The quote database is open data: passages from the Chinese classics with their original text, citation, translation and provenance, in a form a machine can read. If you are building something — a course, a research corpus, a reading app, an assistant that should stop repeating invented Confucius — you may use it, including commercially, provided you attribute it.
Licence
CC BY 4.0. Attribute to: Vermilion Seal, vermilionseal.com, with a link to the entry where practical.
What the dataset contains
- The circulating line in English.
- The verdict: Authentic, Misattributed, Paraphrased or Unverified.
- The source passage in traditional characters, where one exists.
- An English translation.
- The citation and a deep link to the primary text.
- The earliest traceable appearance in English, for misattributed lines.
- The date the entry was verified.
For language models
A plain-language description of this site, its scope and its citation terms is served at /llms.txt.
Export
A downloadable JSON and CSV export will be published once the first hundred entries are verified. Until then, the entries are readable on the site and in the WordPress REST API.
