By request from a private message, I have compiled a brief survey list of English language translations available on the subject of Chinese traditional literature. Feel free to also discuss Chinese literature, and other works on this thread, as well as ask more general questions, etc.
Classics:
The Yijing - Also known as the "Classic of Changes" and formally romanized as the I-Ching. This book has been the Chinese best seller since pre-confucian times. Generally it is a fortune telling book, but because of the prevalence of fortune telling, and the acceptance of it as a mystical secret-holding book, it has had a grip on the literary and cultural imagination of China, and the sinosphere (including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam) until the modern era. For translations, the standard translation is the Victorian translation by Legge, however there is a nice commentary with textual analysis by Edward L. Shaughnessy.
The Analects or Lun Yu - Basically a short book of quotations by Confucius and his disciples. The readings of this book vary greatly depending on translation and commentator, and the text consistently is reinterpreted in Chinese thought to give legitimacy to the thought of a specific time period. Still, for the best translation, you can return to either Legge or use Waley's. Likewise Lau's, and Dawson's translations are not bad either. There is also a good book with the commentary and debates translated by Edward Slingerland, though try not to get the abridged versions. There is also a translation and commentary by Brooks and Brooks of what they regard as the "Original Analects", though its scholarship is lacking, and its polemic relatively poorly researched.
The Shijing, also known as The Book of Songs, The Book of Poems, The Book of Odes, and the Classic of Poetry - as far as translations go, Waley's is the best by far, with Legge and Karlgren in second and third. The reading of these poems is very complex, so if you want to get a more scholarly reading, you can see Karlgren's commentary and translation of the glosses of the poems.
Mencius, the Zhongyong, and The Great Learning. For the latter two just use Legge as available online, as the texts are very short. As for Mencius, I recommend Lau's translation as more or less authoritative, though earlier translations can be used to. Generally, the book is best read in many translations with as many commentaries as possible, as like other Confucian works, it varies in textual reading and understanding, as the language it uses, though less ambiguous than Confucian works, is still not stable in meaning (different graphs may be read different ways).
Disciples/Students:
Generally this is a broad category given to thinkers who post-date the Confucian classics (originally including Mencius before his elevation to Canonical status in the Song Dynasty). These books also represent the other scholarly trends and types of thought in existence (or believed to be in existence) before the Han dynasty, and after.
Xunzi / Hsun tzu in older transcription. My favorite thinker and a noted Rationalist Confucian, later interpreted as an early "Legalist" but subsequent commentators. His style is probably the most refined of pre-Qin dynasty authors, and his debates on life the closest we have to what we regard as a form of systematic or practical philosophy. The only translation I have looked at would be Burton Watson's which is well translated though abridged if I recall correctly. I cannot recommend others as I have not seen them.
Laozi / Dao De Jing - Generally the most accessible and least stable and understood text of the tradition. The general interpretation of the book is pretty much up to who is interpreting, with various notable Chinese scholars doing there own takes on it throughout Chinese history. The best edition for a good scholarly look at the text is A Chinese Reading of the Daodejing - Translated with extensive commentary by Wagner. Otherwise just get all the translations you can and make comparison.
Zhuangzi/ Chuang-Tzu - This is generally most people's favorite book in the tradition, because of its rich humor and beautiful storytelling. Especially to modern readers it offers a philosophy coupled with spiritualism with an extensive Western appeal. I would recommend Victor Mair's translation, or Burton Watson's as general good reads, though there are many other translations with commentary available, and I cannot say which are good and not as I have not read them.
Han Fei Zi - One of my personal favorites, he is generally one of the most insane and autocratic thinkers in the Chinese tradition, though his influence on formation of government, purging, rationalism, autocracy and the like have had incredibly lasting effects, and his writing style is by far the most developed form of satire in early China. You could try Watson again for a translation.
History:
Chinese history writing has perhaps been the most systematic of all the ancient world, and certainly is the most vast. Chinese pre-modern sources of history are undoubtedly the most numerous, and most studied of any linguistic tradition in the world.
The Zuo Zhuan / Master Tso's Commentary / the Tso Chuan / Master Zuo's Spring and Autumn commentary. This is traditionally grouped with classics. It's language is one of the oldest and most complex of the Chinese tradition, and has been studied obsessively by linguists. As for its cultural significance, it formed a very large portion of classical quotations that would later become standard in both examination settings in China, as well in poetry and artistic quotation. Its figures and moral themes constantly appear throughout Chinese discourse. For translations, try Watson, as it is far more readable then others'. Legge also, maybe, though I do not know if it has been translated into modern romanization.
The Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. Now regarded as the great epic of Chinese and East Asian literature, originally this text was more of a marginal history, though it later during the song period began to be regarded as the epitome of prose style. It is much of the source of all Chinese historiography, as well as historical form (which seems strange to the Western reader), and is very interesting to read, though perhaps a bit long. Watson again is the translation to go with, though try to get your hands on whichever translation is most complete.
The Book of Han - another historical work of beautiful prose. This text by Ban Gu is a lot more coherent and structurally beautiful, and records a lot more of the textual, religious and political culture of its time than the Shi Ji. It was also far more popular as a source of allusion for much of Chinese history. Try Dubs' Translation in 3 volumes as The Book of the Former Han.
The Book of the Later Han - This one is lest important, though it offers gaps in the history of the Han, and another good source of allusions. Though I would put it in a secondary position only for those looking for a more rounded view of history.
