chinese-history-literature-culture

Write, polish, and cite Chinese-language articles on Chinese history, literature, and culture (Five Dynasties & Ten Kingdoms, silk, Dream of the Red Chamber, 洛神赋, 脂砚斋, etc.). Use when the user shares their own outline, notes, or stream-of-thought for a 中文历史/文学/文化 article and wants the agent to follow that thought-flow (must), expand with web research, and produce a polished, well-cited draft. Output is in Chinese (simplified by default); source material may be in any language. Covers creation, polishing, fact-checking, and source selection.

中文历史·文学·文化写作 (Chinese History / Literature / Culture Writing)

Write, polish, and cite Chinese articles about Chinese history, literature, and culture. The user supplies the thinking; you supply the structure-faithful expansion, web research, and citations. Output is Chinese (Simplified by default); source material may be in any language. This skill complements astro-sync (publishing); for the 繁简 twin and 配图 steps see Repo conventions.

Golden rules

1. Follow the user's thought-flow — must. Their outline, sequencing, analogies, claims, and conclusions are the skeleton. Preserve them. Never silently restructure into a generic essay, drop points, or swap in your own thesis.
2. Keep their voice. Polish wording and grammar. Do not flatten a personal, essayistic voice into a generic prose style.
3. Cite, don't assert. Every historical or literary claim is checked against sources (see Phase 2). Anything unverifiable is NOT asserted — it goes to the corrections doc under 待核实 (Phase 5).
4. Flag before replacing. If the user's thought contains a factual error, keep their intent. Propose the corrected wording. Get explicit approval before swapping it in. Source: AGENTS.md, "Get approval before any change".
5. Never cite a source you have not opened and checked (no ghost citations — see Phase 3).

Inputs

• source — the user's raw text: an outline, bullet notes, a stream of thought, or a rough draft (pasted or a file path).
• mode — create (notes → article), polish (improve an existing draft, preserving structure/voice), or cite (add or verify citations, or combine with polish). Ask if unclear.
• audience / tone — optional. Default: general literate audience.

Source quality — trusted vs. untrusted

Trusted: Wikisource (维基文库) primary texts; official academic institutions and museums (kaogu.cn, cssn.cn, 故宫博物院 dpm.org.cn, 中国丝绸博物馆 chinasilkmuseum.com, 国家图书馆, university presses); reference dictionaries (汉典 zdic.net); academic presses & canonical editions (中华书局, 上海古籍, 人民文学, 商务印书馆); referenced Wikipedia entries; peer-reviewed journals / CNKI.

NOT trusted (never evidence): 微博 / WeChat / 头条 / 抖音 / TikTok / 哔哩哔哩 / 澎湃新闻 The Paper / 光明网 gmw.cn / personal blogs / 百度百科 无参考文献词条 / forum posts / AI outputs.

Site-level ban, not topic-level — 澎湃 / 光明网 are blocked on these repos for every topic and every article. They may be read as leads (they often quote a real book's pages), but a claim backed only by them is 待核实. Chase the underlying primary text or academic edition instead: for 《红楼梦》 variant readings, the Wikisource scans of 程甲本 / 程乙本 / 甲戌本 / 庚辰本 quote-verify the reading directly, which beats any commentary about it. Standing instruction from the user, 2026-10-28.

Workflow

Phase 1 — Understand the thought-flow

1. Read the input end to end.
2. Restate the user's own structure back to them: sections, key claims, and connecting logic. List anything you plan to add, cut, or move.
3. Confirm before writing, unless they asked for an immediate draft and the structure is unambiguous.

