How Mythic Mandarin Works
Mythic Mandarin teaches Chinese through short stories graded by HSK level. This page explains how the stories are planned, written, reviewed and published, and what we do not claim.
Stories graded by level
The library has ten stories for each of HSK 1 to HSK 6 and for three advanced tracks, Level 7, Level 8 and Level 9: ninety stories in all. While the library is in preview, every story is free to read.
Levels 7, 8 and 9 form one advanced band in HSK 3.0. Our three advanced tracks split that band into steps; they are not separate official exams.
Stories get longer and richer as the level rises: short everyday scenes with lots of repetition at the start, longer stories with more dialogue in the middle levels, and denser stories with cultural, historical and mythological themes in the advanced tracks.
How a story is written and checked
Stories are drafted with the help of AI writing tools and machine-checked for pinyin, vocabulary, level and question logic. They are then reviewed and corrected by a native Chinese speaker. While that review is in progress, a published story is marked “Preview version — Chinese review in progress”.
A story that shows "Reviewed by a native Chinese speaker" has really been reviewed. There is no review claim on anything that has not.
The learning guides and the lessons on each HSK level page are made the same way: drafted with AI help, machine-checked for pinyin, characters and answer keys, and labelled as a preview until a native Chinese speaker has reviewed them.
Vocabulary and questions
Every sentence shows Chinese characters, pinyin and an English translation, and you can hide the pinyin or the translation. Words are chosen for the level of the story. Where a word's official HSK 3.0 level has been checked against the official syllabus, the vocabulary list shows it.
The questions follow the style of the exam, and each one explains why the right answer is right and why the other options are wrong. They are our own practice questions, not official HSK questions.
Audio
Where a story has audio, it is Mandarin audio you can play at normal or slow speed. Audio is added only after a native Chinese speaker has listened to it and approved it. If the audio is computer-generated, we call it Mandarin audio, never a native-speaker recording.
What we do not claim
Mythic Mandarin is not affiliated with Chinese Testing International (CTI) and does not issue HSK certificates. Exam facts on this site come from the official HSK 3.0 syllabus and CTI announcements, which are linked where they are used.