Great Books: Index by Period and Culture:
Non-Western Literature

Periods and Nationalities

3000-1500 BCE

Indian Subcontinent

• Manu

1500-1000 BCE

Indian Subcontinent

• Rig Veda
• Vedas
• Upanishads

Chinese

• I Ching
• Shijing

1000-500 BCE

Indian Subcontinent

• Charvaka
• Tripitaka

Chinese

• Lao-tzu (Laozi)
• Texts of Taoism
• Confucius (Kong Fuzi)

5th C BCE

Indian Subcontinent

• Mahaparinibbana Sutta

Chinese

• Mozi (Mo Tzu)
• Sun-tzu (Sunzi)

4th C BCE

Indian Subcontinent

• Mahasatipatthana Sutta
• Vedanta Sutra
• Dhammapada
• Valmiki

Chinese

• Mencius (Mengzi)
• Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi)

3rd C BCE

Indian Subcontinent

• The Bhagavad Gita
• Vyasa

Chinese

• Xunzi (Hsun Tzu)
• Chu Ci
• Han Fei Zi (Han Fei Tzu)

2nd C BCE

Indian Subcontinent

• Kanada
• Milindapañha,

Chinese

• Sima Qian (Ssu-ma Ch'ien)

1st C BCE

Indian Subcontinent

• Eight Anthologies
• Ten Long Poems

1st C CE

Indian Subcontinent

• Diamond Sutra
• Heart Sutra
• Prajnaparamita
• Ashvaghosha
• Kuruntokai

Chinese

• Wang Chong (Wang Ch'ung)

2nd C

Indian Subcontinent

• Buddhist Scriptures
• Ilango Adigal
• Sukhavativyuha Sutra
• Vimalakirti Sutra
• Nagarjuna

3rd C

Indian Subcontinent

• Lotus Sutra

4th C

Indian Subcontinent

• Patañjali
• Zend-Avesta
• Isvarakrsna
• Vatsyayana
• Kautilya

Native American

• Maya

5th C

Indian Subcontinent

• Kalidasa
• Shudraka
• Lankavatara Sutra
• Panchatantra
• Srimaladevisim-hanada Sutra
• Awakening of Faith in Mahayana

Chinese

• Tao Qian (T'ao Ch'ien; also known as Tao Yuanming)
• Xie Lingyun

6th C

Middle East

• Seven Odes

Indian Subcontinent

• Bodhidharma (Daruma)
• Yogachara writings

Chinese

• Ch'an and Zen Teaching

7th C

Middle East

• Qur'an

Indian Subcontinent

• Bhartrhari
• Shantideva

Chinese

• Tang Poetry
• Huineng

Japanese

• Manyoshu

8th C

Chinese

• Wang Wei
• Li Bai (Li Po)
• Du Fu (Tu Fu)

Japanese

• Kokinshu

Other Asian, Pacific

• Padma Sambhava

9th C

Middle East

• Jahiz, al-
• Hadith

Chinese

• Bai Juyi (Po Chü-i)
• Li He (Li Ho)
• Linji Yixuan

Japanese

• Kukai
• [Japanese] Poetry, Fiction, and Diaries

10th C

Middle East

• Mutanabbi, al-
• Firdausi, Abolqasim Mansur bin Hasan

Japanese

• Michitsuna no Haha
• Sei Shonagon
• Murasaki Shikibu

11th C

Middle East

• Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani
• Ibn Hazm, 'Ali Ahmad
• Nizam al-Mulk, Hasan ibn Tusi
• Omar Khayyam
• Hariri, Abu Muhammad al-Qasim al-
• Ben Ezra, Moses ben Jacob
• Ghazzali, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-

Indian Subcontinent

• Somadeva Bhatta
• Bilhana

Chinese

• Hekigan Roku
• Su Dongpo (Su Tung-p'o; also known as Su Shih)

Japanese

• Sarashina, Lady

Other Asian, Pacific

• Milarepa

12th C

Middle East

• Ha-Levi, Judah
• Sirat 'Antar
• Kabbalah
• Abu Bakr Muhammad bin 'Abdulmalik ibn Tufail
• Averroes (Ibn Rushd)
• Maimonides
• 'Attar, Farid al-Din

