Here is a chronological overview of major Chinese philosophical and religious texts, organized by broad traditions. Note that many of these texts evolved over time and have complex textual histories, with multiple contributors and redactions. I have also included working links to English translations, wherever available.
The Analects (論語, Lún Yǔ) — compiled c. 5th–4th c. BCE by disciples of Confucius (551–479 BCE). Sayings and dialogues on ritual, virtue, and government; centers moral cultivation through rites and exemplary conduct. English (Legge, Wikisource). (Wikisource)
Mencius (孟子) — compiled late 4th c. BCE. Dialogues arguing the innate goodness of human nature and humane statecraft; influential on later political theory. English (Legge, Wikisource). (Wikisource)
The Great Learning (大學, Dà Xué) — probably Warring States layers; canonized later. A short manual on extending knowledge from self-cultivation to ordering the state. English (Legge, Wikisource). (Wikisource)
The Book of Documents (書經, Shūjīng) — materials from Western Zhou onward; compiled c. 6th–4th c. BCE. Royal speeches and edicts framing virtue as the basis of rule. English (Legge, Wikisource). (Wikisource)
The Book of Odes (詩經, Shījīng) — poems from c. 11th–6th c. BCE; anthologized by early Zhou elites. Moralized reading of song as social mirror. English (Legge, Wikisource). (Wikisource)
(Ritual context) The Book of Rites (禮記, Lǐjì) — composite ritual treatise (compiled c. 3rd–2nd c. BCE) elaborating social forms and education. English (Legge). (Internet Sacred Text Archive)
The I Ching / Yijing (易經) — divination classic with strata from Western Zhou (c. 9th c. BCE) to Warring States; Han “Ten Wings” commentaries systematize its cosmology. A cornerstone for correlative thinking. English (Legge, SBE XVI). (Wikisource)
Dao De Jing (道德經) — core text likely 4th–3rd c. BCE (traditionally Laozi). Aphoristic counsel on ruling through wuwei, humility, and alignment with the Dao. English (Legge). (Wikisource)
Zhuangzi (莊子) — compiled c. 4th–3rd c. BCE. Philosophical stories and paradoxes probing language, knowledge, and spontaneity. English (Legge; see Texts of Taoism with Zhuangzi). (Online Library of Liberty)
Difference (in brief): Dao De Jing is a terse, ruler-facing manual on nonassertive governance and cosmic order; Zhuangzi is expansive, literary, and skeptical, using parable and humor to unsettle fixed norms and claims to certain knowledge. (For translation portals, see the Zhuangzi index.) (Wikisource)
Liezi (列子) — probably compiled much later (3rd–4th c. CE). Anecdotal essays thematizing effortless action and relativism. English (Lionel Giles). (Wikisource)
Mozi (墨子) — 5th–3rd c. BCE layers. Advocates impartial concern, meritocracy, and frugality; China’s earliest systematic consequentialism and rigorous argumentation. English (Wikisource selection). (Wikisource)
Han Feizi (韓非子) — late 3rd c. BCE. Legalist analytics of power: impersonal law, techniques of control, reward/punishment. English (W. K. Liao, UVA XTF). (XTF)
(Related military classic) Sunzi, Art of War — likely 5th c. BCE. Strategy, deception, and adaptive planning. English (Lionel Giles, Gutenberg). (Project Gutenberg)
Huainanzi (淮南子) — compiled under Liu An before 139 BCE; syncretic essays on cosmology, resonance (ganying), governance, and self-cultivation. English selections (Evan Morgan, Tao, the Great Luminant). (Internet Sacred Text Archive)
Diamond Sūtra (金剛經) — in China via Kumārajīva’s 402 CE translation. Prajñā teaching on emptiness and non-abiding insight; crucial for Chan. English (Gemmell, A Buddhist Bible, Sacred-Texts). (Internet Sacred Text Archive)
Platform Sūtra (壇經) — attributed to Huineng (638–713); compiled c. 8th c. Direct realization and “sudden enlightenment” within Chinese Chan. English (Wong Mou-lam version, Sacred-Texts via A Buddhist Bible). (Internet Sacred Text Archive)
Zhou Dunyi, “Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Polarity” (太極圖說, 11th c.) — seminal metaphysics integrating yin-yang and li, grounding moral self-cultivation in cosmic process. English (Adler draft, PDF). (Kenyon College)
Zhu Xi & Lü Zuqian, Reflections on Things at Hand (近思錄, 1175) — anthology systematizing Neo-Confucian metaphysics and praxis. (Best free access is bibliographic/preview; full modern translation is Wing-tsit Chan, 1967.) Archive record. (Internet Archive)