Phase 2 — Research & source curation

4. Search each fact independently. Prefer site-restricted queries on trusted domains (e.g. site:zh.wikisource.org 洛神赋).
5. Cross-check with ≥2 independent sources. Record disagreements in the corrections doc rather than silently picking a side.
6. Prefer primary text over commentary. Verify the exact wording and chapter/回目. One verified source suffices for well-established primary-text facts (a poem's wording, a chapter number). Reserve ≥2 for contested, interpretive, or attributive claims.
7. Verify chapter attributions against the original text, not memory (e.g.《红楼梦》刘姥姥一进荣国府=第六回, 元妃省亲=第十八回;《诗经》titles vs《毛诗正义》).
8. 《红楼梦》versions. Two families whose 回目 and 正文 differ: 脂评抄本 (甲戌/己卯/庚辰…, ending at ch80) and 程高本 (程甲/程乙, 120 回; 后四十回 by 程伟元/高鹗).
   • 脂批 ceiling: 脂批 exists only for ch1–80. Reject any 脂批 claim on a 后四十回 event unless a specific 本 + 回 is named.
   • Name the edition when quoting. Where readings differ, list the variant (e.g. 第四十一回回目 庚辰本"栊翠庵茶品梅花雪　怡红院劫遇母蝗虫" / 程甲本"贾宝玉品茶栊翠庵"; 盘费 / 盘缠).
   • 脂批 check (红楼梦 articles only). For each chapter an article quotes, look up 脂批 on the same passage in a 脂本. Example: 维基文库《脂砚斋重评石头记》, which mixes 甲戌/庚辰/己卯 comments. If a comment exists, quote it verbatim with its edition label and chapter. If none exists, add nothing to the article. Before labelling a comment with one edition, confirm the source's abbreviation (甲/甲夹/甲眉). Don't guess.

Fetching primary texts — practical tips

• Wikisource《红楼梦》uses zero-padded paths: 紅樓夢/第041回 (URL-encoded). 第四十一回 404s.
• GBK/mojibake sites: fall back to zh.wikisource.org, 识典古籍, 古文岛, 国学梦.
• 脂本 extent / 回目 lists: publisher catalogue pages (e.g. nlcpress.com for 庚辰本).

Phase 3 — Source verification (verify the truth)

A trusted domain is not proof — the claim must be present in the source's content.

9. Open each source and locate the exact passage. If you cannot retrieve it, you may not cite it (→ 待核实).
10. Match claim ↔ source one-to-one. If a source doesn't say what the draft claims, drop it or fix the claim.
11. Check independence. Two sources that copy one another count as ONE.
12. Watch for ghost citations (plausible title but no copy, quote not found, or only secondary mentions). AI- or memory-invented citations must be removed.
13. High-risk claim types — verify verbatim or drop: (i) character dialogue. (ii) usage statistics about an author/text. (iii) 批语归因 without 本 + 回. Worked examples: docs/260808-corrections-by-citation.md, docs/260822-corrections-by-citation.md.
14. After writing, run the Phase 6 sweep over the finished draft — that re-verification lives there (below), not twice.

Phase 4 — Write / polish

15. Write in Simplified Chinese by default. Follow the user's section order. Mark each fact-supported sentence with a citation marker.
16. Remove duplication — each fact appears once per entry. Cut restatements across bio/analysis/intro/conclusion.
17. Glosses (canonical rule). Use precise terminology at first use. Annotate uncommon characters with pinyin as 字（pinyin）, verified against a dictionary. Examples (with the correct reading): 菂（dì）、霁（jì）、诔（lěi）、绡（xiāo）、垄（lǒng）、鲛（jiāo）、縠（hú，一种绉纱）、忡（chōng）、姽婳（guǐ huà）、茜（qiàn）、麝（shè）、铰（jiǎo）、嬤（mó，旧读 mā）；classical-verse characters: 杕杜（dì dù）、蝃蝀（dì dōng）、隮（jī）、淇（qí）、滺滺（yōu yōu）、桧（guì）、睆（huàn）、菅（jiān）、澌（sī）、钏（chuàn）. Never place a gloss inside a verbatim quote — put it outside the closing quote (e.g. ……齐根铰下"（"铰"读 jiǎo）). Don't annotate common characters.
18. Structure. Use the same heading level within a list-style article. Use no hierarchy labels (附录/补充). Put the conclusion last. Keep max heading depth at ### (deeper → bold run-in labels, no 4.2.3 levels).
19. Citations. Inline [¹], [²]… plus a 引用来源 / 参考文献 list (author, title, edition or publisher. For Wikisource, the text and edition. For web sites, the site, title, and access date). For web sources, give a clickable URL (e.g. the Wikisource 回 URL) as well as the access date. Quote verbatim exactly (chapter/回目 included).