Records of the Three Kingdoms - Not to be confused with the novel based partially on its source material, this text is also influential as both source of history and allusion, and as the basis for much of the drama and novel tradition that follows it. It was translated by Crump in a rather good form, and I would recommend reading it. Its commentaries are also highly prized.
In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record - by Gan Bao, translated by Crump. This book is more or less an account of the supernatural, except for the fact that it is regarded as being a truthful account. Early translators overlooked this point and treated it as fiction, or the basis of fiction, but it was generally regarded as historical source material throughout Chinese history.
Classic of Mountains and Seas or The Shan Hai Jing - generally another supernatural collection of a sort of mythological folklorish world, though it was also taken to be factually based and believed in throughout Chinese antiquity. There is a translation by Birrell as well as a commentary under the title of "A Chinese Bestiary" by Strassberg.
Collections
Poetry -
Chinese poetry is perhaps the most vast collection of poetic works in the world. In the premodern world it includes more than 3 million published poems alone, far more than we can imagine. Luckily, most of this stuff was never popular, and the main texts have been collected into a great volume known as Sunflower Splendor, which generally gives us a nice survey.
As for major poets and anthologies, we can look like this:
Chu Ci translated as Songs of the South translated by Hawkes - the most important collection outside of the canonical Shi Jing. This is the best translation available, though some people find the texts boring. This work is inseparable from the world of poetry in pre-modern China, and is quoted constantly throughout Chinese poetry
The Wenxuan rhapsodies as translated by Knechtges - Knechtges is translating the entire collection of the Wenxuan in parts (as the text is incredibly difficult to translate and incredibly long), but the Rhapsodies or Fu have already been published by Princeton in 3 separate volumes. Their influence is quite vast, and the only translation of most of them is Knechtges', though much of their appeal is lost on Western readers.
The works of Ruan Ji and Tao Yuanming. Though I cannot offer suggested works. Holzman out of Cambridge published a good study of Ruan Ji though. Tao Yuanming has been translated more widely.
The Tang Poets Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, and Bai Ju Yi. I am not familiar with translations as much, though these are all essential poets. Sunflower Splendor also has a nice selection of each. You can try Waley or Watson for other translations, as well as Stephen Owen's great history of the period in The Poetry of the Early T'ang, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry - The High T'ang, and The Late T'ang - Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century, the first two published out of Yale, the last one, I believe, out of Harvard.
The next poet Su Dongpo deserves to be read as a seperate force, as does the female poet Li Qingchao, otherwise just read Sunflower Splendor.
For Ci Poetry there is a lot more. Pauline Yu put out a nice commentary on Voices of the Song Lyric, there is also a translation of the fun collection of poems about prostitutes mostly Among the Flowers: The “Hua-chien chi.” Also, one may try J. Y. Liu's Major Lyricists of the Northern Sung, a.d. 960–1126.
For the rest, try Sunflower Splendor, or The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady. For a good commentary try Liu's The Art of Chinese Poetry. Also, Watson's translations are pretty good.
For Chinese Drama, there are generally 4 canonical works that have been set apart:
The Romance of the Western Chamber
The Peach Blossom Fan
The Palace of Eternal Life
The Peony Pavilion
As well as one outside - The Injustice to Dou E
Generally that will give you much of what you need for Chinese drama as a whole, though, various other works exist. These certainly are the most important textually, though perhaps not from a performance perspective.
As For the last section, nobels.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms translated as Three Kingdoms - Moss Roberts
Dream of Red Mansions as The Story of the Stone by Hawkes.
Water Margin translated as Outlaws of the Marsh by Shapiro, or the new translation as The Marshes of Mount Liang by Dent-Young and Dent-Young.
Journey to the West translated by A. C. Yu, also in abridged form as Monkey translated by Waley.
The Plum in the Golden Vase translated by Roy
The Scholars translated by Yang and Yang
Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - not sure about translation
The Carnal Prayer Mat translated by Hanan - erotic fiction with lasting influence, especially on Hong Kong cinema.
Also the selection Tang Tales - A Guided Reader is good.
I admit the work is a bit longer than 20 works, more like 30-40, though this relatively representative. If one wants to skip all this, there are a few survey books that are alright.
The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature
The Columbia Anthology of Yuan Drama (just published last week)
The Columbia Anthology of Chinese Folk and Popular Literature
Sources of the Chinese Tradition
An Anthology of Chinese Literature - beginnings to 1911
Of the list here, the most taught with now is probably the last one, translated with commentary by Stephen Owen, who is regarded by many as the predominant Ancient Chinese literature scholar in the west.
As for a general whole, I would stay away from Chinese commissioned translations, not that they contain biases, but rather that their translation work lacks a grasp of the nuance and delights of English, and read more like bad childish attempts at poetry than proper English form.
If there are any questions, or debates about editions, translations or whatever, feel free to post. This list is primarily meant to be inclusive of most genres of Chinese literature, though of course because of the scale of such things, one could easily find 20-30 books deemed essential of any genre.
Also, I would encourage others to post their own thoughts and feelings on the works mentioned, and perhaps suggest other works of pre-modern Chinese literature.
I have also not included such seminal works in the translation as the Buddhist sutras that were translated into Chinese (or forged by Chinese scholars) as most of them are not exactly Chinese. Though of them, the most important in my understanding would be the Lotus Sutra, the Nirvana Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, and the Pavilion Sutra.
As for other Daoist Works in the tradition, we get much work that is not exactly literary, but influential, such as the work of Ge Hong, the medical Manuals of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, the Taiping Jing, etc. Have not been included, for the sake of brevity, though they are translated and worth a read for people influenced in Daoist culture and thought.
