The chinatextbook repository is an open-source collection of Chinese educational textbooks spanning elementary school through university level. The repository's stated purpose is to democratize access to educational materials that are technically available through official Chinese education channels but remain practically inaccessible to many people due to information barriers. The project was created in response to vendors selling these same materials with private watermarks on unauthorized platforms, and it aims to combat educational inequality across regions while enabling overseas Chinese families to maintain their children's connection to the domestic Chinese curriculum.
The repository contains comprehensive mathematics textbooks organized by education level. For elementary school, it includes complete mathematics textbooks from grades one through six, with both upper and lower semester volumes for each grade following the People's Education Press curriculum. The middle school section covers grades seven through nine with corresponding semester divisions. High school mathematics materials are organized by the People's Education Press A-version curriculum edited by Zhang Jianyue and Li Zenghu. University-level content includes advanced calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, and probability theory, with references to additional resources through the University Mathematics Network.
A significant technical challenge addressed in the repository is GitHub's file size limitations. Files exceeding 50MB receive upload warnings and those over 100MB are rejected entirely. To work around this constraint, textbooks larger than 50MB are split into 35MB segments. The repository provides detailed instructions for users to merge these split files using a dedicated mergePDFs tool available across different operating systems, with Windows, macOS, and Linux versions downloadable from the associated chinatextbook-tools releases page.
According to GitGenius activity tracking, the repository has processed 134 issues and pull requests with a median response latency of 8.8 hours and a mean latency of 922.7 hours, indicating variable but generally responsive maintenance. The primary contributor TapXWorld has logged 115 events, with secondary contributors catsleepzz and zhengqwe contributing 17 and 10 events respectively. The repository's contributor network overlaps with major open-source projects including Microsoft's VSCode and TypeScript repositories as well as the Rust language repository, suggesting involvement from developers active in significant technology ecosystems.
The repository explicitly encourages community participation through multiple channels. It includes a Telegram community link for users to stay updated and share feedback. The README emphasizes that the project welcomes textbook donations and solicits financial support through Alipay to sustain maintenance and expansion efforts. For users in mainland China with good network connectivity, the repository recommends using the tchMaterial-parser project for re-downloading materials, while international users are directed to clone the repository directly due to slower cross-border network speeds. The project's philosophy, articulated in the mathematics section, expresses hope for future generations who study not solely for examination success but for genuine learning and understanding.
