Four Books vs Wen Reader

The Four Books App is a book reader and scholarly utility which presents the traditional Confucian curriculum: the Great Learning, the Discourses of Confucius (the Analects), the Book of Mengzi (Mencius), and the Doctrine of the Mean. A six-year translation project in progress. New verses arrive in the app around the first of each month. -- Ancient Teachings, Correct Transmission, Modern Tech -- Traditional Interpretation • A public benefit project to translate Zhu Xi’s “Four Books with Collected Commentaries” 四書章句集注: the classic that defined orthodox Confucianism and served as the basis of the imperial examinations from 1313 to 1905. Established Lexicon • Builds upon the translation lexicon perfected by Wing-tsit Chan (A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy), with roots going back to James Legge (The Chinese Classics). Honoring lineage—with conservative refinements. Uses modern pinyin, of course. Learn Classical Chinese • Study Classical and Middle Chinese with literal glosses for grammar and per-character meaning. Highly configurable dual-language presentation parsable by sentence. Reading Experience • Meticulous attention to readability: translation, typography, and a full-screen reader for iPad. This Classic deserves to be both scholarly and good reading, just as the native text is. Optimized Multi-platform • iPhone features intuitive tab bar design for one-handed navigation, while iPad leverages a powerful sidebar for efficient browsing through verses. Designed for iOS 26. Also runs on Apple Silicon Macs. Now optimized for iPhone Duo also! Apple Native UI • Pure Apple native tech throughout: SwiftUI, FTS5 search, and an embedded SQLite Confucian database for lightning-fast location of verses, key terms, named persons and named texts. -- Basic App & Scholar Pack In-app Purchase -- Basic App: • Core Ancient Verses: 284 most influential • Language: English translation only • Search: Basic, English-only • Encyclopedia: Ancient figures only Scholar Pack: • All Ancient Verses: 804 complete • Traditional Commentary • Language: English & Classical Chinese • Tap Character for Literal Gloss • Full-Verse Literal Gloss Sheets • Sentence-Level Parsing Tool • Search: English & Chinese • Encyclopedia: Ancient and medieval figures • Book 5: Explanation of Terms • No ads, no account creation, no data collection • Small offline app, low battery usage Scholar Pack is a single in-app purchase that includes everything above. It has a final target price, but is currently priced lower based on the percentage completion of the translation. One-time purchase, with all future content delivered free. -- Reach Out -- Please contact us at support@daoxue.academy, or using the in-app contact tools in settings, with questions or requests. We are committed to continual refinement and making this the optimal Confucian Classics app for both scholars and readers.

Built out of a genuine love for learning Chinese, Wen Reader gives intermediate readers a clean, modern way to read native-level books while getting context-aware dictionary definitions with a simple long-press. Import your own EPUBs, read with great typography, and stay fully offline. Features: - EPUB Import & Smooth Reading: open standard EPUB files from Files, with fast pagination powered by Readium and adjustable margins, fonts, and line spacing. - Instant Dictionary Pop-Ups: long-press any Chinese text to see an inline definition panel using offline CC-CEDICT data. - Lightweight On-Device ML: context-aware word boundary segmentation and dictionary definition ranking. - Context & Sharing Tools: quickly copy the selected word, sentence, or paragraph, or send text to Pleco or ChatGPT (when installed) for deeper explanation. - Simple, Focused Navigation: tap the book title to browse the table of contents, and Wen Reader automatically saves your reading position as you go. Who is Wen Reader For? - Readers who can understand native Chinese text with some effort. - Learners who want a modern, clean EPUB reading experience without distractions. - Users who benefit from quick dictionary support but do not need the full ecosystem of flashcards, handwriting input, OCR, etc. Privacy - No analytics, no tracking, and no personal data collection. - No external API calls. - Everything stays on your device. Open Source & Licenses - Wen Reader uses open dictionary, models, and library components. - Full license information is available inside the app under About → Licenses. Support - Questions, suggestions, or feedback? Feel free to contact me at oliverzh2000@gmail.com. Or visit github.com/oliverzh2000/wen-reader to open an issue.