Chinese mythology is a jungle. Hundreds of creatures, dozens of sources, and names that look like someone fell asleep on a keyboard. But you don’t need to memorize all of them. You need six. These six show up everywhere — in festivals, in art, in the names of restaurants, in the background of every Chinese…

So you want to read Chinese classics. You open a bookstore site, see a hundred titles, and quietly close the tab. Sound familiar? I get it. Chinese literature has a reputation — thousands of years, dozens of dynasties, names you can’t pronounce. It feels like homework before you’ve even started. But here’s the thing: it…