Phase 5 — Corrections doc (conditional)

20. If every claim verifies, no corrections doc is created.
21. Unverifiable / contradictory items go to docs/YYMMDD-corrections-by-citation.md, structured per docs/260808-corrections-by-citation.md (校核总表 / 已修正逐条明细 / 待核实清单 / 引用来源清单).
22. If the article already appears in an older corrections doc, cross-reference it (e.g. "260808 #35") instead of re-litigating. Keep the 处置分类 (①已修正 / ②待核实 / ③已核对) consistent.

Phase 6 — Post-write self-review (defect-pattern sweep)

Re-read the finished draft once, hunting the recurring defects below. Fix each in place. Also confirm the re-verification step. Exact wording matches the cited edition (note variants, don't silently "correct"). Attribution (author/title/chapter) is right. Every inline marker [ⁿ] maps 1:1 to the 引用来源 list.

23. Count your own numbers — a "这 N 个字" claim must match the quote (real defect: "这八个字" used for an 11-character quote).
24. Cite the 余论 / 背景 too — no uncited broad assertion (e.g. "戏子在清代是贱籍").
25. Allusions need a source (e.g. "千红一哭，万艳同悲" → 第五回"千红一窟""万艳同杯").
26. State count/list ambiguity honestly (e.g. the twelve actors — 菂官早亡、蕊官补入).
27. Attribution & excerpt boundaries — speaker/source exact (敕谕 vs 叙述语). Don't drop an opening clause that shifts the sense.
28. Label interpretation (索隐 / 自传 / 家国 / 象征) as the reader's, attributed. Assert verifiable textual facts as facts (e.g. 索隐派读《红楼梦》为康熙朝政治小说 — mark it as a reading).
29. Pinyin — reading verified (旧读 noted).
30. Simplified-only sweep — scan for Traditional/variant characters that slipped in (e.g. 嬤/嬷, 與/与, 歸/归).
31. Verbatim-quote fidelity — don't modernize pronouns (他→她) or alter punctuation (，→；) inside quotes.
32. Edition / 回数 consistency — keep 八十回 / 一百二十回 / 后四十回 statements consistent and non-contradictory (e.g. avoid "通行的《红楼梦》八十回，后四十回…").
33. Citing a popular interpreter — attribute to a named work (e.g. 蒋勋《蒋勋细说红楼梦》). Label the author's personal impressions distinctly.

Genre: 物象细读 (object-as-lens close reading)

A recognized article type: take one object from the primary text (a medicine, garment, dish, colour) and read it as a lens on the whole work.

• Fix the object's exact chapter(s) and read the surrounding scene, not just one sentence.
• Trace it outward in rings — 物 → 人物 → 家族 → 时代/国 — each ring anchored to a verifiable textual detail.
• Frame the outermost ring as a reader's interpretation (attributed to a named school or scholar). Cite the work's own boundary statements. Pair the object with an echo elsewhere (草蛇灰线).

体例：原文引文块 + 多注（作者偏好的格式）

这是排版体例，与第 2 条的"文风"不同：它只规定引文与注释怎样摆放，语言的声音仍归作者。

Close-reading articles read best when each section leads with the primary text. A format the user likes:

• Quote first, then read. Open each section with a blockquote of the original passage (1–3 per section), then the reading. Keep other quotations inline.
• 脂批 in its own block. Quote a 脂批 in a separate blockquote, placed after the original passage it comments on. Never put it in the same blockquote as the original text. Label it 脂批（edition，夹批/眉批/侧批，chapter）：….
• 多注. Gloss colour names, garments and objects at first occurrence in parentheses (e.g. 石青（近乎黑的深蓝）). Gloss each term once.
• Never gloss inside a verbatim quote — put the gloss outside the closing quote (canonical rule: Phase 4 item 17).
• "注" ≠ length. 多注 vs 少注 is about how many annotations, not how long the piece is: a long essay can be 少注, a short one 多注. Set the density by the target reader, not the word count.
• Rare characters (e.g. 䰖, 羓) — add a common rendering so they don't show as missing-glyph boxes.

