content and
easy-to-understand language makes it easy for everyone, whether they are
foreigners learning Chinese, children with parents of Chinese origin, ethnic
minority students of the Chinese language, or even primary school students in
China, to read this series. It enables the readers to gradually improve their
Chinese reading skills and enhance their understanding of Chinese culture by
reading and enjoying stories.
The “Literary Stories” subseries is based on the Four Great Classical
Novels in ancient China. From each novel some epic snippets are extracted and
adapted into 4-6 books, each with 20-30 thousand characters. Altogether there
are 20 books in the subseries, six of which are from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, four from Water Margin, six from Journey to the West and four from Dream of the Red Chamber.
Journey to the West is a mythological
novel, telling the story of a Tang dynasty monk called Xuanzang (Mong Tang) who,
under the order of the Tang emperor, went west on a pilgrimage for Buddhist
scriptures with his three disciples Sun Wukong the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie the
Pigsy and Monk Sha. During the journey, they defeated demons and monsters and
experienced all kinds of ordeals. There are six books in this series based on
this novel, namely Havoc in Heaven, The Pilgrimage for Buddhist Scriptures, Three Battles with the White Bone Demon, The Flaming
Mountains, The Real and Fake Monkey King and The Leiyin
Temple.
Pilgrimage for Buddhist Scriptures tells the
story of Monk Tang taking Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Monk Sha as his disciples
and going on the journey to the west with them.
Buddha in the west (India) has Buddhist scriptures which encourage
people to do good deeds, so the Tang emperor sent Xuanzang to fetch the
scriptures. On his journey, Xuanzang saved Sun Wukong from the Wuxing Mountain,
who then became his disciple and agreed to escort him to fetch the scriptures.
The Goddess of Mercy put a golden hoop on Sun Wukong’s head and taught Monk
Tang an incantation of tightening the golden hoop. Whenever the incantation was
recited, Sun Wukong felt a terrible headache, which forced him to be obedient.
Later Monk Tang met his other disciples, the White Dragon Horse, Zhu Bajie and
Monk Sha, one after another. Together they escorted Monk Tang to the west.
Ms. Chen Xianchun is a professor at Beijing Language and Culture
University who has engaged in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language
since 1975, equipped with rich Chinese teaching experience. Professor Chen has
made profound research into the teaching of Chinese reading and has published,
in addition to more than 20 academic papers, many monographs and textbooks such
asTeaching Reading and
Psychology,Typical
Characters and Events in Chinese Culture,A
Primer on Modern Chinese Reading,An Intensive Chinese Course, andRead
This Way.