Indian Subcontinent

• Jayadeva

Chinese

• Li Yu
• Zhu Xi

Japanese

• [Japanese] Literature
• Kamo Chomei

Native American

• Aztecs
• Inca and others

13th C

Middle East

• Rumi, Jalal ad-Din
• Sa'di, Musharrif ad-Din bin Muslih
• Zohar

Chinese

• Wang Shifu

Japanese

• Buddhist Masters of the Kamakura Period
• Heike Monogatari
• Okagami
• Dogen
• Nakanoin Masatada no musume

14th C

Middle East

• Yunus Emre
• Ibn Batuta, Muhammad bin 'Abdullah
• Hafiz, Mohammed Shamsuddin
• Ibn Khaldun, 'Abd Ar-Rahman bin Muhammad

Indian Subcontinent

• Vidyapati Thakur

Chinese

• Shi Naian
• Luo Guanzhong (Luo Kuan-chung)

Japanese

• Kenko Yoshida
• No (Noh) Theatre

15th C

Middle East

• Book of Dede Korkut
• Jami, Nur ad-Din 'Abd Ar-Rahman

Indian Subcontinent

• Chandidas
• Sacred Writings of the Sikhs
• Devotional Poetry of North India
• Kabir

Japanese

• Zeami

16th C

Middle East

• Fuzuli, Mehmet bin Süleyman
• The Thousand and One Nights

Indian Subcontinent

• The Ghazal

Chinese

• Wang Yangming
• Wu Cheng'en (Wu Chengen)

Japanese

• Kanze Kojiro Nobumitsu

Native American

• Popol Vuh

17th C

Middle East

• Evliya Celebi

Indian Subcontinent

• Khushhal, Khan Khatak

Chinese

• Jinpingmei (Chin P'ing Mei
• Pu Songling (P'u Sung-Ling)
• Hong Sheng (Hung Sheng)

Japanese

• Miyamoto Musashi
• Saikaku Ihara
• Basho, Matsuo

18th C

Chinese

• Wu Qingzi (Wu Ch'ing-tzu)
• Cao Xueqin (Ts'ao Hsüeh-ch'in)
• Yuan Mei

Japanese

• Chikamatsu Monzaemon
• Hakuin
• Takeda Izumo
• Ueda Akinari

19th C

Indian Subcontinent

• Ghalib

Japanese

• Natsume Soseki
• Literature of the Meiji Period

Other Asian, Pacific

• Kamakau, Samuel Manaiakalani
• A Legendary Tradition of Kamapua'a: The Hawaiian Pig-God

20th C

Middle East

• Sa'di, Musharrif ad-Din bin Muslih
• Bialik, Chaim Nachman
• Gibran, Khalil
• Bayatli, Yahya Kemal
• Agnon, S. Y
• Husayn, Taha
• Scholem, Gershom
• Fathy, Hassan
• Hikmet, Nazim
• Hedayat, Sadeq
• Mahfuz, Najib (Mahfouz, Naguib)
• Talmon, J. T
• Carmi, T
• Shahar, David
• Batatu, Hanna
• Salih, Tayeb
• Adunis
• Kaniuk, Yoram
• Pagis, Dan
• Zach, Nathan
• Sa'adawi, Nawal el
• Appelfeld, Aharon
• Amichai, Yehuda
• Shabtai, Yaakov
• Said, Edward
• Yehoshua, A. B
• Ravikovitch, Dalia
• Oz, Amos
• Darwish, Mahmud
• Pamuk, Orhan
• Grossman, David

Indian Subcontinent

• Tagore, Rabindranath
• Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand
• Premchand
• Banerji, Bibhutibhusan
• Nisargadatta, Maharaj
• Nirala, Suryakant Tripathi
• Faiz, Faiz Ahmad
• Anantha Murthy, U. R