色词 / 服饰考释 (colour & garment terms)

• Where to verify 传统色名: 中国丝绸博物馆"乾隆色谱"(reconstructed from the 乾隆 weaving-bureau dye records — 蓝八色、黄五色、红四色、紫五色、绿六色…; chinasilkmuseum.com); 汉典 zdic.net (词义 / 釉色); 故宫博物院 dpm.org.cn; referenced 维基百科 colour entries. 不采 知乎 / 百度百科 / 博客.
• Gloss vs claim. A reader-help gloss ("蜜合色≈浅黄白") is editorial — no citation needed. A statement about a colour's status or use ("石青是清代官服主色") is a claim — cite it, or mark 待核实.
• Widely-cited ≠ verifiable. 清·李斗《扬州画舫录》"浅黄白色曰蜜合" is quoted everywhere for 蜜合色, but the book is not on 维基文库 — without checking the text itself, mark 待核实. 传统色名 are fuzzy; some (e.g. 靠色) have no reliable definition — don't invent one.
• 《红楼梦》fact-check examples (worked examples, not general rules): 第五十回 reads 仇十洲《双艳图》, not 艳雪图; 黛玉 is not "通篇不写衣饰" (第八回、第四十九回 both have real outfit descriptions) — avoid absolutes. Reading a person's colour as a "code" is a reader's interpretation — label it (item 28).

Repo conventions

See AGENTS.md — filenames docs/<YYMMDD>-<slug>.md, images imgs/<YYMMDD>-<slug>.<ext> referenced as ../imgs/<file>, README kept in sync, no nested .git, corrections doc only when there is something to record.

Publishing side-steps (separate skills): 繁体孪生（zh-hans → zh-hant）见 simplified-to-traditional. 配图 / 信息图 见 custom-infographic.

Verification checklist

• Thought-flow preserved — same order, points, conclusions.
• Claims sourced (≥2 independent where contested, primary text preferred). Chapter attributions verified. 《红楼梦》edition named and 脂批 within ch1–80.
• 《红楼梦》: 脂批 checked for each quoted passage. Where one exists, it is quoted with its edition label.
• Sources opened and located. Independent. No ghost citations. High-risk quotes found verbatim.
• No fact stated twice within an entry. Conclusion not restating the intro.
• Citation markers map 1:1 to 引用来源 entries.
• Interpretation labelled. Textual facts asserted as facts.
• No untrusted-source claim used as evidence. Unverifiable items in the corrections doc.
• Pinyin verified (旧读 noted). Simplified-only sweep done. Quotes unaltered. Every gloss sits outside the quote it explains.
• 回数/版本 consistent. Popular-interpreter views attributed. Personal impressions labelled.
• Close-reading 体例: each section opens with a blockquote of the original. Colour/garment terms glossed at first use.
• Filename YYMMDD-slug. Images ../imgs/. README in sync. Stated word count matches actual CJK count (python3 -c "import re;print(len(re.findall(r'[\u4e00-\u9fff]',open('FILE').read())))").
• Nothing committed unless the user explicitly asks.

Error handling

• Draft conflicts with sources → show the discrepancy and both sides. Propose the fix. Wait for approval.
• Sources conflict, neither clearly right → record both under 待核实. Present the conflict with evidence.
• Source paywalled/unavailable → use the other independent source. Note the gap.
• Ambiguous structure → ask. Don't guess the outline.
• No reliable source → 待核实. Don't assert. Tell the user.