Just published: Chengyu! (成宇!)

October 5, 2025 – Posted in: Uncategorized

Chengyu are traditional Chinese idioms, typically composed of four characters, that convey profound wisdom, historical events, or moral lessons in a concise and poetic form. Some are well-known in the west, such as “Kill the goose that lays the golden egg” and “The frog in the well.” Others are almost unknown. But all of them provide fascinating insights into Chinese culture, attitudes, and day-to-day life. Rooted in ancient literature, philosophy, and folklore, chengyu offer insight…

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Just published: Confucius the Sage (圣人孔子)

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Who was Confucius, and why has his influence lasted for more than two thousand years? This biography, written in easy-to-read Simplified Chinese, introduces readers to the life and ideas of Confucius (Kongzi), one of the most influential thinkers in Chinese history. Born during a time of political conflict and social instability, Confucius developed a philosophy centered on ethics, learning, family, and responsible leadership. Although he faced challenges in his own lifetime and struggled to find…

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Just published: Hou Yi the Archer (后羿神射手)

September 9, 2025 – Posted in: Uncategorized

Everyone (well, almost everyone) knows the story of Chang’e, the young woman who fell from heaven, married Hou Yi the Archer, drank some magic elixir, and flew up to the moon to become the Moon Goddess. But whatever happened to Hou Yi after his wife left? This book tells the story of Chang’e from his perspective, and covers the events in his life afterwards. The book is available on Amazon.com and many other ebook stores,…

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Update on New Titles

August 4, 2025 – Posted in: Uncategorized

It’s been a while since my last blog post, so here’s an update on what’s happening here at Imagin8 Press. NEW BOOKS: since my last blog post, we’ve published three more books in our ever-growing “Heroes of Ancient China” series of graded readers. They are: “Yu the Great”, “Nuwa the Creator”, and “Sunzi the Strategist”. All are available on Amazon and various other online booksellers, check our home page for links. IN DEVELOPMENT: we have…

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2 New Audiobooks

June 10, 2025 – Posted in: Uncategorized

We’ve just published free audiobooks for our two newest books in the Heroes of Ancient China series of graded readers. Here are the links: Chang’e the Moon Goddess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2YzFidHeks Yu the Great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OKGTZMrQFA

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new book: Chang’e the Moon Goddess

May 4, 2025 – Posted in: Uncategorized

We just released the second book in our new series, Heroes of Ancient China. It’s called Chang’e the Moon Goddess, and it’s written by the best-selling team of Jeff Pepper and Xiao Hui Wang. Here’s the back cover blurb: Chang’e, eldest daughter of a powerful sky god, makes a foolish mistake and is exiled from the heavenly world, condemned to live out her days as an earthbound mortal. The archer Hou Yi dives through the…

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What We’re Working On

April 28, 2025 – Posted in: Uncategorized

Just wanted to let everyone know what we are working on… Things are looking really good for the new “Heroes of Ancient China” series. The first book, Nezha, has been a surprising success, and is now our 2nd best-selling book (after Dao De Jing in Clear English, our perennial best-seller). Encouraged by that, we have four more books in various stages of completion: Chang’e Goddess of the Moon, Yu the Great, Nuwa the Creator, and…

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New book: Nezha

February 27, 2025 – Posted in: Just Released

We’re delighted to announce the arrival of Nezha, the first book in a new series called Heroes of Ancient China. This series will feature mortals and gods from Chinese mythology, with each book written using a restricted vocabulary of around 500 words. Here’s a quick summary of the book: Born with miraculous powers and a fearless spirit, young Nezha is destined for greatness, but his path is far from easy. From his legendary battle with…

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New book: Six Ghost Stories in Easy Chinese

February 23, 2025 – Posted in: Just Released

Another month, another graded reader! We just published another book of classic short stories in easy Chinese. It’s Six Ghost Stories in Easy Chinese, based on stories written by Pu Songling and published in 1766 as Liaozhai Zhiyi (聊斋志异, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio). They’ve been retold by Yunjie Xiong, who lives in China and has been writing and translating for the past six years. Her work is really good! Here are the stories:…

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Wordcount List

January 25, 2025 – Posted in: Uncategorized

Many of our readers are interested in selecting books based on the total number of different Chinese words used to tell the story. So I thought it would be useful to list all our fiction books and show the Chinese vocabulary total for each. The list is at the bottom of this post. There’s quite a range in vocabulary size, from our beginning reader “Twenty Three Cats” with just 101 words, up to the complete…

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