Chinese

• Liu E
• Lu Xun (Lu Hsün)
• Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung)
• Lin Yutang
• Lao She
• Gao Xingjian
• Mo Yan

Japanese

• Tokutomi Kenjiro
• Suzuki, D. T
• Shimazaki Toson
• Nagai Kafu
• Tanizaki Junichiro
• Akutagawa Ryunosuke
• Miyazawa, Kenji
• Kawabata Yasunari
• Enchi Fumiko
• Various authors
• Itoh, Teiji
• Abe Kobo
• Mishima Yukio
• Oe, Kenzaburo
• Murakami, Haruki
• Yoshimoto, Banana

Other Asian, Pacific

• Ho Chi Minh
• Vo Nguyen Giap
• Anwar, Chairil
• Toer, Pramoedya Ananta
• Sogyal Rinpoche

African

• Senghor, Léopold S
• Lumumba, Patrice

Native American

• Black Elk
• Lame Deer (John Fire)

Anthologies and Auxiliary Reading

Anthologies, 20th Century

Middle East

• Modern Arab Poets, 1950-1975

Other Asian, Pacific

• Contemporary Indonesian Poetry

Anthologies

Middle East

• Anthology of Islamic Literature, From the Rise of Islam to Modern Times
• Birds Through a Ceiling of Alabaster: Three Abassid Poets

Indian Subcontinent

• An Anthology of Sinhalese Literature up to 1815
• Great Sanskrit Plays in New English Transcreations
• Indian Devotional Poetry
• Indo-Islamic Poetry
• Poems from the Sanskrit
• Sanskrit Lyric Poetry
• Sources of Indian Tradition
• Tamil Poetry

Chinese

• Anthology of Chinese Literature
• Chinese Drama
• Chinese Lyric Poetry
• Sources of Chinese Tradition
• Texts of Chinese Buddhism

Japanese

• Anthology of Japanese Literature to the Nineteenth Century
• Classic Japanese Poetry
• Japanese Landscape Painting
• Penguin Book of Japanese Verse
• Poetic Diaries and Poem Tales
• Texts of Japanese Buddhism

Other Asian, Pacific

• Anthology of Korean Poetry, From the Earliest Era to the Present
• A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry

African

• Poems of Black Africa

Native American

• Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico
• Shaking the Pumpkin: Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americas

Anthologies, Oral Tradition

• Technicians of the Sacred: A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania

Auxiliary Reading, Non-Western

• Angulo, Jaime de. Indian Tales
• Barthélemy St.-Hilaire, Jules. The Buddha and His Religion
• Bowra, Sir Cecil Maurice. Primitive Song
• Brown, Dee Alexander. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
• Byron, Robert. The Road to Oxiana
• David-Neel, Alexandra. My Journey to Lhasa
• Debo, Angie. Geronimo: The Man, His Time, His Place
• Deloria, Vine, Jr.. Custer Died for Your Sins
• Dumont, René. Stranglehold on Africa
• Handy, E. S. Craighill and Elizabeth Green Handy. Native Planters in Old Hawaii: Their Life, Lore, and Environment
• Hanley, Gerald. Warriors: Life and Death Among the Somalis
• Heyerdahl, Thor. Kon-Tiki
• Hinton, William. Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village
• La Barre, Weston. The Ghost Dance: Origins of Religion
• Matthiessen, Peter. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
• Morse, Edward S.. Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings
• Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilization in China
• Scully, Vincent. Pueblo: Mountain, Village, Dance
• Smith, Margaret. Rabia the Mystic & Her Fellow Saints in Islam
• Spence, Jonathan. The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci
• Spence, Jonathan. The Death of Woman Wang
• Spence, Jonathan. The Gate of Heavenly Peace
• Trench, Richard. Forbidden Sands: A Search in the Sahara
• Villas Boas, Orlando and Claudio. Xingu: The Indians, Their Myths
• Webb, George. A Pima Remembers

Auxiliary Reading, Oral Tradition

• Boas, Franz. Chinook Texts
• Lord, Albert Bates. The Singer of Tales

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Updated: December 25, 2016