Ctext Chinese Text Project API
✓ Official Vendor SpecEducationLmsapiKey4 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Retrieve passages from classical Chinese texts and resolve CTP URNs into citable links via the Chinese Text Project. Useful for AI agents that translate, summarise, or annotate pre-modern Chinese literature.
Use for: I want to fetch a passage from the Analects by URN, Retrieve the text of a specific chapter of the Daodejing, Resolve a CTP URN into a permanent ctext.org link, Find the URN that corresponds to a ctext.org page URL
Not supported: Does not handle modern Chinese news, machine translation, or full-text search across the corpus — use for URN-addressed retrieval of pre-modern Chinese passages only.
The Chinese Text Project API provides programmatic access to the Chinese Text Project (CTP) digital library of pre-modern Chinese texts, including classical works such as the Analects, the Daodejing, and historical chronicles. Agents can fetch text passages by CTP URN, resolve URNs to canonical web links, look up the URN of a known ctext.org URL, and check the authentication status of an API key. The API uses an apikey query parameter for authentication and returns structured JSON containing text content, citations, and bibliographic context for use in research, translation tooling, and educational applications.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Chinese Text Project API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Chinese Text Project API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Chinese Text Project API.
Retrieve a passage of pre-modern Chinese text by CTP URN via /gettext
Resolve a CTP URN to a direct ctext.org link via /getlink for citation in research output
Look up the CTP URN for a given ctext.org page URL via /readlink
Verify the current authentication status and quota of an API key via /getstatus
Build agent workflows that quote and cite specific passages from the Analects, Mencius, or other classical texts
Fetch source material for retrieval-augmented generation over the Chinese classical canon
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Chinese Text Project API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Classical Chinese Translation Assistant
An agent that helps users translate or interpret pre-modern Chinese passages can pull authoritative source text from ctext.org by CTP URN. The /gettext endpoint returns the canonical Chinese characters along with bibliographic metadata, so the agent can ground its translation in a verified edition rather than free-form web copies. Useful for translation tooling, comparative reading, and academic research workflows where citation accuracy matters.
Call GET /gettext with the URN ctp:analects/xue-er/1 and return the Chinese text alongside the canonical citation.
Citation Resolution for Research Papers
Researchers and writing assistants need stable links to primary sources. The /getlink endpoint converts a CTP URN into a direct ctext.org URL, and /readlink reverses the operation. Together they let an agent normalise mixed citations, verify that URLs still resolve, and produce consistent bibliographies for academic submissions on Chinese philosophy, history, or literature.
Given a ctext.org URL pasted by the user, call GET /readlink to obtain the URN and then GET /getlink to confirm the canonical link before adding it to a citation list.
RAG Over the Chinese Classical Canon
A retrieval-augmented generation pipeline can use the API as a fetch layer for verified passages of classical Chinese texts. By indexing URNs and pulling content on demand via /gettext, the system avoids storing large unlicensed corpora while still giving the language model exact source quotations to ground its answers. Ideal for educational chatbots covering Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist literature.
For a user question about Mencius 1A.1, fetch the matching passage via GET /gettext and quote it verbatim in the answer with the CTP URN as a citation.
AI Agent Integration via Jentic
AI agents discover the Chinese Text Project API through Jentic's intent-based search rather than scraping documentation. An agent searches for an intent like 'fetch a classical Chinese passage', loads the operation schema for /gettext, and executes the call with credentials managed by the Jentic vault, removing the need to bake API keys into prompts or code.
Use Jentic search for 'fetch a classical Chinese text passage', load the ctext.org /gettext schema, and execute it with a CTP URN supplied by the user.
Key Endpoints
4 endpoints — the chinese text project api provides programmatic access to the chinese text project (ctp) digital library of pre-modern chinese texts, including classical works such as the analects, the daodejing, and historical chronicles.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/gettext
Retrieve textual data by CTP URN
GET
/getlink
Convert a CTP URN to a direct ctext.org link
GET
/readlink
Obtain the CTP URN for a given ctext.org URL
GET
/getstatus
Check API key authentication status
GET
/gettext
Retrieve textual data by CTP URN
GET
/getlink
Convert a CTP URN to a direct ctext.org link
GET
/readlink
Obtain the CTP URN for a given ctext.org URL
GET
/getstatus
Check API key authentication status
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
The ctext.org apikey query parameter is stored encrypted in the Jentic MAXsystem vault and injected at request time. Agents receive scoped tokens, so the raw key is never visible in prompts, logs, or model outputs.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent (for example 'fetch a classical Chinese text passage') and Jentic returns the matching ctext.org operation with its input schema, removing the need to read the ctext.org tools page or guess URN formats.
Time to first call
Direct integration with ctext.org takes a few hours to register, manage the apikey, and shape the URN inputs. Through Jentic it takes under 15 minutes: search, load, execute.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Chinese Text Project API through Jentic.
What authentication does the Chinese Text Project API use?
The API requires an API key passed as the apikey query parameter on every request. Through Jentic, the key is stored in the encrypted MAXsystem vault and never enters the agent's prompt context, so it cannot leak through model outputs or logs.
Can I fetch the full text of the Analects with the Chinese Text Project API?
Yes. The GET /gettext endpoint accepts a CTP URN such as ctp:analects/xue-er/1 and returns the canonical Chinese text along with metadata. You request individual passages by URN rather than dumping the full work in one call.
What are the rate limits for the Chinese Text Project API?
Rate limits are tied to your ctext.org account plan rather than published in the OpenAPI spec. The /getstatus endpoint returns the current authentication state and remaining quota, so an agent can check it before running a large batch.
How do I retrieve a classical Chinese passage with the Chinese Text Project API through Jentic?
Run pip install jentic, search Jentic for 'fetch a classical Chinese text passage', load the schema for the ctext.org /gettext operation, then execute it with the CTP URN you want. Jentic returns the JSON response without you needing to manage the apikey query parameter directly.
How do I convert between a CTP URN and a ctext.org URL?
Use GET /getlink to turn a URN into a direct ctext.org link, and GET /readlink to recover the URN from a ctext.org page URL. This pair is useful for normalising citations in research outputs.
Is the Chinese Text Project API free?
ctext.org provides free API access with registration, and higher-volume use requires a supporter or institutional account. Pricing tiers are managed on ctext.org rather than in the spec.
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